Hilarious: this cut scene from Love Actually

Last weekend I watched it for the hundredth time: Love Actually. Yep, I was in tears again and of course overjoyed at the end. Despite the fact that I can dream the story, this film remains just pure magic. Last week I gave you twenty facts about the film, after which I thought I knew everything about Love Actually. Not so good: I found out yet another new fact. A rather hilarious scene was removed from the film, which I can understand.

In the film, we follow all sorts of different storylines, including that of that sweet little boy called Sam, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster. At the end of the film, we see him rushing across the airport to declare love to his great love Joanna even before she leaves for America. Well, so the original scene would have looked a lot more spectacular, because besides running, Sam would also do a lot of cartwheels and backflips. Of course, Thomas Brodie-Sangster would not be doing that, but a stuntman. This stuntman was only just a bit taller (and older) than the little actor, making the scene look hilarious. By the way, you can watch it below. Pay special attention to Sam's legs, which are suddenly much longer in the air. This really made me laugh out loud.

But what exactly is this about and why was this scene removed? Director Richard Curtis explains in the video below that in the original script, Sam was supposed to be a brilliant gymnast. At times when he was sad, you would actually see him doing gymnastics. That's also why they wanted him to do all kinds of gymnastic exercises at the airport. Anyway, in the final script, Sam was not a gymnast and so this was no longer necessary. Added to this, Richard Curtus tells us that this released scene is just a ‘rough’ edit: ‘If the scene had made it into the film, we would have still adjusted this. We didn't have to do that in the end.’ They probably would have made the stuntman's legs a lot shorter then. I guess they could do that, right? Oh well, even without this scene, the film remains just fantastic.