’Tis the season for Christmas movies ― and for many, the 2003 film Love, Actually is a festive must-watch.
The movie, which showcases a range of relationships between friends, families, couples, and this guy called Colin Frith and the female population of America, focuses on the tensions and joys of the characters’ interactions with one another.
One of the eight storylines in the movie involves Keira Knightley’s character, Juliet, and her recently-wed husband Peter. Peter’s best friend, Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is secretly in love with Juliet, ultimately confessing his feelings via cue cards in front of the couple’s home.
Though this scene has proven controversial —and Keira Knightley herself found it a bit ‘creepy’— personally, my most jaw-dropping fact about the love triangle has nothing to do with permanent markers or banoffee pies.
Instead, I’m still trying to process the fact that Keira Knightley, who was 18 at the time of filming, was closer in age to Thomas Brodie-Sangster (who played Liam Neeson’s primary-school-aged son in the film) than she was to her fictional husband Peter (played by 26-year-old Chiwetel Ejiofor).
What?
Yep! Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a younger woman was cast to play the on-screen beau of an older man (and as Hollywood goes, 26 and 18 isn’t even close to the to the biggest offender).
For instance, Hillary Duff was 15 in A Cinderella Story, while Chad Michael Murray was 22.
Sasha Pieterse was 14 while filming her character’s romance with 26-year-old Ryan Merriman on Pretty Little Liars.
And Danielle Campbell was only 14 when she started shooting Starstruck, while her on-screen love interest Sterling Knight was 20.
It’s not even the first time Keira herself was cast to play the romantic interest of an older actor. She was 17 to Orlando Bloom’s 25 when they started filming Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl.
All I can say is I’ll never watch the movie the same way again...