As the holiday season approaches, everyone is getting ready to rewatch their favorite festive films. 2006's The Holiday, which stars Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Cameron Diaz, remains a classic Christmas movie. However, fans of the film should make sure they're seated before reading any further, as Law has revealed some pretty devastating news about the location of the movie's idyllic Rosehill Cottage.
In the film, Winslet's Iris lives in the cottage, but decides to house swap with Diaz's Amanda, who lives in Los Angeles. In the snowy British countryside, Amanda is a fish out of water, but she grows to love the charming cottage, and it's where she meets Iris' brother, Graham (played by Law). In a new interview with BBC Radio 2, Law dished on the enviable, rustic cottage, and why fans may have trouble locating the building in real life.
"That cottage doesn't exist," Law told the radio show's hosts, breaking a million hearts in the process.
"So the director [Nancy Meyers], she's a bit of a perfectionist," Law explained. "She toured that whole area and didn't quite find the chocolate box cottage she's looking for. So she just hired a field and drew it and had someone build it."
As for how the cast filmed the scenes that took place at the newly built Rosehill Cottage, Law said, "So here's the funny thing, if you watch it... We were shooting in the winter here. And every time I'd go in that door, we'd cut, and we shot the interiors in L.A. about three months later."
Realizing that the revelation had just devastated the hosts and their listeners, Law simply said, "Just burst the bubble. Sorry!"
While it's impossible to visit The Holiday's Rosehill Cottage, fans of the film can take a look at the building that provided inspiration for the filmmakers. Honeysuckle Cottage in Holmbury Saint Mary reportedly inspired The Holiday's set designers to build their own country home, in case you fancy a trip across the pond, per House and Garden.
In a 2020 interview with Vulture, Diaz discussed her experience working with director and screenwriter Meyers on The Holiday. "I think the sets are so wonderful," she explained. "There's just a real world that she knows how to create. Lots of textures, lots of layers... So that kind of wraps around you when you walk on set."
Even though Rosehill Cottage wasn't real, Diaz felt the sets were incredibly warm and inviting. "But going on to the sets for The Holiday, you just felt like you were walking into the characters' homes," she told the outlet. "You kind of forgot that you were on a soundstage, that there was lighting hanging above you and cameras all around you. That dissipates and you're left in these very clear, thoughtful environments that the characters live among."
