Bill Nighy: Love Actually Cast Surprised by Film’s Cult Success; Jokes ‘I’m More Famous at Christmas’ as Rocker Billy Mack

As acting careers go it’s as long as it is distinguished, but Bill Nighy admits he will always be known for his role as a hapless rock star in frivolous Christmas comedy Love Actually. 

The celebrated actor famously played over-the-hill singer Billy Mack in one of nine interconnected love stories detailed by writer-director Richard Curtis in the film, set against the backdrop of a chaotic Christmas in London. 

Featuring an ensemble cast that included Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, the feel-good film grossed an astonishing £186million worldwide, against a budget of £30million, following its release in 2003. 

And Nighy, 75, admits the entire cast were stunned by the instant success of Love Actually and its subsequent cultural impact. 

‘It still gives me pleasure that something as kind of benign as that something that promotes, you know, the best of people has entered the language like that,’ hevtoldf Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast.

‘Nobody knew when we were making it that it would become, I mean, it’s a Christmas movie, so you might expect it to be played. 

‘But it’s entered the language in a way that very few films do you know, and I’ve had people come up tell me all kinds of things, from it helped me through my chemo to I got married to the song.’ 

‘There’s all kinds – they have evenings where they dress up as the characters and stuff. I don’t get bored with it. I was very happy to be in it. 

‘And it’s fabulous that it carries on. I mean, I am more famous at Christmas. There’s no question!’ 

As Billy Mack, Nighy learns a lesson in humility after clawing his way back from obscurity to land the coveted Christmas number one spot with a cover of Love Is All Around – originally a 1967 hit for The Troggs. 

But the actor admits one of his key lines as the ageing rocker came back to haunt him shortly after the film was released.  

He recalled: ‘When Love Actually first came out, the kids across the street where I was living used to chase me down the street shouting, “Hey, kids don’t buy drugs. Become a rock star. People give you them for free!”

‘And once, I was going through immigration from Canada to the United States at about four o’clock in the morning or something, and there was nobody in the hall apart from me, there were three guys behind glass booths, and one of them had a big black mustache. 

‘And I thought, don’t give me the guy with the big black mustache. And he eventually pointed at me, and he said, “Hey, kids don’t buy drugs. Become a rock star. People give you them for free. Am I right? Am I right?” 

‘I was like drugs, no, no, no, no, I don’t know drugs!’

The iconic line is: ‘Hiya kids. Here is an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don’t buy drugs. Become a rock star, and they give you them for free!’

Discussing the film during an appearance on ITV1 show This Morning in 2022, Nighy admitted his role as Mack ultimately changed his life. 

He said: ‘If I get an obituary, that will be on it. Kids used to run after me in my district, shouting that line. 

‘It was a big and important thing for me and changed the way I went to work. I’ll never get bored talking about it.

‘People have used it for all sorts of purposes to get through dark times… there’s nowhere in the world where people don’t watch it on a regular basis, every Christmas.’