People are only now discovering why it took so long for Rowan Atkinson’s character Love Actually to wrap Alan Rickman’s gift

Love Actually is one of the most popular Christmas films of all time and is watched by thousands of people every year to get into the festive spirit.

And even with a top-notch cast including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson and Keira Knightly recreating sweet love scenes and dramatic proposals, there’s one scene that will stick in the memories of millions.

Rowan Atkinson has a cameo in the hit as store clerk Rufus, who takes a comically long time to wrap a necklace that Alan Rickman’s character Harry buys for his secretary, Mia (Heike Makatsch), behind his wife Karen’s back .

Karen, played by Emma Thompson, is shopping in the same store at the time.

In a panic, Harry hopes that Rufus will wrap the gift quickly, but Rufus clocks this out and completes his purchase extensively.

Harry can be seen becoming so physically enraged by Rufus’ addition of ornate decorations that he tells him to stop what he is doing.

While many viewers assumed the hilarious 2003 scene was purely comedic, many are only aware of the real reasons behind it 20 years later.

But many have now realized he is being deliberately slow, hoping Emma’s character Karen will catch them.

The theory was confirmed by script editor Emma Freud, 61 – who worked on the film with her husband and director Richard Curtis, 67 – who wrote an explanation on X, formerly Twitter.

‘Rowan Atkinson’s character deliberately overwrapped the gift to prevent Alan Rickman from purchasing the necklace. Because he was an angel,” she wrote in 2015.

A stunned user then asked: ‘Did anyone ask if Harry REALLY had an affair or was just tempted? Alan Rickman’s villains are usually sympathetic, but not this one!’

The esteemed script editor then explained, “Definitely had an affair. I begged Richard to just make it a flirt, but no, all the way.”

It comes after Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis said he was ‘stupid and wrong’ for joking about people’s size in his films after being confronted about his daughter.

The director said he regrets much of his work and that he was “inattentive” and “not as smart” as he should have been.

He added that he would never use the words “fat” and “chubby” again.

The weight of Renée Zellweger’s character Bridget Jones was addressed in the film, while the Prime Minister’s personal assistant, Natalie in Love Actually, played by Martine McCutcheon, was portrayed as the ‘chubby’ one.

But Curtis said those jokes stopped being funny when he was quizzed by his daughter Scarlett at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.

It comes after Richard Curtis revealed Love Actually almost featured an LGBTQ+ romantic storyline, but it was ‘cut’.

The screenwriter talked about before the lack of diversity in Love Actually and criticized his jokes about people’s sizes in the film.

Now, talking to Katie Strick about the Love stories from London podcast, Richard admitted that he felt like he was “letting himself down” by removing the LGBTQ+ story from the final edit.

“There are things about Love Actually that I wish I had done,” Richard said while speaking on a Christmas episode of the podcast in aid of Comic Relief.

“If I had ten stories, yes, we would have some kind of LGBTQ story, but that got cut and I feel like I let myself down there.”

Richard went on to detail some more changes he would make to the film if he were writing it today, as he wanted to address the lack of diversity.

“The diversity issue is very different now and it would have been wonderful to make the film more culturally rich,” he said.

“To have had Hanukkah, to have had Diwali in there, I didn’t focus on that. So I think if I did it again, it would have a wider distribution than the film does now.”

When asked whether he would now make a new version of Love Actually, Richard insisted he has no plans to remake the Christmas classic.

He explained, “I don’t think I’m going to make another one because Love Actually was one of my films that was actually the closest to a disaster. Two months before it came out, it was an absolute mess. So I feel like I got lucky once, I don’t want to risk it again.”

The film is now known for its interwoven storylines, but Richard revealed that the script was originally arranged in a much more linear fashion, before deciding it wasn’t interesting enough.

He said: ‘With all those stories it was very difficult to keep people interested. Originally I wrote the movie as A, B, C, D, E, F, G – I would have one part of the movie one after the other.

“But when I watched the movie, it was like I didn’t really care about the stories. The moment you did something extra, you lost interest.’

He added: ‘The final film is as if I took the original script and put it back together in a completely different order.’

It’s not the first time Richard has taken aim at Love Actually’s lack of diversity and its jokes about women and people’s sizes.

Last year, Richard admitted that Love Actually’s lack of diversity now makes him feel ‘uneasy’ and ‘a bit stupid’.

“There are things you would change, but thank God society is changing. So my film is bound to feel old-fashioned at some points,” he said.