...
By H. Alan Scott
Senior Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
...
When a two-time Academy Award winner asks you to do something, you just do it, no questions asked. That’s how I found myself at the Tribeca Festival in June to honor the 25th anniversary of Bridget Jones’s Diary, chatting with star Renée Zellweger and director Sharon Maguire. (Zellweger was featured on Newsweek’s February 21, 2025, cover for the franchise’s fourth and final film, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.)
During our talk, in front of hundreds of fans in lower Manhattan following the screening, Zellweger told me she had no idea she would still be meeting people, years later, who feel connected to this unlikely British heroine.
Read More on Entertainment
“In terms of meeting people and sharing something in common with people everywhere in the world who love that character, that was really surprising to me,” she told me. “I don’t think we thought, making the film, that that would be the effect it had in the long run. You don’t meet a stranger anymore. You meet people and they tell you, no, no, you’re not Bridget, I’m Bridget. Everybody shares their Bridget Jones stories with you. It’s endearing. It’s like a huge blessing, really.”
As for those early love interests, she recounted first meeting Hugh Grant and Colin Firth—already a fan of theirs—and how a sore throat and some fangirling led to a very Bridget Jones first encounter.
“It felt so awkward and stuttering and terrifying to meet him [Grant]. We sat at a pub after rehearsal the first day, and I couldn’t say a word. I think he thought I was Bridget Jones for the first 20 years. He was shocked when he heard that I could put a sentence together.”
“And Colin is so sweet. I’ll never forget the 3 a.m. nights in the rain outside the flower market and Borough Market outside Bridget’s apartment. They’re just great guys, genuine and kind and so talented.”
Twenty-five years on, it turns out we’re all still a little bit Bridget.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines