© Mark Surridge, 2024

“Love Actually” director Richard Curtis and songwriter and musician Ed Sheeran go way back: Sheeran’s first girlfriend even babysat Curtis’ children.

Since then, they’ve collaborated on several projects, including Comic Relief and the Danny Boyle-helmed 2017 film “Yesterday,” in which Sheeran stars and Curtis co-wrote. So when Curtis was conceiving his first animated project “That Christmas,” he showed Sheeran some early storyboards, and the original conversation was that it would be a musical.

“He asked if I wanted to write the music for it, and I said, ‘Cool,’” Sheeran says from his home in London. “There was one scene, and I wrote a chorus for it, but didn’t hear anything back.’”

Two years later, Curtis asked Sheeran to finish the song “Under the Tree” and updated him on the story. “That Christmas” which is now streaming on Netflix, would no longer be an animated musical, but rather an animated feature based on Curtis’ trilogy of children’s books. Set in the fictional British town of Wellington-on-Sea, it follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love, loneliness and Santa Claus making a big mistake.

While Sheeran has written Christmas songs, he’d never written a sad one until this moment. “It’s the one thing I’ve wanted to write,” Sheeran says. “I’d never seen the need [to write] a sad Christmas song until writing this one…this is quite a lot of people’s realities at Christmas.”

The songwriter placed himself in the situation of waiting for his dad to come home at Christmas — in vain. And while the film itself is upbeat, the scene where the song plays is “heartbreaking.”

Sheeran reveals Curtis is “quite an emotional man,” he adds, smiling, “He can tear up quite easily.”

After Sheeran had delivered the song, he thought he was done. “Netflix edited the song into the movie. I’d said to them, ‘Look, I’m not doing anything this side of the year. I’m basically just with my family.”

However, he did put in a caveat.

If they wanted a music video, he would do it if Curtis were to step in and direct, even though the director had never helmed a music video.  “I’ve felt that having him put his stamp on me doing a Christmas song would be kind of special to me.”

It was Curtis who came up with the idea to cast Bridgerton’s Claudia Jessie and tell a “Sliding Doors” story. Of the shoot, Sheeran says, “It was fun. We filmed it 10 minutes away from my house, and my mate’s mum is an extra in it.”

Curtis adds, “I hope I’ve done justice to his gorgeous song. It’s lyrically magical and it unlocks a critical moment in the film for us. Suddenly you feel all these layered emotions that go beyond what is seen on screen and you are filled with longing and hope.”

Sheeran reveals being a parent was the true inspiration for wanting to be a part of the project. He was sitting down with his three-year-old daughter trying to find Christmas entertainment. Aside from the Mickey Mouse Christmas cartoons, everything felt “a little bit too old for her.” Sheeran says “That Christmas” is perfect. He’s watched it three times with her, and “even rented a little local cinema to do it with my mates and their kids.” He adds, “It’s nice to have something quintessentially British, but also that you can watch with young children. “

And for that, Sheeran’s kids think he’s a cool dad.

As for what’s next, Sheeran confirmed his next album is finished and he’s already shot two music videos with two more planned for early next year while we tour.

He’s gearing up for a big promo campaign since his last two releases “Equals” came out of the pandemic and “Subtract” as Sheeran says, “was obviously a completely different record that didn’t really call for big pop stuff.”

So, what can fans expect? “It feels like I’m getting back into big pop for the first time in a long time,” he says. “It’s quite exciting.”