Could anyone have predicted that Love Actually would go on to be the Christmas movie institution that it is today?
Certainly not this writer anyways. Regardless it's impossible to deny how the various relationship strands interwoven through the movie connected deeply with audiences everywhere.
One of the more popular stands in the movie is the adolescent romance between Sam and Joanna. If your Love Actually memories need refreshing, Sam was the son of Liam Neeson who'd recently lost his mother, but the more pressing thing on his mind was how to impress classmate Joanna who he was hopelessly in love with.
A musical performance in the school play followed by a mad dash through the airport saw him win her over and also the hearts of the millions of viewers who've seen the film since its release in 2003.
Twelve years on (can you believe it's been 12 years?) the actors who player Sam and Joanna are all grown up and are forging strong acting careers. Here's what they look like now.
Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Sam) will be familiar to Game of Thrones fans where he played the role of Jojen Reed but he's had a variety of roles elsewhere too. He had a supporting role in The Maze Runner and it's sequel The Scorch Trials and he also played a teenage Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy.
Although he's now 25 years old he still retains that boyish face that stole the show from Hugh Grant all those years ago.
Olivia Olson, played the role of Joanna and she's also still in the acting game. She's done some voice work for Phineas and Ferb, has appeared in Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, and recently has voiced Marceline in Cartoon Network's Adventure Time.
It's safe to say that whatever they do in life, they'll always be Sam and Joanna to us.
Via Aol
