Love Actually is actually good, say its stars

Stars of the movie Love Actually said today they feared that the latest British romantic comedy was going to descend into a sickening sentimental “syrup” and “marshmallow”.

But the jokes, written by Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary creator Richard Curtis, would make it an international hit, they predicted.

Stars including Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy and Martine McCutcheon graced the red carpet in New York before the screening.

The film is a string of intertwining love stories with Grant as Prime Minister at the centre, falling in love with his tea lady Natalie, played by McCutcheon.

The lives and loves of the different characters collided on Christmas Eve.

Grant denied he based his character on the real Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

He said Love Actually was “a really hard film to pitch because it sounds nauseating because it’s all about love”.

“The reason it succeeds rather than being puke-making is that it is funny as well,” he said.

The original version of the Prime Minister was “too nice” and Grant decided to give him “a bit more steel”.

But he insisted “he is not modelled on Tony Blair”.

Firth, who plays a heart-broken writer, said Curtis was “courageous” to make another film about love.

“I think every single discerning person on this film felt we were in danger of drowning in syrup if we did not end up with something substantial.”

But he added: “The bottom line is that it completely wins you over, it sweeps you up.”

Curtis joked that he had squeezed nine movies into one.

He said he had Grant, Thompson and McCutcheon in mind for the movie before he even started work on it.

Suggestions that McCutcheon’s character was a Monica Lewinsky character were “very weird”, he said.

McCucheon said her knees were shaking as she stepped on to the red carpet.

“I feel like I’m in a bubble, I cannot believe it’s me here,” she said.

“I’m looking at posters in Times Square with me and Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson and I’m like ‘Oh my God why am I up there’.

“I’m shaking like a leaf but I’m over the moon.”

She gave Grant 10 out of 10 for the scene where they kissed.

Thompson said the film showed “many different kinds of love”.

Her own character, Karen, suffers heartbreak when her husband, played by Rickman, has an affair.

She said: “Hugh and I were vicious about sentimentality but there was a very good cast and Richard Curtis is very good about stopping with a gag before you get into marshmallow.”

For his part, Rickman said slyly his character was “like most men”.

“I am the reality check. Men are like that, they’re stupid.”

Atkinson said he had not even seen the movie yet but described it as “very, very heartwarming and optimistic”.

Among the other stars at the premiere were Joan Collins, who said the film was “bloody good”.

Claudia Schiffer and Salman Rushdie also graced the red carpet at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan.