Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis in 2016

Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis CBE (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), About Time (2013) and Yesterday (2019). He cowrote the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley and is also known for the drama War Horse (2011). His early career saw him write material for the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News and ITV's Spitting Image.

Quotes

• I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me, "You can never use the word fat again".
  And, wow, you were right. In my generation, calling someone "chubby" [was funny] ... in Love, Actually, there are endless jokes about that. I think I was behind the curve and those jokes aren't any longer funny.
  I don’t feel I was malicious at the time but I feel I was unobservant and not as clever as I should have been.
• Because I came from a very undiverse school and bunch of university friends, I think that I’ve hung on, on the diversity issue, to the feeling that I wouldn’t know how to write those parts. I think I was just sort of stupid and wrong about that. [...] I just don't know. I feel as though me, my casting director, my producers, just didn't think about it, just didn't look outwards enough.
  • In an event at The Times/Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, Curtis was interviewed by his daughter Scarlet Curtis. From "I’ll never put fat jokes in my films again, says Richard Curtis after daughter's criticism", The Telegraph (16 Ocober 202) and "Richard Curtis laments jokes and portrayal of women in his early films", The Times (16 October 2023)