Jim Broadbent knew Renee Zellweger was ‘special’ from first Bridget Jones film

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter

Actor Jim Broadbent has said he knew Renee Zellweger was a “special” actress from her first rehearsal as Bridget Jones.

The 75-year-old, who plays Bridget’s father Colin Jones in the series, was speaking to the PA news agency at Wednesday’s London world premiere of the franchise’s fourth and final film, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

Speaking about reuniting with Zellweger, Broadbent told PA: “She’s just brilliant, absolutely, from the word go on the first film I thought, ‘this is really an especially talented woman, and really clever, and funny, and delightful to be with’.

“From the first day rehearsal, I thought ‘oh here we go, this is different, she’s different’, special.”

Two-time Oscar winner Zellweger, 55, will return as Bridget after the character has been a widow for four years, following the death of her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) while on a humanitarian mission in Sudan.

The film follows her struggles with grief and return to the dating scene, which sees her try the apps in an attempt to find love again, eventually finding a younger man in Roxter (Leo Woodall).

Sarah Solemani, who plays reporter Bridget’s friend and work colleague Miranda, told PA she hoped the film would help people struggling with grief in real life.

The 42-year-old said: “Grief runs deep, and anyone who’s ever experienced it will know that it feels like you’ll never be happy again.

“And the film reminds anyone who’s had grief that if you just keep going, there’s love on the other end, and you can love again, even with great loss, we all need to be reminded.”

Speaking about her character, Solemani added: “Her role in life is to make sure that Bridget has fun, gets laid, feels joy and has a good time, and she commits to that, kind of.”

The actress also prompted laughs at the Leicester Square premiere when she attempted to lick actor Hugh Grant, who plays Bridget’s former lover Daniel Cleaver, while he kept a straight face.

Director Michael Morris described the film as “a comedy of grief”.

He told PA: “This is about someone who is a joyful, optimistic, upbeat person, always has been, who’s gone through something that is all too familiar to so many of us.

“And I think watching Bridget cope, and watching Bridget rediscover her life and all of that is the journey.”

The series began life as an anonymous column called Bridget Jones’s Diary in newspaper The Independent in 1995, written by Helen Fielding, intended to appear as an actual personal diary of a single woman in her 30s. It spawned four novels.

The three previous Bridget Jones film adaptions, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), have earned more than £640 million worldwide.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy will be released in Irish cinemas on Friday, February 14th.