Bridget’s back. Just as she is.
24 years ago Renée Zellweger slipped into those pants, and the world has been in love with Bridget Jones ever since.
Returning to her Academy Award nominated role, Zellweger is navigating a new life for one Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, where she is alone once again, widowed for four years. She’s now a single mother to 9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel, and is stuck in a state of emotional limbo, raising her children with help from her loyal friends and even her former lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).
Pressured by her Urban Family to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall). Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
A romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, Michael Morris directs this new story about a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre, and as he joined his cast down under for the Australian premiere, our Peter Gray spoke with him about collaborating with his leading lady, his visual inspiration for bringing her world to life, and what he personally sees as being the quintessential example of the rom com genre.
The film tackles loss, love, relationships, and ageing. Obviously that’s all there in the script, but how do you balance the drama and comedy of it all? We want a Bridget Jones story to be fun and light, but at the same time, she’s going through something serious.
This has been a long project for me and my fearless, fabulous producer. We’ve been at this for four years, actually, so a large part of that time is not shooting or editing, it’s actually developing. I think you put a row of filmmakers next to each other and everyone would make a different version of the same story. So a lot of it has been boiling down these ideas and telling the story the way that I saw it, which is, as you say, to be equal parts the joy and comedy of a Bridget Jones (movie), with something that felt really authentic, (and) hopefully honest about where she is and where her family is in this particular moment.
(Bridget’s) relatability is one of the most special things about her. And Renée would have massive ownership of her at this point. How collaborative is it (with her)? Where you think this is what Bridget would do, but Renee would know what Bridget would do. How is that relationship?
Well, I would never do that in that way, only because I feel like I was making this film with Bridget Jones. That’s really what it felt like. I can’t think of a better way to put it. Renée and I made sure that we were telling the same story. We wanted to make the same film. And that’s really important because it means when you’re doing the sensitive (material), or when you do a scene that hasn’t really existed in a Bridget Jones universe before, you’re in it together. Renée is the world’s expert on Bridget Jones. Like, just the way she sits at a table is Bridget Jones. And that’s different from how Renée sits at a table. And you see it in Judy, like this is a woman who creates whole people when she embodies them. There was never going to be a moment of “I don’t think Bridget would do that.” I think, in the end, it was just letting me hold hands with Bridget and step through it together.
It’s funny you mentioned that, because I watched the first three films leading up to this, and just the way Bridget walks is so specific. And watching this I saw it immediately. And it’s just her inhabiting that character so much!
She walked to set like that. It wasn’t like, “Are we ready to roll? Let’s do my makeup and now I’ll become Bridget.” She was Bridget as she walked into the studio. You know, off the plane into Heathrow, and there’s something really special about that. All the crew got that same kind of adrenaline of, “Oh, she’s back.”
And chemistry is so key with romantic comedies. And the way Renée plays off Colin (Firth) and Hugh (Grant), and then the way she plays off Chiwitel (Ejiofor) and Leo (Woodall)…when did it become apparent that Chiwitel and Leo were the right people? We feel so protective of her. Like with Bridget Jones’s Baby, I loved that as much as we want her with Colin Firth, if she ended up with Patrick Dempsey, we’re not mad. It was the same with this, like, I’m okay if she chooses either one.
That’s perfect. Because that first film, I know it’s a bit more extreme because Daniel (Hugh Grant’s character) was such a classic cad, you know what I mean? But he’s so charming. I don’t think there’s any other actor in the world that could pull off what Hugh pulled off, because even as you get to know how dangerous he is, you still love (him). We’re Team Daniel sometimes. He’s great. And obviously the dynamics in this film are very different. She’s a different character. She’s in a different place in her life, you know? She can’t just make a casual choice anymore. She’s got a family. She’s got a history now. But Leo really brings so much charisma. I had seen him in The White Lotus, because One Day hadn’t come out when I asked Leo to do this. It was really just the outsized presence that he has that makes such an impression. I really wanted that for (his character), because it has to be quick and you have to warm to him right away. It was really evident between Leo and Renée that it was going to be a great combo.
And then Chiwitel is just, like, literally one of the best actors in the world, right? And to see him go from playing a real character at the beginning to this warm, present person is a real wonderful arc.
And with the visual language of the film, are you looking at specific things in Bridget’s world? Are you looking at other films, or other stories to put together this aesthetic of what we think of when we think of a Bridget Jones movie?
That’s a great question, because throughout all the other three films, Bridget’s been in her same sort of really famous flat, for instance. The elements of her world have been quite similar. This film gave me an opportunity, because everything is different. Even the basics of her world, you know, she’s in a different house, when she goes back to work it’s a new work place…I had the opportunity to really recreate, or create, this particular Bridget world. I wanted it to have this disorder and colour. The big word for me was warm. It just has to feel warm.
Bridget’s such a warm person, and I sometimes equate chaos with warmth, because the times I visit people’s lives and there’s no chaos at all, there’s no warmth either. I admire people who live in pristine perfection, but I miss something. I miss the mess. It’s like when Miranda, played Sarah Solemani, comes in (to Bridget’s house) and goes, “I just wanted some real life! I want some spoiled milk.” That’s how I feel about Bridget. I really love the way that she just chaotically kind of hurtles through her life.
It really was great revisiting her, because it was so familiar, but at the same time these new elements are being brought in. And I’m such a big romantic comedy person, and I wanted to ask you if there’s a quintessential romantic comedy? Bridget Jones aside, of course.
Yeah, okay, we’ll tale the present company (out). We’ll exclude it. God, there have been some just great rom coms. My sister is an addict, you’d get on like a house on fire with her, because she’s a massive fan. She’ll be listening to this going, “Why didn’t you say this one and this one?” But, okay, the two that jump out are When Harry Met Sally, which is one of the all time greats. That combination of just getting the characters right away and you know that they’re going to spar, but no matter what happens in the story, if they’re drawn together or not, you just love it. And also Annie Hall, which is a different twist on the rom com. It’s just such a beautifully made (movie) and Diane Keaton is just so completely iconic in that. Yeah, those two would be mine.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is screening in Australian theatres from February 13th, 2025.
