Andrew Lincoln agrees his Love Actually character is a ‘stalker’

EW.COM – Every good rom-com needs a dramatic and emotional declaration of love. Think Heath Ledger serenading Julia Stiles with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” John Cusack holding a boom-box over his head, Julia Roberts proclaiming that she’s just a girl standing in front of a boy. One of those scenes, which has since entered into rom-com lore, is Andrew Lincoln showing up at Keira Knightley’s door in Love Actually, silently professing his love with a bunch of oversized note cards.

The scene’s romantic, sort of, but it’s also twisted because his Juliet — yes, that’s Knightley’s character’s name — is actually married to his best friend (Chiwetel Ejiorfor). His love is unrequited, and in the years since Love Actually hit theaters in 2003, some have wondered whether the entire sequence is more creepy than sweet. One of those people is Lincoln himself.

“He is a stalker,” Lincoln told TheWrap. “That was my question to [writer and director] 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.’”

And despite having one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film, Lincoln’s character is one of the only ones who doesn’t get a happy ending. (Couldn’t he have met Laura Linney in the closing credits?)

“I quite like the fact that I’m in one of the most romantic movies, playing the only guy who doesn’t get the girl,” the Walking Dead actor said. “It’s like I did this film called Moonshot. Everybody else got to the moon and I was the only guy who didn’t go. So I think it’s a running thing in my characters. I’m the guy who doesn’t get the girl or go to the moon.”