--- title: Love Actually Fan Theory Addressed by Movie's Script Editor description: 'Love Actually' script editor Emma Freud is setting the record straight on a fan theory about the beloved Christmas movie. canonical: https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-13T16:08:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:24.676Z og:title: One of Your Most Burning 'Love Actually' Questions Answered og:description: Here's what you need to know og:url: https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1179008c0cbae6/69876c71cd1bba4e616f3e67/love-actually.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MCDLOAC EC003 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One of Your Most Burning 'Love Actually' Questions Answered twitter:description: Here's what you need to know twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1179008c0cbae6/69876c71cd1bba4e616f3e67/love-actually.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One of Your Most Burning _Love Actually_ Questions Has Been Answered  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 13, 2018 4:08 PM UTC  'Love Actually' 'Love Actually'Universal  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 13, 2018 4:08 PM UTC With every holiday season comes the [annual deluge of _Love Actually_ screenings](http://time.com/5456925/netflix-christmas-movies-hack/) and with these screenings come the [abundance of questions](http://time.com/5179488/emma-thompson-love-actually-cheating-scene/) that viewers have about the multiple and very emotional storylines in the film. While fan theories abound, there’s one _Love Actually_ question that has finally been addressed by the film’s script editor, Emma Freud, who has additional insight into the film because her partner is the film’s director, Richard Curtis. In an interview with [_News.com.au_](https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/love-actuallys-biggest-mysteries-finally-solved/news-story/81d5cd187363c6a3f51e198b4e0456a0), Freud talks about the potential that Liam Neeson’s character Daniel is actually in love with his good friend Karen, who’s played by Emma Thompson. Many fans speculated that Daniel might have deeper feelings for Karen because he relies on her for support following his wife’s death and he accidentally calls his new love interest Karen, instead of her name Carol, when he tells her he’d like to see her again. Unfortunately for those shipping this potential secret fancy of Daniel’s, it turns out that that mistake was unintentional and holds no symbolism. “That was genuinely a mistake by Richard who had forgotten that Emma Thompson’s character was called Karen,” she said. “He just wanted it to be awkward for Liam in front of Claudia Schiffer and it was genuinely a coincidence. You know when they eat breakfast cereal in the kitchen together? Liam plays that scene without any romantic spark.” That doesn’t mean that Freud disapproves of the theory, however; she was quick to note that “it would have been quite a neat storyline though.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/"},"headline":"One of Your Most Burning Love Actually Questions Has Been Answered","datePublished":"2018-12-13T16:08:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:24.676Z","description":"Here's what you need to know","url":"https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/","keywords":["Newsfeed","entertainment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1179008c0cbae6/69876c71cd1bba4e616f3e67/love-actually.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1179008c0cbae6/69876c71cd1bba4e616f3e67/love-actually.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MCDLOAC EC003","caption":"MCDLOAC EC003","creditText":"Universal","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5478759/love-actually-fan-theory-question-answered/","name":"One of Your Most Burning Love Actually Questions Has Been Answered"}}]}] ```