HOW A BABY IS MADE

THE LONG GESTATION PERIOD IS OVER AND THE THIRD PART OF BRIDGET JONES, ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BRITISH COMEDY FRANCHISES OF ALL TIME, HAS ARRIVED. AND IT TOOK A VILLAGE TO BRING IT INTO THE WORLD.  

Terri White | Empire – September 2016

Fifteen years ago with a scant sense of what she was starting, Sharon Maguire — first-time director, sweary broad and friend of acclaimed author Helen Fielding — brought Bridget Jones to our screens. Renée Zellweger was Bridget: a single woman trying to navigate work, friendship and sex in her thirties, while Colin Firth and Hugh Grant battled for her affection.

It was a surprise smash, and three years later in 2004, the sequel, The Edge Of Reason, hit cinemas minus Maguire. While it managed a respectable box office, it was bruised by critics, many of whom missed the filmmaker’s touch. In the decade since there have been births (Maguire), Oscars (Firth) and a six-year career break (Zellweger). Now, with the addition of Patrick Dempsey as new romantic complication Jack (though the departure of absolute rotter Daniel Cleaver) and the return of Maguire, Bridget is back.

The world may have changed — she’s in her forties now and clutching an iPad rather than her trusty diary — but from face-planting in mud to awkwardly juggling two potential baby daddies, it would seem she’s still the same old Bridget. Here is how she was resurrected by the woman who first brought her to life (with the help of a few old friends, of course).

A tale of many scripts

Sharon Maguire: [A third film] was being developed for 11 years. Various scripts had come and gone and then, when they had a script they were almost ready with, not all of the cast were going to be available. It was on the back burner, then the front burner, then the back burner again. I wasn’t involved until 2014 when I’d just moved back to London from LA, and it plopped into my inbox. I thought, “Wow, this should be interesting.”

Colin Firth: This thing has evolved and transformed countless times over the last few years. I’d had conversations with Helen Fielding about where it might go, I’d talked to Hugh and then Renée and we had exchanged ideas. So there was never a script that didn’t have the vestiges of some idea from the past and this script was another stage in that long progression of ideas. We had a structure and certain key scenes and things that I thought were playable. It was a question of whether you’ve got someone who’s notionally the same character. The draft that I agreed to do, the thing that struck me most, was that I did recognise him. That he was somebody I felt belonged to the films we’d done.

A trip down memory lane

Sharon Maguire: I think [the first film] was supposed to be an indie guerrilla project; it wasn’t quite meant to be the commercial prospect it has become. I think [producer and co-chairman of Working Title] Eric Fellner’s words were: “Okay, you can do it, but don’t fuck it up.” By the time Hugh Grant signed up for it and then Colin and Renée, the whole thing started swelling up into something else. Now, looking back at it, they had a first-time director, a Texan playing a beloved English character… They must have been having some sleepless nights. It was quite mad.

Colin Firth: I hadn’t seen either of the films since the premieres. I really enjoyed doing them, but don’t feel that I’m the target audience for romantic comedies on the whole, which might surprise people given how many of them I’ve found myself doing! When I put on the first one, I was struck by how good it was as a film. Never mind genre, I just liked it as a film and as a story. I thought it was beautifully made. I thought it was beautifully judged.

Sharon Maguire: When we were in prep [for this one], Gogglebox came on and the [first] movie was on it. It was a really emotional moment. When the two characters come flying through the window in the fight scene, one of the guys said, “This was the best bit in it. They should have just put this up the front and rolled the credits!” [laughs]. But so many others had so much affection for it and I had no idea about that. I was like — whoa!

Renée Zellweger: It was a disappointment [when Maguire didn’t return for the sequel] because I looked forward to sharing the experience with her again. But I understood that she wanted to try some other things and was busy with other things.

Sharon Maguire: It was two-fold, really. Firstly, I was having babies because I’d left all that way too late, for a career and all the rest of it. And the other reason was I was making something else, which in the end didn’t happen.

Taking a gap year(s)

Sharon Maguire: Once I’d had my next baby, I went to live in LA for four years, because my husband was out there with DreamWorks. It was a slight dream come true. As if someone had said, “Okay, you can take your foot off the career pedal, get off the runaway train and go and bring up your children and learn to surf in Malibu.” I was writing, but really it was very nice not to do that so I could be Mrs Mum.

Renée Zellweger: [On her acting break] I wasn’t living very, um, healthy. I wasn’t working all the time, I was only working. It’s quite a commitment — there are many phases to making a film, you don’t just make it and then you’re done. So if you do a couple or a few a year, the cycle starts to fold in on itself and there’s no time for real life. I was at an age where I wanted to grow, and not just as a consequence of research I might be doing for a character. I wanted to make some choices about what other kind of work I might do in that respect. It required that I would take some time to do it. It became a priority for me. You can’t be successful, creatively, if you’re not drawing from life experience. And my life experiences were pretend.

Colin Firth: I thought letting a bit of time go by was probably going to be helpful. If we had left it five or six years it would have felt too long. But when you leave it more than ten, it’s [then] not a question of too long — it almost feels like it takes on a nostalgic or retrospective feel.

Getting (almost all) the gang back together

Sharon Maguire: I literally did not expect it to turn up. My husband and I had just come back to England to start our television company and then Bridget happened.

Colin Firth: I was always open to it. It had to feel worthwhile on its own terms. While it was just an abstract idea of doing a third, it felt a bit nebulous. We had to work out what it was and have reasons for doing it other than just having another go at those characters.

Sharon Maguire: It didn’t take [much to convince] Renée once she heard about the story we were developing, how we were developing it and how the script was coming along.

