April 27, 2016
By John Rabon
Helen Fielding exposed the world to her thirty-something protagonist in the 1996 novel Bridget Jones’s Diary. The popularity of the book across the population would lead to 1999’s sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, two films in 2001 and 2004 based on these works, another novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy in 2013, and a third film not based on that novel, Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016. With the film adaptations, actress Renee Zellweger has become as synonymous with the character as Bridget’s creator has. If you want to know more about the books and films, read on.
Getting into Character
Before filming started, Renee Zellweger gained twenty-five pounds, put on a posh English accent, and started working in a real British publishing company. Surprisingly enough, very few of her new coworkers actually recognised her. Zellweger even kept a picture of then-boyfriend Jim Carrey on her desk, which employees who didn’t know her thought strange, but were too polite to say anything about it.
Friends in High Places
Salman Rushdie’s cameo in the first film was done as a favor to Helen Fielding. The two have been long-time friends and she called Rushdie to ask him if he’d be willing to embarrass himself on camera. He recently jokingly tweeted that he considers it his finest work.
Actor Paradox
As the first two books were written well before the films came out, both of them actually make references to Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Of course, when they were cast in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, no reference to them is made in the film. In the books, Bridget is actually a huge fan of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series and gets to interview Firth for her television job.
READ MORE HERE:http://www.anglotopia.net/british-entertainment/british-movies/ten-interesting-facts-bridget-joness-diary-might-not-know/
