Bridget Jones star Sally Phillips reveals co-star Hugh Grant’s secret: ‘He was so embarrassed’

“He was so embarrassed”: Sally Phillips – best known as Bridget’s BFF Shazzer – once accidentally uncovered her co-star’s secret habit.

IN LONDON

It’s one of the funniest scenes in the entire Bridget Jones franchise.

Playboy Daniel Cleaver, in an undignified yet still somewhat gentlemanly street fight with the usually-unflappable Mark Darcy, while It’s Raining Men plays over the top.

Watching on in shock – and second-hand embarrassment – is the person at the centre of their clash, Bridget (Renée Zellweger), supported as usual by her three best friends: Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Jude (Shirley Henderson) and Tom (James Callis).

Bridget and her besties: (from left) Tom (James Callis), Jude (Shirley Henderson) and Shazzer (Sally Phillips).

It’s hilarious on-screen – but even behind-the-scenes during filming back in 2000, the cast was in stitches.

The schedule saw them getting home at 4am each day, and then picked up just hours later, at 3pm, to do it all again. It could have been gruelling, but as one of the major stars of Bridget Jones’s Diary has revealed, they had an absolute ball.

“It was so great. That was a whole week of night shoots and we just had the best time,” Phillips, 54, recalled to news.com.au ahead of the digital release of the fourth film, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, adding:“Renee [Zellweger] was going out with Jim Carrey and he was there for some of it.”

“The fighting, I remember Colin [Firth] and Hugh [Grant] had worked out some kind of macho fight, and [director Sharon Maguire] was like, ‘no, it’s got to be really wet. You don’t do MMA, you can’t fight … we just want to you to do really pathetic swings and punches’,” the British actress explained.

“So it was so funny.”

A stunt co-ordinator was even initially brought in, but the crew and actors quickly realised it worked much better just letting Grant and Firth completely improvise their own inept attempts at fighting.

Meanwhile, Phillips revealed that she was delighted to accidentally witness leading man Grant’s secret pre-filming “process” during that week.

“I remember suddenly seeing Hugh about to come out, and he was just talking to himself very quietly … He plays it so cool on set, but he was just going [whispers], ‘hello, audience’,” she laughed.

“And I was like, ‘oh, I’ve caught him in his process’. His process is like to imagine the people who are going to watch it, and so to come out and be dazzling to his own audience.”

Phillips added: “He was really embarrassed I heard him. I was like, ‘ah! I’ve heard the A-lister, I know his process.”

The dysfunctional group are at the core of the franchise.

Meanwhile, the actors had also been encouraged to capture their own personal footage of the shoot – but there was just one problem.

“[Production company] Working Title had given us all video cameras that none of us could work … And I remember looking at Colin [Firth], sort of turning it over in his hands, with no idea what to do.”

Having been a core member of the cast across four movies, spanning 25 years, Phillips is unsurprisingly close with her co-stars, especially Zellweger.

“She is the kindest, sweetest, nicest person,” she said of the American actress.

“She’s in every scene, and the hours are really long, and she turns up and knows everybody’s name, buys gifts for everybody … I’ve never heard her be anything other than incredibly patient.”

Phillips (left) described her longtime co-star as the “kindest” and “sweetest” person.

That patience, Phillips explained, was certainly put to the test during one scene that was filmed in a car.

“They really needed me to sit at a certain angle to deliver all my lines … and I was blocking her, but I’ve really got no spatial awareness, I’m useless,” she joked.

“And it must’ve been very frustrating for her, but would only ever say just [really politely], ‘Would you mind terribly just sitting back a tiny bit for the camera?’”

Anyone else, Phillips said, would have probably snapped.

“It’s hard work if you are very, very tired and everybody wants your attention. It takes a lot of effort. So I respect her even more for that.”

Sadly for fans, it’s been widely acknowledged that the latest chapter in the Bridget Jones story – Mad About The Boy – is the final outing for the beloved characters, but Phillips hinted that she’d be very open to coming back for more.

She’s even got some ideas for where the story could pick up, as she told news.com.au.

“I quite fancy Bridget Jones’s Baby’s Baby, that could be fun – they could all be in a nursing home,” Phillips mused.

“And Reverend Richard Coles, [the real-life man who the character of ‘Tom’ is based on], he and a load of his friends have all bought houses together in a village in Sussex, so that they can look after each other as they grow old.

“So maybe in 15 or 20 years we can do another one and we can all be like that. I’ll always be up for it!”

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is available exclusively on digital platforms to buy or rent, starting April 1st, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Originally published as Bridget Jones star Sally Phillips reveals co-star Hugh Grant’s secret: ‘He was so embarrassed’