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Featuring lots of romance, stunning scenery, and heartwarming storylines, The Holiday has cemented itself as a classic Christmas comfort film that all generations enjoy.
Brits still sit down to watch the iconic rom com throughout the festive season, 18 years after its release in 2006 – but it turns out that all is not what it seems.
The beloved movie sees chronically unlucky in love Amanda (Cameron Diaz) plan a house swap and spend the holidays in a cute country cottage in the UK, which belongs to journalist Iris (Kate Winslet).
Surrey-based Iris ditches her pictuesque English home for Amanda’s Hollywood mansion and both lovelorn women are swept off their feet with an exciting new romance when they meet Graham and Miles.
However, the perfect bubble was burst for some fans when Jude Law spilled filming secrets from the Christmas classic on BBC Radio 2 this week and revealed the cottage owned by Kate Winslet’s character Iris is not even real.
Following the surprising admission, MailOnline has rounded up all of the aspects of The Holiday that are not realistic…
Iris worked for a newspaper and could afford THAT cottage
Time and time again over the years, fans of the movie have hilariously pointed out that there is no way Iris would have been able to afford her quaint countryside cottage on a journalist salary.
Despite it not being real, the cosy cottage that inspired it sold for a whopping £675,000.
Not to mention the lengthy commute into central London from Surrey every day – the area she lives in does not look like it’s home to much public transport.
Rosehill Cottage was so stunning that it became somewhat of a phenomenon after the film was released, with fans calling it the perfect English dream home for Christmas.
While the exterior was lightly dusted in snow, the inside had a roll top bath and a shabby chic kitchen.
One seconds-long scene took a whole week to shoot
At the end of the film, Amanda dramatically stops the car that was driving her to the airport to go back to LA.
She insists the driver lets her out so she can sprint miles back to Graham at the cottage, all while wearing high heels.
Although the scene only lasts a matter of mere seconds on screen, Cameron Diaz has revealed that it took a whole week, and lots of pain, to shoot.
The actress told Vulture: ‘Oh, girl. I was running, like, seven miles a day in heels. That whole scene took a week to shoot. That wasn’t even in the script.
‘They only used two shots, but we shot like ten shots of me running across ten different fields.
‘And I’m wearing that Valentino cashmere, wool trench coat, a turtleneck cashmere sweater and jeans, and my high-heeled boots.’
The picturesque cottage was fake
Jude Law, who starred as widower Graham who falls in love with Amanda in the movie, recently shared a shocking behind-the-scenes detail.
The actor, 51, appeared on BBC Radio 2 with host Zoe Ball and comedian Kerry Godliman on Friday.
Speaking about the picturesque cottage where Amanda holidays, Kerry asked: ‘Can you Airbnb that cottage?’, while Zoe replied: ‘I think so’, Jude told them the truth.
‘That cottage doesn’t exist. So the director, she’s a bit of a perfectionist, toured that whole area and didn’t quite find the chocolate box cottage she was looking for,’ he revealed.
‘So she just hired a field and drew it and had someone build it. But here’s the funny thing if you watch it.
‘So, we were shooting in the winter here and every time I go in that door, we cut and we shot the interiors in LA about three months later.’
Stunned, Zoe said: ‘We don’t want to hear anymore. We can’t bear it’, while Kerry added: ‘That’s very upsetting’.
Looking sheepish, Jude replied: ‘Just burst the bubble, sorry.’
Despite Rosehill Cottage not being real, the cast did film in the Surrey villages of Shere and Godalming.
The Honeysuckle Cottage in Holmbury St Mary, which was put up for sale in 2021 and now an Airbnb, provided the inspiration for the crew who designed it.
Rosehill Cottage became somewhat of a phenomenon after the film was released, with fans calling it the perfect English dream home for Christmas.
The home swap was organised within 24 hours
The speedy home swap between Iris and Amanda, which is central to the movie’s plot, was arguably the most unrealistic part of the film.
Both women have full time jobs, with Iris working as a journalist at the Telegraph, meanwhile Amanda is a movie trailer editor.
Despite this, the characters managed to organise their annual leave, not to mention book flights, within 24 hours.
Taking impulsive to the next level, the whole arrangement was cemented less than a day after they decided to go for it, seemingly with no obstacles at all.
They also played a risky game by conducting zero research about who they were letting into their home, with not even a quick Google search in sight.
Based on Iris’ elated reaction upon arrival to Amanda’s mansion, it was clear she had not even seen any pictures of the place.
The snow was mostly fake
In the same interview, the actress revealed that the gorgeous blanket of snow covering the hills surrounding the cottage, was also fake.
She told the publication: ‘And we covered all the hillside with this fake snow, which was totally biodegradable. It was the most incredible — it doesn’t snow in England. It rains in England. But there are swabs of snow.’
Despite Cameron insisting that doesn’t snow in England, the crew did reportedly experience three small snowfalls during filming so some of it was real.
However, a snow machine had already been hired and brought along as no one thought it actually would.
The timeline is all over the place
At the beginning of The Holiday, Iris’ boss at The Telegraph tells her: ‘We are going to try and get by this week with a smaller-than-normal staff’.
Cosmopolitan worked out that this would have been Friday December 22, as a newspaper office, if closing at all, will be closing as close to Christmas as possible.
So, this means that one day later the women would be starting their homeswap holiday on December 23.
With this timeline in mind, it would mean that the movie’s most important events, such as Amanda going on a date with Graham, happen on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, with no mention of it being those days in the movie.
Not to mention Graham’s two children and where they are, while the single father is off with Amanda.
Graham’s young daughters both have cell phones in 2006
Finally, plenty of eagle-eyed viewers have been left puzzled by the fact that Graham’s five and seven year old daughters in the movie, Sophie and Olivia, have cell phones.
While a lot more youngsters own a mobile now, it was quite uncommon in 2006 for children under the age of 10 to have them.
In the movie, Amanda grows suspicious when Graham keps receiving calls from mystery women, which turn out to be his daughters.
However, when she does eventually meet them, the phones they are supposed to have are also nowhere in sight.
