When the Love Actually sequel was announced last week, one big name was missing from the cast list: Emma Thompson.

All the other stars were listed save for Thompson and the late Alan Rickman. It was unclear exactly why the actress was missing, but during Thursday night’s Beauty and the Beast premiere in London, Thompson clarified.

“[Director Richard Curtis] wrote to me and said, ‘Darling, I can’t write anything for you ’cause of Alan,’ and I said, ‘No, of course, of course you can’t,’” she told Reuters. “It would be sad, too sad. It’s too soon. You know, it’s absolutely right.”

“It’s absolutely right, it’s supposed to be for Comic Relief and there isn’t much comic relief in the loss of our dear friend really only just over a year ago. … We thought and thought but it just seemed wrong.”

“To revisit the wonderful fun characters of Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant and all of that, that’s fantastic,” she added.

The Love Actually sequel, titled Red Nose Day Actually, will catch up with the other characters 14 years later and airs March 24 on the BBC. In America it’ll air two months later, though we’re sure the Love Actually bit will be online soon after it premieres.

Cast members in the sequel include Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, Colin Firth, Lucia Moniz, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Olivia Olson, Bill Nighy, Marcus Brigstocke and Rowan Atkinson.