Love Actually: Famous actor reveals he nearly got cast as lovestruck kid Sam – guess who?

The film followed numerous plot lines, including the story of young Sam as he fell in love with a girl from his school. Thomas Brodie-Sangster, then 13, played the part – helping to launch a career that went on to include the Maze Runner films and Game of Thrones. But now another actor has said he made significant progress in the casting process before being turned down.

Joe Alwyn is currently rising to fame thanks to his roles in two of the most buzzworthy films of the moment: The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots.

He’s also hit headlines recently for his relationship with a certain Taylor Swift.

Revealing on US TV show Live With Kelly and Ryan that he was spotted by a casting director while he was taking fencing lessons, Joe said he also was in the running for the part.

“It meant that I got time off of school to go to this audition, so I went to it,” he recalled.

“They had me back for another one and another one. And there was a whole series of workshops.

“I didn’t get it in the end, obviously, but I do remember meeting Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis and sitting down and reading some scenes.”

Alwyn, 27, finally made his feature film debut in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in 2016 – a title role he grabbed within two weeks of his graduate showcase from drama school.

He has also appeared in The Sense of an Ending, Operation Finale, and Boy Erased.

Other upcoming projects include biopic Harriet, about the abolitionist and warrior Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom on an underground railroad.

Cynthia Erivo has the lead role in that production, with Alwyn’s supporting co-stars including Leslie Odom Jr, Janelle Monae and Jennifer Nettles.

The Favourite, in which he plays opposite Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman, is out in the New Year and picked up a slew of Golden Globes nominations yesterday.

Among them, all three of the leading ladies are up for prizes: Colman for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; and Weisz and Stone for Best Supporting Actress in Any Motion Picture.

Love Actually, meanwhile, is now streaming on Netflix.