2003’s Love Actually was another hit film for screenwriter and director Richard Curtis, bringing in almost a quarter of a billion dollars and garnering two Golden Globe nominations. As it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, you might wonder: what are the movie’s impressive ensemble cast doing these days?
Quite a bit, as it turns out. Here’s the lowdown.
Alan Rickman
A latecomer to film, Rickman made up for lost time in the 1990s with a string of critically acclaimed roles in a variety of literary adaptations and period dramas. After Love Actually, he spent much of the 2000s appearing in genre films, such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005) voicing Marvin the Paranoid Android, the Harry Potter franchise as Severus Snape, 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and the 2010 adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. He died in 2016 of pancreatic cancer.
Emma Thompson
Although a Saturday Night Live appearance in 2019 brought her an Emmy nomination, Since Love Actually, Thompson has worked largely in film. Highlights include the 2008 adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, and the biographical drama about the writers of Mary Poppins, Saving Mr Banks (2013). Thompson has also done much lighter work, such as her multiple appearances in the Men in Black franchise as Agent O, and voice work alongside Billy Connolly in 2012’s Pixar animation Brave. Last year she appeared in Matilda the Musical as the sadistic teacher Mrs Trunchbull.
Hugh Grant
Grant’s transition from the young, floppy-haired English gent of Four Weddings And A Funeral to a more nuanced character actor was well underway by the time Love Actually premiered. Grant’s remarkable transformations in Cloud Atlas (2012) showed his range, and he bagged Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his work as the protective younger lover of Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep) in the film of the same name (2016). He is due to star in Wonka, which premieres next month.
Keira Knightley
Knightley has been much in demand since Love Actually, with critically acclaimed performances in Pride and Prejudice (2005) and World War Two drama The Imitation Game (2014) both bagging Academy Award nominations. Les feted but equally impressive performances followed in films such as Official Secrets (2019) and this year’s Boston Strangler.
Colin Firth
Firth has likewise seldom been off the big screen in the last 20 years, with well-reviewed turns in a variety of films such as ABBA musical Mamma Mia! (2008) and World War Two espionage drama Operation Mincemeat (2021). But it’s in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech (2010) that Firth really impresses – he won an Academy Award for his work as King George VI. Last year he played the lead in HBO’s true crime miniseries The Staircase.
Sienna Guillory
Guillory has worked steadily in film and TV since Love Actually. From 2015 to 2018 she starred in Sky Atlantic’s horror series Fortitude, and recent film work has included regular appearances in the Resident Evil franchise, as well as supporting roles in 2021 horror flick A Banquet and this year’s The Meg 2: The Trench.
Liam Neeson
The exceptionally prolific Northern Irish actor has starred in over 60 movies since Love Actually, reinventing himself as an action thriller actor with Taken (2008). While genre fans will know him as Ra’s al Ghul from 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises and as Qui-Gon Jinn – a role he reprised in 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker – the pick of the rest is a brilliant two-hander opposite Harry Melling in a segment of the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018).
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
Brodie-Sangster made his film debut in Love Actually aged 13. Since then he has worked extensively in TV and film, including Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. In 2020 he earned an Emmy nomination for his work in Netflix’ drama The Queen’s Gambit. Among his more notable film appearances is work in the Maze Runner franchise, and as a young Paul McCartney in the 2009 Beatles biopic Nowhere Boy.
Rowan Atkinson
Already a huge star via his appearances in Mr. Bean and Blackadder, at the time of Love Actually’s release, Rowan Atkinson had just experienced another smash hit with the spy parody Johnny English; two sequels followed. In 2012 Atkinson reprised his role as Mr. Bean for a global audience of hundreds of millions for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games held in London. He is due to star in Wonka next month.
Martine McCutcheon
A soap actor in the 1990s, McCutcheon’s appearance in Love Actually represented the peak of her acting career, and film work since has been occasional; her most recent turn was in the coming-of-age comedy The Bromley Boys (2018). Instead, McCutcheon branched out into presenting, with stints on long-running ITV daytime TV show Loose Women and an appearance in 2021 on reality TV show The Masked Singer UK.
Bill Nighy
Nighy won his first BAFTA for his work in Love Actually, which – at the age of 54 – was considered his breakout role. Since then, Nighy has worked prolifically in film in a variety of supporting roles; his comedy credits include Hot Fuzz (2007), The Boat That Rocked (2009), and 2016’s Dad’s Army, while genre work encompasses appearances in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Davy Jones; in the Underworld franchise as Viktor; and in 2012’s Wrath of the Titans. His latest film, the thriller Role Play, is due for release on Amazon Prime in January.
Laura Linney
Already an A-lister following winning appearances in The Truman Show (1998) and You Can Count On Me (2000), Linney’s star continued to rise after Love Actually, with Academy Award-nominated performances in Kinsey (2004), in which she starred opposite Love Actually castmate Liam Neeson, and The Savages (2007). TV work included an Emmy Award-winning appearance as Abigail Adams in the HBO miniseries John Adams (2008) and Netflix’s Tales of the City (2019). Her latest film, Suncoast, is in post-production.
Gregor Fisher
British viewers best know Fisher for his work as Glaswegian alcoholic-turned-philosopher Rab C. Nesbitt in the long-running 90s BBC sitcom of the same name; Fisher reprised the role from 2008 to 2014. The Scottish actor’s screen appearances have been more sporadic in recent years, though he appeared in a supporting role in BBC1 thriller The ABC Murders in 2018.
