Q&A
Laughs Actually
Filmmaker and fundraiser Richard Curtis leverages comedy to change the world.
I
n America, Richard Curtis is
best known as the force behind
romantic comedies such as
Four Weddings and a Funeral,
Notting Hill and Love Actually.
In the UK, though, the writer/
producer/director is also celebrated
for harnessing the power of laughter
for charitable giving. Since he cofounded Comic Relief in 1985, the
non-profit has raised over £1 billion
to promote global development. On
April 30, the Montclair Film Festival,
in conjunction with BAFTA New
York, will present a day of festivities
surrounding Curtis and his work,
and bestow its inaugural Filmmaker
Tribute to him. We talked to Curtis
about love, loss and why he won’t
write about serial killers.
CURTIS COURTESY OF COMIC RELIEF; LOVE ACTUALLY: COURTESY OF WORKING TITLE FILMS
WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO
FILMMAKING?
I did comedy sketches at [Oxford]
University. Then I wrote three-minute
sketches for a satirical radio show,
and worked on Not the Nine O’Clock
News, which was a show like
Saturday Night Live. After that, I took
my skill at writing three-minute bits
to half-hour sitcoms. The natural
curve of my career mixed with my
love of American films such as Woody
Allen movies and Breaking Away, and
made me want to try filmmaking, too.
WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS LIKE?
The difference between having a
good idea and finishing a film is the
difference between seeing a pretty girl
at a party, and when she’s giving birth
to your third child: It’s a very long
journey. When I write, I might do
20 pages a day, then edit. I focus on
different things each day – sometimes
plot, or making the jokes funnier,
or I’ll write endless conversations
between two people that won’t appear
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
A GOOD SIGN Andrew Lincoln and Keira Knightley portray one of the many couples whose stories
are told in Love Actually
in the movie, but I’m learning how
they talk to each other. Almost all my
films have been written with the
mother of my children [broadcaster
Emma Freud] editing them. She tends
to be dissatisfied longer than me.
HOW DO YOU FIND
YOUR THEMES?
Love and loss have emerged as the
central driving forces of my life.
Between 5 and 35, I fell in love with
the girl; a sequence of girls; then it
was full of love for Emma Freud and
my children; I took care of my parents,
and they died. I write from experience.
I could never write a film about serial
killers; I never thought of one.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO
GLOBAL FUNDRAISING?
I went to Ethiopia in 1985 because
a friend was going. We spent nights
in corrugated huts – I’m in jeans and
a backpack, and there are families in
the other huts who won’t all live
through the night. But at the same
time that I felt the nature of human
suffering, I was also convinced that
effectiveness could counter it – wells
being dug, nurses and doctors at
work, agriculture being helped, not
in terms of emergencies, but as an
on-going attempt to end poverty.
TELL ME ABOUT RED NOSE DAY.
We were doing stage benefits in the
late '80s, and I thought, “Why not
do TV shows in front of 15 million
people instead?” So me and a couple
others asked the BBC if we could
make great content, as funny
as possible, and mix it with a more
informal appeal. Last year was the
first Red Nose Day in America, and
this year we’ll have our second,
May 26th on NBC.
WHAT BRINGS YOU TO MFF?
My daughter is a sophomore at
NYU, and my family is in America
for a year, our “year of saying yes”
to things. And I’m a huge fan of
Stephen Colbert. We’re going to
show Love Actually while I give
running commentary, and destroy
it with my scurrilous memories
and revelations. ■
MAY 2016
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
51