The screenwriter for Notting Hill may have been pushing for a sequel to make it to the big screen, but leading lady Julia Roberts was very much NOT in favor of it!
Richard Curtis is the name of the man who wrote the screenplay for the iconic 1999 rom-com. And earlier this week, he was chatting with IndieWire while promoting his new Netflix animated film That Christmas when he let a big bomb drop: that he was pushing for a Notting Hill sequel back in the day! And he even created a full script for it!
According to the interview via IndieWire, Roberts herself was very much NOT a fan of the sequel script. In part, that’s because the sequel would have seen her character Anna Scott divorcing Hugh Grant‘s character William Thacker. Oh, no!! That outlet asked Curtis if he’d like to do any follow-ups to any of his past films, and that’s when the ill-fated Notting Hill 2 discussion came up. He started by saying:
“I don’t think so. I actually did four Red Nose Days and Comic Relief. We did those mini sequels to Love Actually, and those satisfied me.”
And then he opened up with the shocking revelation of him trying to get a sequel filmed and released for Notting Hill, only for Roberts to completely shut him down:
“I tried doing one with Notting Hill where they were going to get divorced, and Julia [Roberts] thought that was a very poor idea.”
But, like, that would have been a very poor idea! Julia was right! LOLz!
BTW, she’s not the only one to criticize the Notting Hill universe after the fact. Earlier this month, Hugh himself sat down with Vanity Fair for their “Scene Selection” series and spoke candidly about the 1999 flick. Specifically, Grant slammed the script written by Curtis and called his character William Thacker “despicable.” Hugh argued:
“Whenever I’m flicking the channels at home after a few drinks and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’ There’s a scene in this film where she’s in my house and the paps come to the front door and ring the bell and I think I just let her go past me and open the door. That’s awful. I’ve never had a girlfriend, or indeed now wife, who hasn’t said, ‘why the hell didn’t you stop her? What’s wrong with you?’ And I don’t really have an answer to that. It’s how it was written. And I think he’s despicable, really.”
