Love Actually star looks unrecognisable 20 years after starring in iconic Christmas film

It's somehow been over 20 years since everybody's favourite Christmas film Love Actually was released - and suffice to say, the cast look very different to the way they did in 2003.

Richard Curtis’ bonafide classic features an ensemble cast including Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson and the late Alan Rickman.

Providing romance, laughter and heartbreak in equal measure, the smash hit film is memorable for all kinds of reasons - though anybody who’s seen it will be able to agree on one scene in particular being completely unforgettable.

I am of course talking about that scene whereby it is revealed that Rickman’s character, Harry, is cheating on his adoring wife, Karen, portrayed by Thompson.

It emerges that he is having an affair with his secretary Mia, smashing viewers’ hearts into millions of pieces.

Karen sneaks a look into her husband's jacket pocket to see what she's getting for Christmas, and finds the expensive necklace that he had purchased for Mia, and naturally assumes that it's for her.

Then of course Christmas Day arrives, and she opens her gift to find a Joni Mitchell CD, realising that the necklace must have been meant for someone else.

In a heartbreaking moment, she puts on a brave face so as not to spoil her family's Christmas.

Her husband eventually comes clean, though their epilogue scene indicates that he may have done irreparable damage to their marriage.

Mia, played by Heike Makatsch, was absolutely a villain in the movie, though Harry is equally, if not more, to blame.

But Makatsch looked very different to how she does now.

Mia is played by Heike Makatsch (Universal)

When she appeared in the film she sported dark brown hair in a bob cut.

Now however, she has grown her hair out, and it's not brown anymore, but blonde.

The actor also went on to star in a number of other films, including 2005's A Sound of Thunder and The Book Thief in 2013.

From Germany, she has also starred in a number of German language films.

20 years on, the actress looks dramatically different (Gisela Schober/Getty Images for Cartier)

Heike Makatsch at the Frida and Frida Young Show this November (Tristar Media/Getty Images)

Makatsch may have changed, but other stars in the films look like nothing has changed since it was released.

While it remains popular, some scenes in the movie have not aged as well as others.

Notable is the 'stalker scene', where Mark (Andrew Lincoln) shows up to the house of his newly married friend with a load of signs which he shows to her to tell her that he is in love with her.

Director Richard Curtis has admitted that he has come around to people's view of the scene.