Love Actually fans in shock over co-stars age gap

Christmas classic Love Actually has been watched year upon year by fans across the festive season – but there is always one fact that shocks viewers.

The annual rewatch of the beloved film often reminds viewers just how close in age Keira Knightley, who played Juliet, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played Sam, were when it was filmed.

Once again, fans of the film have reacted in shock after discovering there is just five years between them, and Keira was 17 when filming took place, while Thomas was 12.

Juliet is a blushing bride embroiled in a complicated love triangle while Sam is the cherubic boy in love with his classmate Joanna in the film which follows the intertwined stories of various characters in the build up to December 25.

This means the actress was 12 years younger than her love interest Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and 10 years younger than her on-screen husband Peter (Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor). 

Over the years, dozens have taken to X after discovering the tiny age gap.

One wrote: ‘Keira Knightley in Love Actually is only five years older than the little boy Sam that plays in the school band for the American girl if that doesn’t come as a shock nothing will.’ 

‘That moment you finally realise Keira Knightley was 17 when filming Love Actually and only 5 years older than the little kid,’ another typed.

Netflix has previously poked fun at the age difference between Keira and her love interest Mark in a bio. 

They wrote: ‘People in London know each other for numerous reasons. One of them is Tiff from EastEnders. Andrew Lincoln stars as a stalker with a felt tip.’

Script editor Emma Freud also previously divulged she wouldn’t cast Keira if the film was produced today.

She told news.com.au: ‘I know Richard [Curtis] would cast either Saoirse Ronan or Lily James as the young bride.

‘Lots of them would be the same, Hugh was a surprisingly young Prime Minister, but would be searingly realistic now.

‘And there will never be a better Karen than Emma [Thompson], even when she’s 90.’

Meanwhile, one Love Actually viewer recently noticed a small detail that they say is the ‘worst part’ of the 2003 movie.

Cheating husband Harry – played by the late Alan Rickman – gifts his wife Karen (Emma Thompson) Joni Mitchell’s album Both Sides Now.

However, Twitter user @heyspacebones claims that the so-called superfan of the singer, Karen is likely to already own the CD.

The story line revolves around Harry’s infidelity with his colleague Mia (Heike Makatsch), whom he buys an expensive necklace for.

Karen later discovers the necklace in her husband’s coat pocket, and believes that a similarly shaped box under the tree is said pendant.

On Christmas Eve she prepares to unwrap the box with Harry telling her: ‘I have of course bought the traditional scarf as well, but this is my other, slightly special one.’

She is lost for words when she unwraps what turns out to be the CD, as Harry says it is to ‘continue your emotional education’.

In the infamous scene, Karen goes upstairs and puts the album on the stereo while she cries to herself, before going downstairs and putting on a brave face for her children.

Meanwhile, the stars of the much-loved film, including Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon, reunited for a Love Actually reunion for Comic Relief in 2017.