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

Christmas is once again here, and with it comes the obligatory watching of your Christmas film of choice.

Among them is Love Actually, which remains hugely popular after its release 20 years ago.

The movie has an ensemble cast and follows a number of different storylines in the run up to Christmas, with each of the characters being somehow connected.

Some of the stories are warmer, such as Colin Firth and Lúcia Moniz's budding romance across language barriers.

But others are rather more bitter, especially the marital connection between Harry (Alan Rickman) and Karen (Emma Thompson) when he has an affair with his secretary Mia, played by Heike Makatsch.

It all starts with flirting at the office before she asks him to get her a Christmas present. The pair then get a bit too close at the office Christmas party.

But Karen sneaks a look into his jacket pocket and finds the expensive necklace that he had purchased for Mia, and naturally assumes that it's for her.

Universal

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 was absolutely a villain in the movie, though Harry is just as bad as he was just as much a part of it, but Makatsch looked very different to how she does now.

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.

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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.

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.