The star of “The Holiday,” Jude Law, has revealed a shocking truth about the cute house that played a big role in his 2006 Christmas movie hit: the picture-perfect property doesn’t exist.
In the popular holiday movie, Law, 51, played a handsome widower who falls in love with an American woman visiting the UK for the holidays. He also acted with Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, and Kate Winslet.
The woman in question, played by Diaz, does a house swap with Winslet’s character, who lives in a charming Surrey dwelling nestled in the heart of the British countryside.
When “The Holiday” came out, it quickly became a cult Christmas classic. The house in the movie, “Rosehill Cottage,” also gained a lot of fans, with style experts gushing over how beautiful and old-looking it looked.
The home was the subject of whole articles, ranging from tips on how to get the same look in your own home to listings for similar homes that you can buy.
Now, though, Law has said that the cutesy house where his character’s love interest was staying was built just for the movie, but the inside was filmed on a set in Los Angeles.
The actor told Zoe Ball about the discovery during a recent show on BBC Radio 2, when Ball asked if “Rosehill Cottage” was for rent on Airbnb. ABNB -1.57% Law then admitted, “That cottage doesn’t exist.” She said that the house was built just for the movie because director Nancy Meyers couldn’t find an existing home that matched her idea for the home.
“So the director—she’s a bit of a perfectionist—looked all over that area but couldn’t find the chocolate box cottage she was looking for,” Law said. “She hired a field, drew it and had someone build it.”
After that, the British actor said that the outside of the house was built in Surrey, but the inside was built on a set in L.A., thousands of miles away.
As he put it, “If you watch it, this is funny.” “We shot in the winter here in the UK, and every time I walk through that door, I remember how we cut to some scenes that were shot in L.A. about three months later.”
Following Ball’s shock at the news, Law made a joke, “Sorry to burst the bubble.”
However, there is no such thing as an official “Rosehill Cottage.” However, from December 2022 to the summer of 2023, a lovely three-bedroom home that was used as inspiration for the fictional home was available to rent on Airbnb.
That house in Holmbury Saint Mary was looked at by people working on “The Holiday,” and it was used as a rough model for the house Winslet’s character lived in.
The huge Mediterranean-style home that Diaz’s character owned in the movie is actually a real house in San Marino, California.
The last time the seven-bedroom, 6.5-bathroom house was sold was for $9.5 million in 2019. It has become a big tourist attraction for movie fans who want to see the real house that was used in the movie.
The house, which was built by builder Wallace Neff in 1928 as his own home, was called a “landmark masterpiece” in its original listing. It has a pool, spa, paddle court, and rose garden.
Realtor.com says the house, which sits on a 0.77-acre lot, is worth about $13 million right now.
