‘I know the essence of her’: Renee Zellweger on becoming Bridget Jones all over again

For 24 years Renee Zellweger has been Bridget Jones. Twenty-four years of enormous undies and silly little boots, of Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver, and a determination to do the right thing. She’s so good at it, it’s easy to take Zellweger – and Bridget – for granted, but it’s also incredibly rare. How often do you see a female character grow on screen like that, and over that period of time?

“It’s very unique,” says Zellweger. “I don’t know. It’s very strange to go through the life journey in real time with a fictional character and reconnect with her and rediscover who she is in her different life chapters.

“And it’s a really special experience because we’re forging real friendships on set with her friends, and to catch up with them and spend time in her universe. And creatively, it’s a dream, and personally, it’s a gift.”

Director Michael Morris agrees. “It’s almost an experimental film at this point,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know anything else that’s tried it.”

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renee Zellweger, Leo Woodall and Michael Morris in Sydney for the Australian premiere of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. Credit: Getty Images

Zellweger – who is as poised as Bridget is clumsy – is in Sydney on a lightning trip to promote the new film, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which is the fourth instalment in the Bridget Jones Cinematic Universe, kicking off with Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001, The Edge of Reason in 2004 and Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016.

She’s here with Morris, as well as co-stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall. Sally Phillips, who plays Bridget’s wonderfully foul-mouthed bestie Shazzer, has also popped over from Canberra, where she is filming season two of the ABC comedy Austin.

In the world of celebrity journalism – in which Bridget is well versed – I have been granted eight minutes with Zellweger, Ejiofor and Woodall, and longer with Morris and Phillips. As they say in the original, there’s no time to fanny around with press releases, so let’s get cracking!

“There are certain things about it that are familiar,” says Zellweger, when asked if there is any challenge left to playing Bridget. “Once we get into costumes and start the rehearsal process, and her friends come around, then she starts to show up.

“But it’s still a process. I don’t walk around talking like Bridget all the time. I’m faking it for a while, and it’s ridiculous. But I just approach it the same as I would any character who I don’t know, because when I come back, I know the essence of her, but a person is never the same after experiencing a loss as significant as Bridget has experienced. So she’s new in a lot of ways, every time.”

That loss is Mark Darcy (Colin Firth, always and forever). Bridget is now a 50-something widow with two children and no real idea what life is supposed to be without him. To help, her friends, workmates and, yes, even a back-from-the-dead Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant at his rakish best) encourage Bridget to date again.

Hugh Grant is at his rakish best opposite Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

That sounds simple enough – so far, so Bridget – but what it doesn’t reveal is how much of a sobbing, heaving mess the whole thing will leave you. Yes, it’s about Bridget and the blokes (and we’ll get to them), but it’s also the messiness of life, deep friendships and how grief can be overwhelming, awkward and lasting.

“That’s what this film is really, honestly about,” says Morris. “I feel like life is a weird cocktail of stuff that is hilarious and ridiculous and funny and also just emotional and sad and weighty and we have to balance that all the time … There was a film here that I just knew I wanted to make – about a woman, a single parent, dealing with something that she just does not want to deal with. It’s not that she can’t, she just doesn’t want to. She’s not interested in life after anything, she wants life as much as she can with this person who’s not here any more. And watching her rediscover her joy and rediscover what it is to live in the world, I want to tell that story.”

Renee Zellweger and Sally Phillips, as Bridget and Shazzer, share a bond offscreen as well as on.

Morris recalls shooting one scene where Bridget is with her parents, played by Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones, and how the emotion of it caught them by surprise.

“They had a moment when we were shooting it,” says Morris. “Renee looked at Jim and it was just like, ‘We’ve been doing this for 25 years and Jim you’ve been my dad, and Gem you’ve been my mum’. And you go, ‘That’s not nothing.’ I don’t know other films that have maintained that.”

For Phillips, the most special thing was how the onscreen friendship between Shazzer, Jude (Shirley Henderson), Tom (James Callis) and Bridget spilled into real life.

“In the birthday party scene, it’s only a couple of seconds on the screen, but we were dancing like maniacs for two hours,” says Phillips. “We were covered in sweat and when they said cut, and we wrapped around midnight, the four of us just put our arms around each other and blubbed.

“I don’t think it was necessarily about ending the movie, it was just saying, ‘You’re a special person, and I’ve really loved you and this is probably the last one’. And that was really amazing, and how nice to be part of this universe. And also thank you to Renee because if she hadn’t been so good, there would only ever be one film.”

Colin Firth, Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant in the second film, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

In Mad About the Boy, Bridget is faced with two very different romantic paths: the first is with a younger man, Roxster, played by Woodall, who broke hearts last year in Netflix’s One Day; the second is with Mr Wallaker, a teacher at the school Bridget’s children attend, played by Ejiofor.

For Woodall, 28-year-old Roxster’s attraction to 50-something Bridget is obvious.

“One of the many things that makes Bridget so many people’s champion is that, through all of her imperfections, and celebrating them, is that she is not a stereotypically perfect, heroic character,” says Woodall. “She’s so attractive to everyone. Everyone wants to be around her and there’s no reason why Roxster would be any different.”

Apart from wooing Bridget, Woodall’s other major challenge was re-creating that iconic Mark Darcy scene. I’m not talking about the fight or the memorable line “I like you very much … just as you are”, it’s that other scene – the one in the 1995 miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, when Firth emerges from the pond in a dripping wet shirt.

“I wasn’t nervous in thinking about it as any kind of re-creation of an iconic scene,” says Woodall. “I was more nervous about messing up my dive and the dog [that he rescues] not wanting to be anywhere near me. I knew that there was pressure on the day, but it was more just nerves about stupid things. It’s only now that I’m sort of gathering how iconic it was.”

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mr Wallaker and Renee Zellweger as Bridget in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

As the director, did Morris have any advice for Woodall before he jumped in? “No, he’s such a good sport,” says Morris, laughing. “And he knew what he was in for, and he relished the challenge. There’s a great tradition of it and I think Leo was quite happy being the next version of it.”

Sitting quietly throughout the interview is Ejiofor. Mad About the Boy is only his second romcom after 1997’s Love, Actually. As the whistle-loving Mr Wallaker, he channels Mark Darcy’s officious energy without ever seeming stuffy.

“He’s a little buttoned up to begin with,” says Ejiofor. “And some of us can be like that a little bit, you know, a little formal, sometimes a little strict, but this idea of what is happening underneath and what he reveals about himself, ultimately, and how Bridget sees in Mr Wallaker certain things that he hasn’t really understood about himself, I just loved all that. I just thought there was just a real arc to the character. And the whistle was fun, the whistle was power.”

With Mad About the Boy presenting as the final chapter in Bridget’s story – Helen Fielding, who created Bridget for a British newspaper column in 1995, has only written four books – where does Zellweger hope Bridget will be in five or 10 years time? What kind of ending would she like to give her?

Credit: Matt Golding

“Well, if I were to imagine, I would imagine she’s more confused than ever, raising teenagers,” says Zellweger, laughing. “That’s chaos times two. I don’t know. It would be interesting to find out. And I’ve got my fingers crossed that Helen may have more stories to tell in the future, we’ll see …”

That sounds like a hint.

For once, Bridget’s lips are sealed.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is now in cinemas.

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