SPOILER ALERT: This Q&A contains spoilers about “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” streaming now on Peacock.
When Renée Zellweger was shooting the movie adaptation of Helen Fielding’s bestselling novel “Bridget Jones’s Diary” in 2000, she certainly wasn’t thinking she’d still be playing the titular role 25 years later. “I was just trying not to get fired off the first one,” Zellweger tells me with a laugh.
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The 2000 original was followed by two more films — 2004’s “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” and 2016’s “Bridget Jones’s Baby” — and now, “Bridget Jones: Mad About a Boy.” This time around, Bridget is a single mom raising her two kids after the death of her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Feeling frazzled and unfulfilled, she returns to her job as a talk show producer while navigating single life — until she falls for a much younger man, played by Leo Woodall. Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a new teacher at Bridget’s kids’ school.
Hugh Grant is back as Daniel Cleaver, and Emma Thompson returns as Dr. Rawlings. “It was really strange meeting up with the friends again in Bridget’s flat, and sitting in the pub downstairs from Bridget’s flat, and looking at each other thinking, ‘Isn’t this weird?’” Zellweger says. “It’s so weird that we’ve come together again and it’s become a thing that we’ve been blessed to do again and again. It’s crazy.”
I talked to the Zellweger, Woodall and Ejiofor via Zoom video ahead of the film’s premiere on Peacock on Valentine’s Day.
Renée, did you have to do chemistry reads with Leo and Chiwetel?
Zellweger: I don’t think anybody has to do chemistry reads with these guys. What a great time. And they’re so sweet. They could both have such tremendous egos, you know what I mean? They could. With their experiences, and their charm, but you know, they’re wonderful. I feel so lucky.
Leo, I’m going to go right there.
Ejiofor: Is it what I think it is?
Yes, that swimming pool scene when you jump in the pool to save a dog and then take off your wet shirt in front of all the party guests.
Zellweger: It’s great.
Woodall: It’s pretty cool, aye?
Ejiofor: It’s very good.
How many takes did it take?
Woodall: It took many takes, but I didn’t have any complaints, because I think it was about 30 degrees Celsius [86 degrees Fahrenheit] that day. The dive only took one take, but I think that’s mainly because they didn’t have time to reset my costume or my hair.
Ejiofor: The dive was perfect though. The dive was perfect, right?
Zellweger: It was perfect.
Woodall: Thank you.
Zellweger: In fact, the reaction shots that you see edited into the scene, those are real. In real time.
And then Chiwetel, you were showing off your body, too.
Ejiofor: Not to be outdone.
What did it feel like to be objectified?
Ejiofor: [Laughs] Lovely. Finally.
But I do like the spin on this where it’s the boys who we’re looking at.
Zellweger: It was subverted. It’s wonderful. It’s fun. But I think that’s been a tradition in the “Bridget Jones” series since we’ve met her. She kind of forges her own path, even though, in her head, she’s scrutinizing herself about not matching up to society’s paradigms.
But she always finds her way.
Zellweger: She does. That’s why we love her.
Renée, talk to me about slipping back into the British accent. Was it easy? How long did you start practicing before you had to shoot?
Zellweger: When I get to London, I do that and it’s horrible. I sound like a pretentious American. I just fake it for a while. She starts showing up in little bits and pieces as the gang gets back together again.
Do you get self-conscious?
Zellweger: Oh, sure. And I pick on myself about it as well, but I have a lot of help.
Leo, tell me what it was like telling your family, “I’m not only going to be in a ‘Bridget Jones’ movie, but I’m playing Bridget Jones’s much younger lover?”
Zellweger: Not that much younger!
Woodall: They were all, in different ways, extremely jealous. My uncles were very jealous. A couple of my friends were very jealous, but I think they couldn’t believe that I was going to be part of this. They’ve loved it their whole lives, or at least since the first one. I just think it’s kind of bonkers that I would be doing this. So yeah, I’m lapping it up.
Are we going to see “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Grandchildren” next?
Woodall: Oh, I’d watch that.
Zellweger: I would too, in a minute. I want that book so badly.
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