Love Actually is my favorite Christmas movie. The many intertwining stories, dynamic characters and sarcastic humor get me every time I watch it. I have forced my love of this film upon many of my friends and family members over the years as a result. So, as I was feeling festive, I’ve decided to spread my enthusiasm for the movie even more and dig into the characters a bit and help you decide who you’re most like. Warning, if you haven’t seen this film before (What are you doing? Go watch it!) there are spoilers.
Billy Mack
Are you someone that is living in the past, insists you “already peaked” or are low-key desperately trying to stay relevant? You may be channeling your inner Billy Mack. An outdated rocker who is attempting to remake a popular song into a Christmas song to regain popularity, he is constantly making a scene and offending older folks and young children. He’s also harboring a secret love for his manager that he expresses through bullying. If you’re hanging onto the fame of that one viral tweet or you used to tease the people you had a crush on while on the playground, you may need to do some thinking.
Juliet
Ah yes, absolutely gorgeous, everyone who knows her loves her, newlywed Juliet. If you’re outgoing, charismatic or you often don’t realize you’re flirting and accidentally make people fall in love with you when you are clearly taken, you’ll find Juliet very relatable. Not only does her new husband’s best friend have a severe crush on her, instead of shutting it down, she kisses him as a Christmas gift. I mean, c’mon.
Mark
To clarify, Mark is the one inappropriately in love with Juliet. If you’re outwardly dismissive and cold, a secret romantic, prone to being friend-zoned, a tad awkward, harboring secret feelings that are NOT okay or are a great videographer, you and Mark would have a lot to talk about. He spends the whole movie being rude to Juliet until the end when she finds her wedding video that he made that clearly shows his infatuation with her, which he then responds to by making her a very romantic message with signs confessing his love but saying he’s working on it and then gets kissed as a result. So much for getting over her. If you see anything that relates to Mark here, congrats on the videography skills, sorry about the scandalous crush.
Jamie
Jamie is a very mellow man who spends his time writing. After finding out his wife is sleeping with his brother, he escapes to rural France, where he falls in love with his housekeeper who speaks only Portuguese and takes the time to learn it and proposes to her in her language (albeit rather terribly). If you’re creative but don’t always appear that way, been done dirty by a significant other but haven’t given up on love, learn languages in your free time or make huge surprising romantic gestures, you’re a Jamie!
Aurelia
Aurelia is the Portuguese housekeeper that Jamie falls in love with. If you are passionate and caring for others, have a great sense of humor, come from a gigantic family very connected to their culture, are very tidy and would learn a new language for someone you love, you would find Aurelia very relatable.
Harry
Harry is a father and husband, who quite frankly, isn’t passionate about much. He’s absent with his kids, cheats on his wife with someone who works under him at a job he does not seem to care about and is all-around not a great or interesting guy. If you’re taking things in your life for granted, learn from Harry and shape up.
Karen
Karen is the overworked, underappreciated wife of Harry. If you’re very caring, strong, always there for others, are always busy, feel like you put much more into relationships than others or are considered the mother figure of your friend group, you’re a Karen.
Mia
All you need to know about Mia is that she’s a shameless flirt, she’ll sleep with her boss and she’s a homewrecker. Sound familiar? I hope not.
David
Recently been elected to power (over an entire country or otherwise)? Try to stick up for yourself and those who can’t? Good at learning on the job? Accidentally falling in love with someone on your staff? If yes, you’re channeling serious David vibes. He’s the recently elected Prime Minister who is just trying his best to run a country and control the feelings he has for a new member of his housekeeping staff at Downing Street. What a guy.
Natalie
Natalie is said housekeeper at Downing Street who David has feelings for. She recently got out of an unhealthy relationship but remains confident in herself and her body despite the demeaning things her ex said about her. She is very close with her rather large family, is a hard worker, a believer in love and resilient despite the negativity in her life. If any of these things ring true with you as well, you’re a Natalie.
Daniel
Daniel is coping with the recent death of his wife and working through the transition of being the sole guardian of his step-son, Sam. He’s extremely strong and resilient, puts aside his feelings to be there for his loved ones and helps people think of and execute solutions to their problems, no matter how elaborate (or slightly illegal) that solution may be. If you see that same loyalty or fatherly instinct in yourself, you’ll probably find Daniel very relatable.
Sam
Sam’s mother recently died; he is not only working through that as well as what it’s like to live solely with his stepfather Daniel but also with his unbearable crush on a girl in his class named Joanna. If you are a hopeless romantic, would learn an entirely new instrument to impress someone you like or would chase them through the airport just to say goodbye, you’re very much like Sam.
Sarah
Sarah works in the same office as Harry and Mia but her affection is focused on a much more appropriate subject: her coworker Karl. While she has always wanted something more with him, most of her free time is spent taking care of her brother with special needs. If you are fiercely loyal to your family and always put them first, watch your crushes from afar but never make a move and are extremely shy and unlikely to put yourself out there, you’ll relate to Sarah.
Colin
Seemingly Colin’s only goal in life is to find girls that want to sleep with him. So much so, he convinces himself that all the girls in England have much too high of standards and he must fly to a whole different country (the United States) to find girls that want to sleep with him. He is, shockingly, successful in this endeavor. If you have a one-trek-mind, trouble finding a date, do things on a whim or have “an adorable accent”, you may be like Colin.
John
Last but not least, we have John. John is a sweet, reserved and somewhat awkward man who slowly develops feelings for a coworker. Their jobs are standing in as sex doubles for stars in a film, so as you can imagine, their meeting was rather awkward. They end up getting along great and having a very wholesome relationship, which is again, rather ironic. If you’re shy, end up in situations nobody would ever guess based on your personality or are not so good at romantic gestures but have good intentions, you probably relate to John.
There are so many more characters in Love Actually but these are the main storylines. Plus, if you haven’t seen the movie yet (I’m really sorry but it just got spoiled for you), there are still other characters to look forward to getting to know! If you have seen it, hopefully, I inspired you to re-watch it, because that’s what I’m about to do. Happy watching and happy holidays!
All images courtesy of Giphy.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest!