From Notting Hill with Love...Actually (34 page)

If you’re head-over-heels for movies, just like Scarlett O’Brien, why not clear the whole day and sit down to watch a marathon of your favorites? You could start with Scarlett’s top five—just make sure you have enough popcorn at hand to last you through all five films! You’ll find some top trivia here to really get you in the mood…

Notting Hill

Directed by Roger Michell, 1999

Starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts

Notting Hill
is a classic British romantic comedy. It was written by Richard Curtis who had previously penned the just-as-classic
Four Weddings and a Funeral
.

Hugh Grant plays bookshop owner Will, who literally bumps into international movie star Anna, played by Julia Roberts. Their will-they-won’t-they love story plays out in Notting Hill, with the most iconic scene taking place in a private garden.

The movie won several awards, including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a British Comedy Award, and a Brit Award for its soundtrack.

Three facts you might not know…

1. Will’s house—at 280 Westbourne Park Road—was once owned by Richard Curtis, and behind the famous blue door featured in the movie (now painted black), there is actually a very impressive house, not at all like the grubby dwelling in the film (the flat we see is actually a movie set).
   
2. During the dinner party scene, Julia’s character Anna Scott is asked how much she was paid for her last movie. She replies, “15 million dollars.” This is the amount Julia Roberts was paid for her role in
   Notting Hill
   .
   
3. The film features the painting
   La Mariée
   by Marc Chagall. Richard Curtis is a big fan of Chagall’s work. The producers had a reproduction made for use in the film, but first had to get permission from the British Design and Artists Copyright Society and the painting’s real owner. The producers also had to agree to destroy it at the end of the movie in case the fake was too convincing!
   

Pretty Woman

Directed by Garry Marshall, 1990

Starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts

Pretty Woman
is a well-loved American romantic comedy from the nineties, written by J. F. Lawton. Richard Gere plays Edward, a workaholic businessman in L.A. on business. He meets Julia Roberts’ character, Vivian, when he stops to ask for directions. The movie features some truly iconic moments—who hasn’t laughed at the snapping jewelry case or sighed when Edward braves his fear of heights and climbs the fire escape?

Three facts you might not know …

1. The iconic moment when Edward snaps the jewelry box shut on Vivian’s fingers was entirely improvised by Richard Gere. Julia Roberts’s reaction was so natural and charming that it was kept in the final version of the movie.
   
2. Lots of leading actresses turned down the part of Vivian before it was offered to Julia Roberts—including Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, and Winona Ryder.
   
3. When filming the scene where Vivian sings along to the Prince song “Kiss” in the bath, the cast and crew played a prank on Julia Roberts. Emerging from the bubbly water, Julia found the whole set deserted—everyone had left the studio, even the cameraman!
   

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Directed by Sharon Maguire, 2001

Starring Hugh Grant, Renée Zellweger, and Colin Firth

This movie is based on the novel of the same name written by Helen Fielding, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie along with Richard Curtis and Andrew Davies. Renée Zellweger plays Bridget, the ever-single Londoner who keeps track of all her romantic ups and downs in her trusty diary. And she certainly has a lot of ups and downs with Mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (played by Hugh Grant) rivaling for her affections. The sequel,
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
, was released in 2004.

Three things you might not know…

1. When writing her novel, Helen Fielding ironically based the character of Mark Darcy on Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the TV adaptation of
   Pride & Prejudice
   , which aired in 1995. There are also several other links to this Jane Austen novel in the film. Bridget and Daniel work at Pemberley Press; Pemberley is the name of Mr. Darcy’s ancestral home in the Austen novel.
   
2. To prepare for the role, Renée Zellweger gained nearly twenty-eight pounds and worked undercover at a British publishing company for a month. She practiced her British accent while she was there and kept a framed picture of Jim Carrey, her boyfriend at the time, on her desk.
   
3. The director, Sharon Maguire, is a close friend of Helen Fielding. The author actually based the character of “Shazza,” one of Bridget’s best friends, on her, so it seems fitting that she directed the movie of the novel!
   

Sleepless in Seattle

Directed by Nora Ephron, 1993

Starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

Sleepless in Seattle
was inspired by the classic romantic movie from 1957,
An Affair to Remember
. The final scene at the top of the Empire State Building (where Meg Ryan’s character Annie Reed and Tom Hanks’s character Sam Baldwin meet for the first time) is a direct reference to the scene in
An Affair to Remember
where Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr fail to meet at the same spot. Meg Ryan plays the sensible and reliable Annie, engaged to equally sensible Walter, but when she hears Sam talking on a radio phone-in one night, she begins to fall in love with him before they even meet.

Three things you might not know …

1. The scene when Sam and his brother-in-law discuss the movie
   The Dirty Dozen
   and pretend to cry was made up on the spot by the two actors.
   
2. Meg Ryan was not the first choice for the role of Annie. Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jodie Foster all turned down the part. Julia Roberts was actually the first actress to be offered the part.
   
3. In the whole film, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have roughly just two minutes of on-screen time together. That’s a lot of chemistry in just two minutes!
   

And one last interesting fact about Richard Curtis: in each screenplay that Richard Curtis writes, he puts in an annoying or silly character called Bernard. This dates back to Curtis’s twenties, when a past girlfriend married a man called Bernard. In
Love, Actually
, the character is Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman’s annoying son.

Keep your eyes peeled for a “Bernard” or a “Bernie” in all of Richard Curtis’s other movies.

Thank you to my wonderful agent, Hannah, for taking a chance on me, and to my editor, Caroline, and everyone at Sphere for all your help and support.

To all the original RKMB girls who read, laughed, and demanded more! Without you lot, I definitely wouldn’t be writing this now. Especially Karen, Carol, and all those who remember “the hotel, the BMW, and the cliff…”

And to my family: Mum and Dad, thank you for fueling my overactive imagination by making me an only child! And finally to Jim, Rosie, and Tom: thank you for everything, you are my world, I love you, x.

Ali McNamara lives in Cambridge in the UK with her husband and two children. This is her first novel. Get in touch with Ali at
www.alimcnamara.co.uk
or @AliMcNamara on Twitter.