Renée Zellweger: What better excuse to go back than that happy reunion of friends in London, with these characters that you love to play?

Sharon Maguire: When I came to it, Hugh’s character was not a big part of it, this particular chapter was not involving him anyway. I love Hugh, he’s so funny.

Colin Firth: It was never guaranteed that any of us were coming back, it was always in the air as a question. There were so many discussions about what form the whole thing would take, that it became a lot broader than just one character’s involvement. In the end I think the critical element is Bridget herself. You can take her into all sorts of areas of life and tell all sorts of stories about Bridget Jones without either Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy.

Patrick Dempsey: [Hugh Grant] is such an important part of the success of the first two films: his character, his persona, his comic timing and his genius in that. It’s always very concerning because you’re coming in to something that’s already established. Will you be able to find your way and will the audience embrace this character?

A new guy in town

Patrick Dempsey: Jack was very successful with an online dating service and he took that money and decided to give back to the community in a philanthropic way. He’s at a point in his life where he’s been alone for a very long time and he’s surprised at his connection to Bridget and what she does for him.

Sharon Maguire: I didn’t see it as taking [Hugh’s] place, as he’s such a different character. Patrick plays it brilliantly. He’s an American stepping into this world and he finds it quite curious and everyone finds him quite curious. He’s very funny and he’s got a thousand-watt smile.

Colin Firth: Rather than trying to replace Daniel Cleaver, which would have been impossible — I think he’s a wonderful character and Hugh defined it completely — [we decided] to do something else altogether. Jack seems like a pretty nice guy — that in itself is pretty threatening. He’s credible and a valid prospect for Bridget. [Mark’s] disadvantage is he’s feeling a bit washed up and disillusioned and jaded. This guy seems full of optimism and energy. The lines are drawn very differently between the two.

Patrick Dempsey: They’re like night and day in a sense, which is what I think makes it interesting — the complete contrast between the two men. It’s like apples and oranges.

Writing a new chapter

Sharon Maguire: The first read-through, when we all sat down, not having all been in a room together for a long time, was quite scary. I think I just said, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m fucking crapping myself! But let’s do it, let’s try and get on with it and see if it works.” Renée was probably very scared as well. I remember her first read-through 15 years ago and nobody knew if it was going to work, whether I was going to be fired in the first week… Everyone was waiting for the voice to happen and she’d never spoken it publicly in a room before. She came in and did it in the tiniest voice, we couldn’t hear a thing. Everyone was being too polite to say, “Can you speak up, love?” So we were miles ahead 15 years later — she came in and she belted it out and she was just such a very different person. She says the jokes and then laughs uproariously and she does it in this big, loud voice and the accent’s flawless. So I think on the read-through we were all waiting to see what Patrick would do and whether he was going to work and thank Jesus, he worked too.

Renée Zellweger: The accent [was in place] from August until when we wrapped at Christmas time. It’s easier for me if I begin before we begin. Then when we’re rehearsing I’m not thinking about how I’m saying things, I’m telling the bit of the story that we need to that day. It’s lazy, really, if you think about it! I don’t want to work on it every day, so I cheat before we begin.

Sharon Maguire: Having had the gap, I can see why I was so invested: in this character, in this life. Why I know some things feel right and why some situations don’t, it’s just all instinct. I inhabit the characters and Renée does that job, too. The first time, Renée and I were both groping our way towards interpreting the words and the actions in the script — we didn’t know if the character would work, we didn’t know if the humour would work, it was untried and untested. This time we’re just older and wiser and a bit more experienced. I was less anxious about how to bring it in on time and on budget and more concerned with being in the moment of the creative process.

The shorthand of sisterhood

Sharon Maguire: Renée and I both approach things in the same way. We both do loads and loads of research and are very conscientious in our preparation and then on the day we like to surrender to the process and see what happens. It’s like hanging out with one of my sisters; I come from a family of three girls and we have a big trust in each other. She talks about an American perspective on things and I talk about an English perspective — ie the right perspective — and we find something else and it’s rather nice.

Renée Zellweger: We immediately clicked, immediately became fast friends, had shorthand. We had a lot of trust and a shared sense of humour, which I think is really helpful in any working relationship, especially when making a comedy.

Sharon Maguire: I can just look at her when she’s about to do a take and she’ll say, “Oh yeah, I know what you mean,” when I haven’t even said anything, but she says, “Yeah, yeah, but I know what you want.” Our minds work the same way when it comes to this character.

Renée Zellweger: We met to discuss it at a London hotel — our hopes for the script and all that — and it was immediate, like no time had passed. There was laughter from the first cup of tea to the 20th.

Sharon Maguire: In the first film, it was about women being in their thirties, not having settled for marriage and children like our mums and dads did. And thinking, “Okay, what do we do now? We’re still looking for the meaning of life.” Now she’s in her forties, there are a lot of women that have got their careers but are still out there; still haven’t solved the marriage/ children thing. We’re offered so many other choices now, but are still out there looking for meaning in our life. Bridget mirrors those changes that are going on.

We are all Bridget

Sharon Maguire: I’m a working-class girl from the industrial midlands, Renée is a girl from Texas, Helen [Fielding] is a middle-class Yorkshire girl. Bridget crosses cultural and class differences. Lots of people relate and have in common that they get the character. That unifies everybody. She’s this unique combination of misguided self-belief and terrible self-loathing. I think everybody relates to that.

Renée Zellweger: It’s her humanity. She’s true. She’s an authentic person. She’s flawed, but it doesn’t become a hindrance — she carries on. She’s quintessentially British.