Love, loss and younger men: Actress Renee Zellweger revisits Bridget Jones after 50

For Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones has become more than just a character. The big-screen romcom heroine she has now played in four films since 2001 is a lifelong companion.

“She’s never far away, because she comes into the conversations in my personal life pretty frequently. She feels like a friend to me, but I’m not alone in that. I regularly have conversations with people on the sidewalk about their own Bridget Jones experiences,” says the American actress, who was speaking with journalists at a virtual conference on Feb 1.

People around the world relate to Jones’ insecurities and struggles.

“We all understand self-scrutiny and the fear that we’re not going to measure up to society’s expectations or the expectations of our friends and families, and even the expectations we have for ourselves. We all connect with the mess of life,” says Zellweger.

When the 55-year-old Oscar winner was approached to reprise her role in the film adaptation of British author Helen Fielding’s 2013 novel Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, the third book in the series, she did not hesitate. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Feb 13.

“I needed no convincing whatsoever. I always stand in the wings with my fingers crossed, hoping that there would be a chance to revisit the character and the world and hang out with everybody again,” says Zellweger, who has been dating British television presenter Ant Anstead, 45, since 2021.

In Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Jones is a single mother in her 50s raising two children. Her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) was killed four years earlier on a humanitarian mission in Sudan.

Encouraged by friends, she re-enters the dating pool, where she meets the much younger Roxster (Leo Woodall). She also develops a connection with her son’s stern science teacher, Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Her former boss and old flame, the charismatic playboy Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), returns to her life.

Cleaver formed part of the love triangle that animated the first two movies Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason (2004), where Jones had to choose between him and the less exciting, more reliable Darcy.

Grant, 64, was largely absent from the third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016). For Zellweger, reuniting with the British actor on the new sequel made the project special. “He’s so much fun. I love working with Hugh. He’s hilarious,” she says.

She jokes that Grant is much like the character he plays – restless and prone to leaving, only to return to Jones’ side unexpectedly.

“Over the past 25 years, Hugh’s kind of stuck with me. You can’t help but form a bond over that period, especially with how, on set, we depend on each other every day,” she says.

British director Michael Morris, speaking at a separate media conference, recounts a conversation he had with Grant. The star explained how he was done playing charming rogues like Cleaver and preferred dramatic roles, such as the villain in the horror film Heretic (2024).

Says Morris: “It was important to sit down with Hugh before we ever got started, to see if he would be open to coming back. We had to treat the humour differently. We are 25 years older than we were when the first film came out. We shouldn’t and can’t be making the same jokes the same way 25 years later.”

Grant saw that Cleaver would carry more pathos this time around and agreed to take part.

“Daniel Cleaver as a character hasn’t moved on. Now, he seems a bit vintage and old hat, whereas in the first film, he was vibrant and at the height of his power,” says Morris, who directed the drama film To Leslie (2023) and episodes of crime thriller Better Call Saul (2018 to 2022).

The 51-year-old film-maker also spoke about how few movies have dared to tackle the topic of older women-younger men relationships, despite such love affairs becoming less taboo these days.

“In the history of film, there’s been nothing spoken about men in their 50s dating women in their 20s and 30s. It seems to have been part of what we’ve all grown up with,” he says.

“If this film accidentally becomes part of a conversation that leads to a different tone, that’d be fantastic.”