TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 09: Actress Emma Thompson of 'The Children's Act' attends The IMDb Studio Hosted By The Visa Infinite Lounge at The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival at Bisha Hotel & Residences on September 8, 2017 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
As if we needed another reason to get overly teary about “Love Actually,” one of the stars of the film, Emma Thompson, has revealed that she drew inspiration for her storyline from real-life heartbreak.
The British actress is featured in one of the romantic comedy’s few not-so-happy endings when her character, Karen, discovers that her husband, played by the late Alan Rickman, is having an affair with his assistant.
In one of the film’s most gut-wrenching scenes, Karen realizes he gave the other woman a necklace she thought was intended for her.
“That scene where my character is standing by the bed crying is so well known because it’s something everyone’s been through,” Thompson said at a fundraiser in London on Sunday, according to The Telegraph.
The “Sense and Sensibility” star struggled with infidelity in her own marriage to actor and director Kenneth Branagh. The pair fell in love on the set of the 1987 BBC drama “Fortunes of War” and married two years later. They became a beloved acting-directing duo in the early ’90s, starring in films like “Peter’s Friends” and “Much Ado About Nothing” together.
However, their rom-com took its own dramatic turn when they publicly separated in 1995, blaming their busy work schedules. Later, rumors surfaced that Branagh had begun an affair with actress Helena Bonham Carter the year before, while filming and co-starring in “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
“I had my heart very badly broken by Ken. So I knew what it was like to find the necklace that wasn’t meant for me,” Thompson said Sunday. “Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but we’ve all been through it.”