Diane Sawyer’s ‘Love Actually’ Interview Cut Short After Police Threaten to Arrest Her

During a special interview, Diane Sawyer unexpectedly found herself in trouble with the law. Former child star Thomas Brodie-Sangster witnessed the awkward moment while taping the 20th-anniversary reunion special of Love Actually with Sawyer. In the 2003 film, he played a love-struck kid drummer named Sam. Nearly 20 years later, the 32-year-old actor returned to the iconic London bench where scenes were filmed with his on-screen stepfather, Liam Neeson. He reflected on the movie in The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later — A Diane Sawyer Special on Nov. 29 on ABC, reported Entertainment Tonight. Several minutes into the discussion, a producer interrupts and says, “We have to stop. The police say we don’t have the proper permit, and they’re going to arrest us.” The two laugh as Sawyer replies, “Oh, they are? Now we run!” As the cameras continue rolling, they get up and abruptly leave the scene. Fortunately, they avoid arrest, and before heading home, Brodie-Sangster poses with some fans. 

During the interview, Brodie-Sangster spoke about his experience working with Neeson on the movie. “Liam was amazing. He treated me like his son,” the former child star recalled. “He was absolutely lovely to me. He created this environment where I was very comfortable.” For the new show presented by Sawyer, Brodie-Sangster, along with Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, Laura Linney, Olivia Olson, and more, discuss how the 2003 film went on to become a global phenomenon. “It’s quite kind of out there, isn’t it?” Thompson was quoted as saying by Entertainment Tonight after seeing the film for the first time. “And then Hugh came up behind me as we were walking out and said, ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but is that the most psychotic thing we’ve ever been in?’ I just thought, ‘What is he talking about?’”

Despite being unsure whether he said that to Thompson, Grant, 62, still believes the sentiment holds true. “It is a bit psychotic,” Grant quipped. “It’s Richard on steroids, the thing with him when he writes about love, he means. It is quite rare.” In Love Actually, eight different couples deal with their love lives in a collection of loosely interconnected stories set during the busy month before Christmas in London, England. Sawyer’s program also uncovers some little-known secrets about the film, such as the handwriting on the infamous cue cards was actually Andrew Lincoln’s, and Keira Knightley wore a distinctive newsboy cap to hide a pimple on her forehead.

Grant also revealed that his famous dance scene in the movie almost didn’t happen. “I saw it in the script, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll hate doing that.’ I didn’t fancy doing the dance at all, let alone rehearsing it,” Grant shared. Notting Hill director and writer Richard Curtis acknowledged Grant’s hesitation and told Sawyer the star was “grumpy” but understood the “contractual obligation. “I think he was hoping I’d get ill or something, and we’d say, ‘Oh, well, what a shame, we’ll have to lose that dancing sequence,’” Curtis added. In light of his lack of rhythm at the beginning of the scene, “especially at the beginning when I wiggle my a—” Grant explained to Sawyer it was his idea to have the prime minister’s secretary enter the room where he was dancing to round out the scene. “I will give myself this credit, it was my idea to have that secretary lady catch me…genius,” he said. “And to this day, there’s many people, and I agree with them, who think it’s the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid, but then some people like it.”