Love Actually Fans Are Just Discovering This 'Ridiculous' Deleted Airport Scene

It's Christmas time, which can only mean one thing - that age-old argument over whether Love Actually is a good film has reared its ugly head.

The 2003 film, which weaves several different stories of Londoners looking for love over the festive season, will always be a classic in our eyes - but it's fair to say some parts of the film haven't aged particularly well.

The constant fatphobic comments inexplicably aimed at Martine McCutcheon, creepy sign-holder Andrew Lincoln and the fact Keira Knightley was only 17 when she filmed her marriage storyline are among some of the more questionable storylines as we've re-examined Love Actually in a more modern context.

Universal)

But even we were blown away to discover that there's more to little Sam (played by Thomas Sangster) and his infamous airport chase to reach true love Joanna (Olivia Olson) before she flies off to America.

In a scene that was deleted from the final cut, it is revealed that Sam is actually somewhat of a masterful gymnast. Instead of pelting his way through Heathrow Airport against these grown security guards, Sam managed to get away through a series of flips, forward rolls and dives.

Watch the scenes below.

The effects are a bit ropey to say the least, with Sam appearing to be stretched as he performed his feats.

After the clip was shard on Twitter, one fan wrote: The body double doing the cartwheels through the seats was about 7 feet tall!"

Another wrote: "I genuinely thought that sequence couldn't be stupider and yet here we are."

"Holy moly! That was comically bad!" joked a third.

"This is an abomination," a fourth said. "How ridiculous."

Universal)

In the film's commentary, Love Actually director Richard Curtis explained: "We're a bit torn as to whether we were to put this bit in - there would have been some effects and polish done on it. We didn't in the end, and I thought it was fun.

"In the original draft of the movie, there was lots of mentions about the fact that Sam, the little boy, was a brilliant gymnast and when it was sad you'd just see him casually being brilliant at gym.

"So when it came to an airport scene, he brought his gymnastic prowess into play. This is a very rough edit..."

Hmmmm. Probably best they did leave it out, to be honest.

Topics: Christmas, Entertainment News, Celebrity News, TV & Film, TV Entertainment

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley