‘Love Actually: 20 Years Later’: See the Cast Then & Now (PHOTOS)
Do you feel it in your fingers and feel it in your toes? Indeed, Christmas is all around us, and TV screens and movie theaters are once again lighting up with Love Actually, the 2003 British rom-com that has joined A Christmas Story and It’s a Wonderful Life in the Christmas movie pantheon.
And like a kid who just couldn’t wait for Christmas morning, ABC is celebrating the film’s 20th anniversary a year early, airing The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special on Tuesday, November 29, at 8/7c.
That anniversary might not be humbug, though: Diane Sawyer is probably marking the 20th anniversary of the filming of Love Actually. So we’ll do the same, checking in with all the movie’s top-billed stars — minus, of course, the late, great Alan Rickman.
Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special, Tuesday, November 29, 8/7c, ABC
Hugh Grant (The Prime Minister)
Grant recently starred in the TV series A Very English Scandal and The Undoing, and he appears in the new Netflix film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Coming up, you’ll see him in the tabletop-RPG adaptation Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Liam Neeson (Daniel)
Neeson has built a career on hard-hitting, vengeance-field action movies recently — with the films Honest Thief, The Marksman, Blacklight, and Memory continuing that trend over the last three years.
Colin Firth (Jamie)
Firth’s recent films include 1917, The Secret Garden, and Supernova, and he also led the cast of the HBO Max true-crime miniseries The Staircase.
Laura Linney (Sarah)
Linney recently wrapped her four-season run as Wendy Byrde in the acclaimed Netflix crime drama Ozark. This summer, she filmed the upcoming drama film The Miracle Club opposite Maggie Smith and Kathy Bates.
Emma Thompson (Karen)
Thompson has played villainous roles in two recent adaptations of beloved children’s stories: The Baroness in the 2021 film Cruella and Miss Trunchbull in the upcoming Netflix film Matilda the Musical. And earlier this year, Hulu released her sex-filmed comedy-drama Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.
Kiera Knightley (Juliet)
In the last few years, Knightley has starred in the films Berlin, I Love You, The Aftermath, Misbehavior, Charlotte, and Silent Night. She recently finished filming the true-crime film Boston Stranger, in which she plays real-life reporter Loretta McLaughlin.
Martine McCutcheon (Natalie)
Between co-hosting the talk show Loose Women or competing on the U.K. version ofThe Masked Singer, McCutcheon has been a frequent presence on British TV lately. She has also kept up her music career, releasing the EP Home for Christmas in 2017.
Bill Nighy (Billy Mack)
Nighy’s recent film work — which includes the video-game adaptation Pokémon Detective Pikachu and the period comedy Emma. — is as wide-ranging as his recent TV work — which includes the animated Netflix series Castlevania and the Showtime sci-fi drama The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Rowan Atkinson (Rufus)
Atkinson has delighted fans with reprise performances of two of his beloved characters, starring in the 2018 film Johnny English Strikes Again and the long-running CITV series Mr. Bean: The Animated Series. He’ll also appear opposite Timothée Chalamet in the upcoming film Wonka.
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