The scene in Love Actually that Hugh Grant hated filming

Hugh Grant. Photo / Getty

'Tis the Christmas season, which means only one thing: it's time to watch Love Actually for the millionth time.

It's hard to pick a favourite scene in the much-loved 2003 rom-com, but most fans would agree the part where Hugh Grant - as David, the Prime Minister - dances around his Downing Street home to Jump would have to be right up there.

It's a shame the actor himself doesn't agree.

In fact, Grant absolutely hated filming that scene.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, director Richard Curtis revealed the truth:
"[Hugh] was hugely grumpy about it.

"The fault line was the dance, because there was no way he could do that in a prime ministerial manner. He kept on putting it off, and he didn't like the song - it was originally a Jackson 5 song, but we couldn't get it - so he was hugely unhappy about it.

"We didn't shoot it until the final day and it went so well that when we edited it, it had gone too well, and he was singing along with the words. When you edit a dance sequence like that, it's going to be a third of the length, and the bit he's singing the words to isn't going to be the bit of that moment, so it was incredibly hard to edit."

Here are some other facts about your favourite movie that you probably didn't know:

Love Actually was meant to be two separate films

The legendary rom-com director Richard Curtis told Vulture that he was originally working on two films, one about Hugh Grant's character and the other about Colin Firth's character.

"I'd worked out whole films on those subjects, and then I thought, 'Oh, I don't want to do these because they are just turning out to be a shape I know'," Curtis said.

Andrew Lincoln thought his character was a "stalker"

It's a pivotal moment in the movie, but when Mark, played by Andrew Lincoln, told his best friend's wife Juliet (Keira Knightley) that he loved her via a series of handwritten signs - the actor was a bit unsure about it.

"He [Mark] is a stalker," Lincoln later told TheWrap. "That was my question to Richard Curtis, 'Do you not think we're sort of borderline stalker territory here?' And he said, 'No, no. Not with you playing it, darling. You'll be alright'."

Fun fact: Lincoln wrote those signs himself.

The movie stole a scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral

The scene where Colin accidentally insults the caterer's food to her face while attempting to flirt was originally written for Hugh Grant's character in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but was cut in the final stages of editing - so it was recycled.

Claudia Schiffer was never supposed to be in the movie

The original script referred to the blonde character as someone who looked similar to Claudia Schiffer.

But the director had trouble finding an actor who fit the mould, so they approached the supermodel to see if she was interested. "It was funny how it ended up, you know, him getting the real deal. I just thought it was brilliant," Love Actually star Elisha Cuthbert said to VH1.com.

Laura Linney's casting was inevitable

Curtis auditioned many actors for the part of hopelessly-in-love office worker Sarah, but kept saying he wanted someone "like Laura Linney". Eventually, the casting director snapped and said: "Oh for f**k's sake, get Laura Linney then." She auditioned - and of course, landed the role.

Emma Thompson wore a fat suit

The director felt the Academy award-winning actor was too thin and needed some help from the costume department to achieve the 'mumsy' look.

The airport scenes at the beginning and end of the movie are real people

The crew had cameras set up at Heathrow Airport for a week filming real people as they greeted their loved ones. Curtis told Vulture:

"That was real documentary footage that we shot without anyone knowing we were shooting, and we had to rush up to people and ask for their permission to use it."