Love Actually's 'Christmas lobster' looks unrecognisable with bleach blonde hair and piercings as she ditches acting for comedy 18 years after Christmas flick debut

It has been nearly two decades since the iconic Christmas hit Love Actually hit UK screens. 

And as the film reaches 18 years one of its sweetest characters, Emma Thompson's daughter who played the lobster in the school nativity play, now looks completely unrecognisable.

The part was played by actress turned comedienne, Lulu Popplewell, 33, and she now looks worlds away from how she was remembered in the 2003 Christmas flick.

Long gone are her long brunette locks as she now rocks a bleach blonde shaggy bob and at one point a nose piercing. 

Lulu was aged just 12 when she portrayed Daisy, who was daughter of Emma and Alan Rickman. 

The performer is currently preparing for a show at London's Museum of Comedy, titled Goblin and stars in Come To Bed With Me podcast.

She has also voiced the part of Lyra in the BBC Radio 4 version of His Dark Materials.

And while one of her main breakthroughs into showbiz was through Love Actually, Lulu previously slammed the hit movie  for being 'cheesy' and showing women as 'passive objects'.

She made the comments during an appearance on podcast Almost Famous, adding that she thinks the classic Christmas flick is a 's**t film'.

Speaking about her experience doing the film when she was 12-years-old, Lulu said: 'I don't regret it at all. Look, softly be it spoken I think it's a s**t film.

'I think it's aged badly. All the women in it are sort of passive objects. I think that there was an article describing them as passive objects to be acquired. 

'On re-watching it's not great. You also have to remember that he [Richard Curtis] was writing in the context of the time.

'I mean I don't know how he excuses more recent work. But it was in 2003 or whenever it was out.

'But it is also not for me because I don't like cheese. I'm glad people like it.' 

Lulu also discussed meeting one of the films other stars, Hugh Grant, reminiscing that she found his unexpected greeting 'really funny'.

She explained: 'He said "oh god do I have to speak to her? I hate children". Non-ironically. Which I thought was really funny.'      

Love Actually quickly became a hit after its release in 2003 and boasted a star-studded cast which also included Andrew Lincoln as Mark and Keira Knightley as Juliet. 

While another child star who appeared in the film was Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played grieving Liam Neeson's stepson Sam. 

And Love Actually has certainly stood the test of time, with dozens of references being made to the pop culture classic since.