Love Actually star Bill Nighy says that his rock star character Billy Mack is not based on an actual musician. Directed by Richard Curtis, the classic 2003 Christmas film Love Actually features an impressive ensemble including Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, and Hugh Grant. A seasonal romantic comedy, the movie follows many characters as they navigate nine interconnected love stories. Nighy stars in the film as Billy Mack, a washed-up rocker introduced before any of the other major characters as he re-records a classic Troggs song as a Christmas song, which the character hilariously hates.
Nighy’s character has an amusing and emotional trajectory in Love Actually as he attempts a comeback to the world of rock, seeking glamour and renewed fame before ultimately realizing that all he really wants is to spend the holiday with the person who means the most to him, his manager Joe (Gregor Fisher). Due to his resemblance to plenty of long-time musicians or even actors that create Christmas songs or star in Christmas movies in an attempt to stay relevant, it’s easy to speculate that Billy Mack was based on a real person. However, during an appearance in a Vanity Fair video, Nighy addressed the influences for his Love Actually character, saying Billy Mack wasn’t necessarily based on any actual rock stars. See what he had to say below:
“Rock and roll veterans were a new genre, there was, you know, they were only just becoming, so… And they were sort of, somehow, they were just funny. They may be other things, they may be heroic or romantic, but they were also funny. And you only have to mention certain names and people will smile. It’s partly because they came out of our youth and they’re still there and that’s cheerful. It’s partly because it can get slightly preposterous in terms of style and delivery. It’s an amalgam of things you’ve observed or listened to over the years, but there was no member of the Rolling Stones that I was channeling, or any other real life rock character. It was just me kind of, you know, imagining what I might be like if I were, you know, in that situation.”
Billy Mack Plays An Essential Role In Love Actually
Billy Mack’s story is unique among the many narratives in Love Actually because he doesn’t actually cross paths with any of the other characters. However, he appears on the radios and televisions of nearly all the characters in the movie as the calendar counts down to Christmas. As such, his character offers substantial connective tissue between the other characters early on in the film, creating an organic structure as the characters and their stories are introduced since his music and interviews have a wide scope in terms of viewership.
In Love Actually, Billy’s goal is to get his newly recorded Christmas single, which he deems unoriginal and awful, to #1 on the radio in time for Christmas. His press appearances throughout the movie see him reiterating that goal as enthusiastically as he condemns the song, to hilarious effect. Billy goes on to promise that he will perform his song on live television naked on Christmas Eve if he reaches #1, which he does, creating an excellent diversion for Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) to run through the airport in order to confess his love without being caught by airport staff.
In addition to his instrumental role in Sam’s big moment, Billy serves another important function in Love Actually, offering some variety to the storylines. Though Love Actually features a range of stories from outright tragic to hopeful, the majority of its narratives center on heterosexual romantic love, with a select few delving into platonic or familial relationships. As one of the very few that centers on a strong bond between two men, though their relationship is not romantic in nature and often seems slightly toxic, Billy’s plot line in Love Actually depicts an extremely unique form of love that sets itself apart from the other stories in the film, which wouldn’t have worked without Nighy’s hilarious yet empathetic portrayal.
Source: Vanity Fair