Your Annual Reminder That ‘Love Actually’ Cut Its Lesbian Storyline

Despite being a holiday classic, 2003’s Love Actually largely aged like milk, although the scene of Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now is forever iconic. However, it could have made history as the first mainstream Christmas film to include lesbians, had they not been cut from the final film.

The lesbian arc was one of four storylines that were axed to shorten the film, and followed the headmistress of the primary school , played by Anne Reid, and her terminally sick partner, played by Frances de la Tour.

Scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor included the couple drinking wine together at the end of the day, and another of the pair asleep in the same bed.

There was also a scene where Emma Thompson’s character delivered a speech at the Christmas concert, while the headmistress sat in the audience wearing dark glasses, where she directly addressed the head teacher’s loss.

“I’d just like to say to our headmistress, on behalf of all the parents, that we think it’s very brave her being here today in light of her recent loss. Geraldine was a wonderful and wicked woman, and sorrow is particularly hard at Christmas.”

Director regrets sacrificing the storyline

In an interview with the UK’s Independent two years ago, de la Tour said  it was “odd” that the director decided to cut the only queer couple.

“Maybe it was too dark to bring into it. Because it ended up being quite a light and fluffy film, didn’t it?”

“At least [the director] wrote to me and said we’re terribly sorry but it’s got to be cut.”

Director Richard Curtis also spoke about the characters in the bonus footage of the Love Actually DVD, and said he was really sorry to see it go.

“The idea was meant to be that you just casually meet this very stern headmistress, but later on in the film we suddenly fell in with her and you realise that, no matter how unlikely it seems, any character you come across in life has their own complicated tale of love,” he explained.