Renée Zellweger has returned to the role of Bridget Jones for the fourth hit-out in 25 years, but this time around, things are a little different.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is the fourth and, allegedly, final film in the franchise. Zellwegger and her all-star cast walked the red carpet on Sunday night in Sydney for the film’s Australian premiere.
Renee Zellwegger on the red carpet for the Australian premiere of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.Credit: Getty Images
Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s 1996 literary phenomenon, Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and, five years later, a blockbuster film. Released in 2001, Bridget Jones’s Diary helped Zellwegger become a household name, landing her an Academy Award nomination on the way to the film taking more than $300 million at the box office.
A product of its time, the film was initially seen as an instant addition to the pantheon of great rom-com flicks, but with time, aspects of the film have come into question.
In the post-MeToo era, the workplace relationship between Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Bridget Jones feels jarring, but Zellwegger believes things have changed.
“It’s an inevitability, isn’t it, that you look back and society evolves and people grow and learn? I think it’s interesting that Hugh’s character hasn’t changed, but now he no longer has the power. Bridget has the power and he looks like a dinosaur,” says Zellwegger. “Each piece of art is a reflection of the time in which it’s made.”
Platonic pals? Hugh Grant returns as Daniel Cleaver in the fourth and final Bridget Jones film.
For director Michael Morris, it was important to make the film feel contemporary while also true to the character’s motivations.
“We never said, ‘Oh we mustn’t have her write in her diary about her weight or flirt with her boss’, because it doesn’t feel like that’s what Bridget would be doing.”
The three previous Bridget Jones films — Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016) — have earned more than $800 million worldwide.
In the new film, Bridget is a widow following the death of her husband, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Hugh Grant returns as Bridget’s former lover, Daniel Cleaver. The fourth film focuses on a new love triangle with Bridget’s son’s schoolteacher, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and a younger man, played by Leo Woodall.
Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and Roxster (Leo Woodall) in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, directed by Michael Morris.
Woodall, 28, is Hollywood’s man of the moment: he stole the show on HBO’s The White Lotus, Netflix drama One Day and Apple TV’s Prime Target.
Hot on the heels of Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You, and Nicole Kidman’s hit film, Babygirl, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is the latest movie to explore the age gap romance.
“I’ve seen Babygirl, I loved it, but this is slightly different. I don’t know why it’s happening exactly, but these dynamics on screen are important for audiences to see until it becomes something not even worth talking about,” Woodall says.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy opens in cinemas on Thursday, February 13.