Richard Curtis believes he was “inadvertent and not as clever as I should have been.”
Chubby and clumsy, but still lovable – this is how the female characters in Richard Curtis’ films were preferred in the past. Looking back, the director regrets his narrow-mindedness and apologizes for the weight jokes and the lack of diversity within the cast.
In the “Bridget Jones” film series, the first part of which was released in 2001, it was always about the weight of the protagonist (played by Renée Zellweger). Viewers should be amazed at how men were able to love her “despite” her looks. And in the prominently cast Christmas film “Love Actually” the chubbyness of Natalie – one of the main characters, played by Martine McCutcheons – was repeatedly mentioned. Among other things, her “massive tree trunk thighs” were brought into focus. But if you do some research, it turns out that the actresses weighed a healthy normal weight at the time of filming.
Creator of these films, Richard Curtis, was interviewed at the Cheltenham Literature Festival by his 28-year-old daughter Scarlett Curtis, who asked him about his exaggerated perspective at the time. “I think I was too backwards. And these jokes aren’t funny anymore. But I don’t think I acted maliciously back then, but I think I was inattentive and not as clever as I should have been,” the filmmaker then reflects.
The 66-year-old also regrets the lack of diversity in his films. Productions such as “Notting Hill” (1999) and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994) were dominated by a predominantly white cast, although “Notting Hill” in particular is set in a diverse London neighborhood. The director also apologizes for this: “I think it’s because I came from a not very diverse school and a bunch of university friends. I think with Notting Hill I latched onto the diversity issue, the feeling that I didn’t know how to write these roles. And I think I was just stupid and wrong,” Curtis said. “I feel like me, my casting director and my producers just didn’t think about it. “They just didn’t look outward enough,” he concludes.
Curtis’ daughter presented her book “Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (and other lies)” at the literature festival. Scarlett Curtis is an award-winning feminist author and activist.