Richard Curtis: 'Love Actually' was inspired by Mariah Carey'

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Richard Curtis has revealed that Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You was the inspiration for his 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually.

The Christmas classic features prominently in the film, and during an appearance at the Cheltenham Literature Festival Curtis said that songs have always been an “incredibly important” source of inspiration in his work.

Discussing Carey’s 1994 single, the Bridget Jones’ Diary director told the audience that the song “seems to me to completely say how you want to feel about how extraordinary Christmas is.

“In a way, Love Actually was also a stab at trying to be as good as Mariah… I failed!” he added.

The director also described his much-loved festive rom-com as a “catastrophe”, admitting that he regrets having had so many stories in the plot.

“Because there were 12 stories, [finding the right order] was like three-dimensional chess. And that was enormously difficult to finish or get right,” he said.

Since peaking at Number Two on the Official UK Singles Chart in December 1994, All I Want for Christmas Is You has become Carey’s best-selling single in the UK, with over a million copies.

Richard Curtis: ‘Love Actually’ was inspired by Mariah Carey’

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