“Love Actually” might be one of the most beloved — if controversial — Christmas classics, but don’t try quoting the film to star Keira Knightley. The actress recently revealed that she actually hasn’t watched the film in decades, so interactions with fans who reference her lines mean “nothing” to her.
“I have not watched ‘Love Actually’ since the premiere, which was when I was 18,” she told Heart. “So, I think I’m the person that knows it the least of anybody. I know that people have a particular look on their face and then they say things to me and I know that means they’re quoting ‘Love Actually,’ but I don’t really know what it is. It means nothing to me.”
While filming, Knightley was just 17 and on set for only a week, which contributed to her inability to recall the script. “It was a week when I was 17, so I don’t remember it really,” she continued. “I mean, I quite like that it has this life, this, such a big life out there.”
In the 2003 film, Knightley plays Juliet, a woman who gets married only to learn that her husband’s best friend is actually in love with her. In a now infamous scene, the friend appears at her door and confesses his feelings using cue cards. The cards read: “Let me say, without any hope or agenda, just because it’s Christmas (and at Christmas you tell the truth) to me you are perfect.”
In 2024, Knightley described the moment as “quite creepy” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The slightly stalker-ish aspect of it — I do remember that,” Knightley said. “My memory is of [director] Richard [Curtis], who is now a very dear friend, of me doing the scene, and him going, ‘No, you’re looking at [Lincoln] like he’s creepy,’ and I’m like, ‘But it is quite creepy.’ And then having to redo it to fix my face to make him seem not creepy.”
When asked if she felt there was a creep factor to the scene while filming it, Knightley responded: “I mean, there was a creep factor at the time, right? Also, I knew I was 17. It only seems like a few years ago that everybody else realized I was 17.”
