Love Actually Director Admits Movie's Lack of Diversity Makes Him 'Feel Uncomfortable,' 'Stupid'

David M. Benett/Getty, Peter Mountain/Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Richard Curtis (L); Love Actually (2003)

Love Actually may be a holiday classic, but writer-director Richard Curtis is admitting what he considers a big flaw in the 2003 film.

Speaking with Diane Sawyer for the recent ABC News special The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, Curtis 66, said he feels "uncomfortable and a bit stupid" about the movie's "lack of diversity" almost 20 years later.

"There are things you'd change but, thank God, society is changing, so my film is bound, in some moments, to feel out of date," he said.

The film follows several stories — mostly romantic, and most involving white, heterosexual characters — and as Curtis said in the special, "I think there are sort of three plots that have sort of bosses and people who work for them."

"There is such extraordinary love that goes on every minute in so many ways [in life], all the way around the world, and makes me wish my film was better," the director told Sawyer, 76. "It makes me wish I'd made a documentary just to kind of observe it."

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Universal Studios Rodrigo Santoro and Laura Linney in Love Actually (2003)

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Love Actually follows an ensemble cast of primarily London-based characters, whose lives intertwine in various ways in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The ensemble holiday rom-com's cast included Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Bill Nighy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Olivia Olson, Alan Rickman, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Colin Firth, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rodrigo Santoro, Lúcia Moniz, Martine McCutcheon, Martin Freeman, Kris Marshall, Joanna Page, Heike Makatsch, Abdul Salis, Gregor Fisher and Liam Neeson.

And while Curtis laments not having more diversity in the film, he did say in the film's DVD bonus footage that he was "really sorry to lose" one particular storyline that had been filmed but didn't make it into the final cut. It followed the school headmistress, played by Anne Reid, who was in a lesbian relationship with a terminally ill woman, played by Frances de la Tour.

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

Another brief scene that was cut was shot in Kenya and involved a man and a woman living in Africa "who have faced famine and come out of the ordeal together and united," Grazia reported in 2020.

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The one-hour special marking the 20th anniversary of the making of Love Actually explores "how the film became a beloved Christmas tradition and a global sensation, with new insight into behind-the-scenes secrets and iconic scenes," according to a release.

Reuniting for the special alongside Curtis were Grant, 62, Thompson, 63, Linney, 58, Nighy, 72, Brodie-Sangster, 32, and Olson, 30, with a message from McCutcheon, 46.

The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later – A Diane Sawyer Special is available to stream now on Hulu.