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Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones writer admits lack of diversity: ‘I wouldn’t know how to write those parts'
Richard Curtis, who wrote Notting Hill and Bridget Jones, and directed Love Actually, admitted the lack of diversity and fat-shaming in those popular rom-coms.
Richard Curtis, the screenwriter of popular romantic comedies like Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), and Love Actually (2003), has confessed to the lack of diversity in all the films, and the fat-shaming in his directorial debut Love Actually. He recently addressed the same at the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, as reported by Today. (Also Read: Meryl Streep and mother's guilt go hand in hand onscreen, from Kramver vs Kramer to Only Murders in the Building S3)
Richard on lack of diversity
“I came from a very un-diverse school and a bunch of university friends. With Notting Hill, I think that I hung on to the diversity issue, to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts. And I think I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that. I feel as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t think about it. Just didn’t look outwards enough," Richard said, addressing the outrage over years against his films populated by mostly white characters.
Richard on fat-shaming
Richard also said in the same conversation that his daughter recently pointed out instances of fat-shaming in his 2003 directorial debut Love Actually. A character named Natalie (played by Martine McCutcheon) is often rebuked for her “massive” appearance and her “tree trunk thighs”. Hugh Grant's character even calls her “heavy” in one of the scenes.
“I remember how shocked I was like five years ago, when Scarlett (his daughter) said to me, ‘You can never use the word fat again.' I think I was behind, you know, behind the curve, and those jokes aren’t any longer funny, so I don’t feel I was malicious at the time, but I think I was unobservant and not as, you know, as clever as I should have been,” Richard said.
Notting Hill starred Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, Bridget Jones' Diary featured Renee Zellweger, and Love Actually had an ensemble cast including Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman.
