'Love Actually' Casting Director Defends Casting 'Too Young' Keira Knightley
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beloved holiday rom-com Love Actually, and to mark the milestone, casting director Fiona Weir is reflecting on the decisions that ended up making the movie such a hit.
The 2003 movie—written and directed by Richard Curtis—famously stars Keira Knightley in the role of Juliet, a part that Weir admits she probably was "too young" for.
But Knightley, who was only 18 at the time, had a "wonderful, open, joyous quality" that was just perfect for the part, Weir recently told The Messenger. "She was quite young when everyone thought she was older than she was because she'd been acting since she was little."
In the film, Knightley's character Juliet is married to the character Peter, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is eight years her senior. It is later revealed that Peter's best man, Mark, played by Andrew Lincoln, who is 12 years older than her, had been secretly in love with Juliet.
Weir even admitted that Knightley, who is now 38, was "really strictly speaking, too young for the part," but still, she thinks "it worked."
"I think we believed that she was married to Chiwetel [Ejiofor] and the object of great love for Andrew Lincoln."
Weir also revealed that scheduling Knightley's scenes was tricky, as the actress was about to set off to film Pirates of the Caribbean just after her Love Actually work.
"They wanted to whisk her off, so we had to do quite a bit of clever scheduling to make sure that she could finish being Juliet before she went off to fight pirates with Johnny Depp," Weir recalled.
Luckily, it all ended up working out just fine, as Love Actually went on to become the classic film it is today.
It will even be making a return to theaters this holiday season, with a limited U.S. theatrical release beginning December 8. The 4K remaster of the film will also be available on Blu-ray and digital video on demand beginning November 21.
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