Revealed, With Hugh Riminton.
Thursday, 9.30pm, On TEN.
Celebrated filmmaker Richard Curtis has revealed that while he is known as the Brit who has captured countless hearts with his romantic comedies, Australia is in his DNA and he still loves to support the Aussie team during the Ashes.
In an exclusive interview, the director of Notting Hill, Love Actually and the new movie About Time told TEN’s Revealed, With Hugh Riminton that beneath his British accent there’s strong Antipodean blood that runs through him.
Born in New Zealand to Australian parents, Curtis explained to reporter Angela Bishop at his London home: “I was an Australian for years and I always thought of myself as Australian but then I was sent to an English boarding school at eight. I’ve been here such a long time now that I suppose I am British, but at the Ashes recently I was supporting the Australians all the way through.”
The writer-director also hit back at critics who call his films sentimental and unconvincing, insisting there are too many violent films that are considered realistic over more believable stories of people who fall in love.
“It gets my goat,” Curtis said. “Whenever anyone makes a film in which someone is brutally and savagely murdered by someone to whom terrible things have happened, it is always called searingly realistic. When I make films about people who love their kids and about falling in love, they’re called sentimental and unrealistic. I don’t understand that at all.”
The Oscar-nominated screenwriter hinted he may step away from directing following the release of his latest film, About Time, which stars Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy and Domhall Gleeson.
He said: “My new movie takes my feelings about life up to where they are now, so I just have to see what happens next. At the moment I’m happy to say that’s the one.”
