More than a decade after the release of the festive season film, the actor has spoken about her experience of making the movie. And she has an idea for what her character might be doing now.
The Holiday is one of those films that inspires passionate feelings from all who see it.
Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you think, like I do, that only one half of the film truly works? (The Cameron Diaz/Jude Law half, obviously. Not the half in which Jack Black aggressively scats at women and Dustin Hoffman on the street.) Do you think that it’s two hours of nonsense or two hours of the most glorious, festive bliss? Like I said, this film inspired feelings.
Including from the actors who starred in it. Speaking to The New York Times, as part of a special feature revisiting the child stars of some of your favourite Christmas films, Miffy Englefield revealed that she has a few opinions about where she thinks her character would be now.
Englefield was only six when she played Sophie, the precocious and shrewd elder daughter of Graham (Law). Initially, when Sophie’s name popped up on Graham’s flip phone, Amanda (Diaz) mistakenly assumed that her romantic flame was seeing other women. What she didn’t know was that Graham, to use his very own words, was “daddy”.
“I sew, and I have a cow!” Graham tells Amanda, one of the best lines in romcom history. Instead of being a serial player, Graham was a single father just trying to balance the demands of his adorable daughters with his own need for Friday night boozing. Amanda’s poor heart never stood a chance.
Most of the filming on The Holiday took place in Los Angeles, with some scenes shot in the UK, which meant that Englefield and her onscreen sister Emma Pritchard had to relocate for the duration of filming.
Speaking to the New York Times, Englefield revealed that she remembers making the stars that decorated the sisters’ magical tent – the one to which the family retires after Graham’s performance as Mr Napkinhead. Both Law and Diaz spent a lot of time with two children, Englefield remembers. They even gifted them denim jackets emblazoned with their names after the movie finished filming.
“They made all this time for these two little kids running around,” Englefield recalled.
Today, Englefield is 20 and works as a barista while gigging on the punk rock scene. According to the New York Times, Englefield gave up acting when the demands on her family, including her single father, couldn’t keep up. Music was a new adventure for her. “At school, people were a bit funny about the fact that I used to be an actress, but I could go to these gigs and be around people who didn’t care,” she said.
Englefield also has an idea for what her character Sophie would be doing now, and she’d be happy to revise the role in a sequel. “[She] could be some really cool, artsy girl now,” Englefield said. “I think a lot of the cast would probably get a shock at my tattoos and piercings, but it would be lovely.”
A sequel to The Holiday? Maybe one in which Sophie goes to stay in Los Angeles with auntie Iris and uncle Miles, and while performing her music in a dive bar she is spotted by a rock star and the pair of kickstart a whirlwind romance and creative partnership that ends in tragedy.
What’s that? Isn’t that just the plot of A Star Is Born? Well, yes. But I’d watch it anyway. Especially if it was directed by Nancy Meyers.
Images: Rex
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