9 Deleted Movie Sub-Plots That Changed Everything

Depending on your feelings about rom-coms, you either adore or detest Love Actually. It’s a sickly-sweet Christmas classic, intertwining stories of various couples across the UK to deliver one united message: Love is all you need. Merry Christmas.

One of the features of Love Actually that makes it such an easy watch is that you know it has a happy ending. Everyone gets a pleasant, satisfying ending (apart from that one woman who gets sort-of cheated on by Snape), and the audience is left content and smiling. Great!

Well originally, we were going to get a whole other couple included in the story, with this plot thread focussing on the school head teacher and her terminally ill partner. Not only would this have made for one overtly gay relationship in a film that is otherwise entirely straight (you can argue that Bill Nye is gay, though it’s ambiguous), but it also comes with an undoubtedly sad ending.

We would have spent time with them in their home, the teacher caring for her partner as they come to terms with the inevitable - and then dealing with the aftermath when it happens. The story would’ve had a totally different tone than even the saddest other ones, and overall, could've shaped the movie slightly differently; less 'perfect'.