People can’t get over real life age-gap between two characters in Love Actually

Watching Love Actually has become as much of a Christmas tradition for some as carving the turkey and enduring bitter family feuds.

But nearly 20 years since its release, fans are still pouring over details about the film, from Colin Firth's language mistake to this resurfaced deleted scene:

But one detail you may have missed is the shocking age difference between Kiera Knightley and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who both appeared in the festive romcom.

You see, Kiera - who portrays Juliet, a newly-wed woman caught in a heartbreaking love triangle - was just 18 at the time the cameras starting rolling.

Meanwhile, Thomas played the lovestruck school kid whose dad is going through his own fair share of relationship struggles.

Despite his character Sam appearing to be a whole generation apart from Kiera's Juliet, the actor was just 13 at the time Love Actually was made.

Yes, that means there's only five years between them. Mind blown.

Twitter

And if that weren't enough, Chiwetel Ejiofor - who played Keira's husband in the movie - was 26 at the time of filming.

This means the eight-year age gap between the on-screen married couple is actually larger than that between Keira and Thomas.

Every year, this fascinating bit of film trivia does the rounds on social media, and 2022 is no different.

Taking to Twitter, one person shared side-by-side stills of the acting pair from the movie.

They wrote: "I watched Love Actually last night and it’s just blown my mind that there’s only 5 years age difference between Keira Knightley (gets married) and Thomas Brodie-Sangster (little kid in school play)."

Another said: "TIL [today I learned] there's only a 5 year age gap between Keira Knightley and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. You know these two people in #LoveActually."

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A third added: "Just learned that Keira Knightley was only 18 when they filmed Love Actually.

"This is the most shocking revelation since finding out Thomas Brodie-Sangster was 15 in Nanny McPhee."

A fourth, who also shared side-by-side images, said: "There was a FIVE YEAR age gap between these two when Filming Love Actually. What. The. Heck."

What the heck, indeed.

While we're on the topic, the writer of the film, Richard Curtis, recently revealed what Juliet's job is in the film after the revelation that a whopping 94% of viewers didn't have a clue.

In a video posted on Instagram, Curtis explained that he thought it was pretty obvious, considering the set design.

"I'm hurt that you don't know. I think it's very clear from the set design, whilst she's making the phone call to Andrew Lincoln, that she has worked for quite a long time as an interior decorator," he said.

When asked how he came up with the idea, and where he drew his inspiration from for the character, Curtis admitted that there wasn't much thought behind it.

Universal

He recalled: "When we said... we're doing this scene where she makes a phone call to Andrew Lincoln, everyone panicked and said, 'What kind of a room is she going to be making the phone call from?'

"And I said, 'Well, how about, like, maybe she's an interior decorator, and so there's lots of swatches and some paint colours.'"

So there you have it, mystery solved.