Richard Curtis has said that he has regrets over the portrayal of women and the lack of diversity in his films. The 66-year-old has directed what many consider rom-com classics, like Love Actually, the Bridget Jones films and Notting Hill.
In a conversation with his daughter, activist and writer Scarlett Curtis, he said: “I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that” and blamed his non-diverse social circles and noted that he got “hung on the diversity issue”.
The director regrets the way he handled things
Speaking at the Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, which was held between October 5 and 15, the Hollywood director opened up.
He said of Notting Hill, which starred Julia Roberts opposite Hugh Grant: “I think because 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.”
Scarlett noted that the film was set in the district, which is noted for a number of civil-rights-related riots in 1958 and its many Windrush immigrant residents at that time.
Richard responded: “I feel as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t think about it. Just didn’t look outwards enough.”
Love Actually director admits he was ‘behind the curve’
In both Bridget Jones and Love Actually, both Bridget (Renée Zellweger) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) – who is described as having “massive, tree trunk thighs” – are conscious about their weight. In the movies, the other characters making unwanted, negative comments about their physical appearance and are harassed by male colleagues at work.
Saying that his daughter was “right” about not being able to use the word “fat,” Richard explained how he feels now.
“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,” the Love Actually director admitted.
Renée Zellweger said weight discussions “saddened” her
In a resurfaced clip from an interview she did with Oprah, the celebrity said that she got asked a lot about her weight loss and she didn’t like to answer.
She said: “It saddens me so much because it seems to imply that one way of being is acceptable and the other isn’t valuable, and that’s just not true.
“And did you know, I was told this while we were filming, did you know that Bridget Jones was voted the most sexy personality, on-screen, whatever personality in England? I thought wow, that right there completely nullifies the notion that you’re supposed to be a size zero in order to be considered attractive, don’t you think?”
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