Writer reflects on the way he portrayed women – and the lack of diversity

Richard Curtis has admitted he was ‘stupid and wrong’ in the way he wrote about women in some of his most successful romcoms – especially when making jokes about their size.

The writer also said he regretted not including a single black character in Notting Hill – a decision he has long been criticised for.

His comments came at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where the 66-year-old was questioned over ‘the ways your films treated women and people of colour’  by his daughter, Scarlett, 28, a feminist activist, author and podcaster.

She challenged him over the description of  Bridget Jones as having ‘tree-trunk thighs’, ‘multiple accounts of inappropriate boss behaviour in Love Actually’ and ‘how in general the women are visions of unattainable loveliness’ as well as the lack of diversity in 1999’s Notting Hill.

‘I think I was unobservant and not as clever as I should have been,’ Curtis said, in comments reported by The Times, the festival’s sponsor.

Of the lack of diversity, he added: ‘I think because I came from a very undiverse school and bunch of university friends, I think that I hung on to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts. 

‘I think I was just stupid and wrong about that. I felt as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t look outwards.’

Curtis – the son of a  Czechoslovakian refugee who became an executive at Unilever – educated at private Papplewick prep school in Ascot, winning a scholarship place Harrow before reading English at  Oxford University, where he met long-term collaborator Rowan Atkinson.

The writer  said his material was not seen as malicious at the time, but conceded: ‘I think I was unobservant and not as clever as I should have been.’

According to the Daily Telegraph, Scarlett told him: ‘I can confirm that you’re a wonderful man, and I like to think I’ve taught you a lot about feminism and this is by no means the moment I cancel my dad live on stage.’

And Curtis recalled: ‘I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me, "You can never use the word fat again". And, wow, you were right. In my generation, calling someone "chubby" ... in Love, Actually, there are endless jokes about that. I think I was behind the curve and those jokes aren’t any longer funny.’

Last year, Omid Djalili revealed he was cut from Notting Hill – where he can be seen briefly playing a cafe owner –  for being ‘too brown’.

Published: 16 Oct 2023