Renee thought she’d like to do something in London which would be part of what Bridget might do.” Renee decided to work undercover as intern ‘Bridget Cavendish’ in a publisher for a few months, where nobody recognised her and nobody knew who she was.
In a new Channel 5 documentary, We Love Bridget Jones: All The Laughter & More, Barbara reveals: “There was a very well known Chinese restaurant we were going to for lunch and of course at the time she was eating a lot of food to put weight on as Renee was very slim.”.
The cherry on top was a stellar supporting cast, including Gemma Jones as Bridget’s mum, Jim Broadbent as Bridget’s dad and Patrick Barlow as the memorable Julian, the brief, tango-tanned love interest for her mum.
Despite the shock and horror that an American was going to play Bridget, Barbara and Renee persevered, spending a lot of time together working on her accent.
Colin Firth, who played love interest Mark Darcy, based on Pride and Prejudice’s Mr Darcy, was bombarded with people begging him not to play the original Mr Darcy, but he decided to embrace both roles.
