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Colin
Firth Talks Bridget Jones’s Baby In
2004’s Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, we saw Bridget (Renée
Zellweger) seemingly find true love with her Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth),
but, as we’ve learned, in Bridget’s world, nothing ever runs smoothly. Case
in point: It’s 10 years later and in Bridget Jones’s Baby,
she’s 43 and again single, having seen her relationship with
uptight lawyer Mark Darcy fall apart a few years prior. That isn’t to
say the rest of Bridge’s life is in shambles, though. Quite the
contrary, in fact. She’s
at her ideal weight, still has her great friends and is now a
successful news producer, working for a popular news program. She
doesn’t necessarily lament the fact she doesn’t have a man in her
life or that her child bearing years may be quickly fading. Instead,
she’s living life large – and that’s when Bridget once again turns
her life upside down. You see, she unexpectedly finds herself in a
family way, as the title indicates. Not the worst news to Bridget, as
she’s actually quite happy about it, except for the fact she isn’t
quite sure who the father is. He
could either be Jack (Patrick Dempsey), an American she spent one
fantastic evening with at a music festival, or Mark, who has gone
through a divorce and is trying to win Bridget back. A conundrum
indeed. She lets them both know, and then hilariously spends the rest of
the film figuring out what will be best for her. At
the recent LA press day for Bridget Jones’s Baby, we sat down for a chat
with Firth to talk about his thoughts on returning to the franchise, his
role as Mark Darcy, what he likes most about the character and more. Check
out what he had to say below and enjoy! How
was it returning to Bridget Jones’s world? Colin
Firth:
I’d forgotten all about it, to be honest. It’s been 10 or so years
since the second one and more than 15 since we shot the first one. I
tend to forget about things a week or two walking off the set. I
hadn’t been carrying it around with me. But I knew that there were
people out there who loved the movies and cared about this. They
probably knew this character a lot better than I did and seen the films
more recently than I had. Honestly,
I felt a little intimidated, playing a character I felt was owned by other people
more than by me. That I had to conform to something people expected. Once
it was written right, though, and once I was with Renée and Shirley
Henderson (Jude), James Callis (Tom) and Sally Phillips (Shazzer),
and Bridget’s mom and dad (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent), it all
started to come back. To the extent, if we were in a familiar location,
Bridget’s flat or something, it suddenly felt as if I’d never
left. In the end, it all came a lot easier than I feared. Did
a lot of fans come up to you and pleadingly ask when another Bridget
Jones’s movie was going to happen? Firth:
That does come up. Obviously, if people love a movie and it has the
possibility of continuation then there is going to be a question of
whether it’s worth doing another one. There’s also cynicism and skepticism
about sequels. It would be a bit of a mix. Some people would be longing
for one and others would say don’t do it as if it would some sort
of trap. Some sort of proof of diminishing returns or something. I
was ambivalent, too. I thought it really has to feel time, the right
script and the right circumstances for it to be worthwhile, and I
always felt it would probably help the case for it a great deal, if we
were allowed to age a bit. Paradoxically, it freshens it. The fact
that we’re different now. Checking in with these characters at a
different time in their lives is interesting. It makes it so it’s not
just one more episode following along from the last. We now have a
common history, not just the characters but the actors themselves – and
the entire audience. However old you were when you first saw it,
you’re all 15 years older than that time. Were
you glad to have Emma Thompson come on as one of the co-writers (along
with the book’s author Helen Fielding and Dan Mazer)? Firth:
The whole thing really took a huge leap forward when she got involved. I
could see signs of promise in the incarnations that I saw before, but
as soon as Emma contributed to the development, I could suddenly see
the movie. I think she was the first person to really bring the focus back
to Bridget. I think the less central the men are, the stronger the story
becomes, and oddly enough, the stronger the male characters are.
Because frankly, we buzz around, these two guys, and try to get her
attention – and you increasingly feel she may have feelings for them –
but she could manage without them. You
could definitely see how she could have easily been a single mom. Firth:
That’s one of her options, isn’t it? It’s not just Mark, Jack or
die, it’s Mark, Jack or maybe neither. There’s a very strong case
for neither. Patrick
Dempsey’s American character, Jack, proved to be a very formidable rival
for Bridget’s affections, don’t you think? Firth:
Yes, that was made all too clear. Anyone less than that probably would
have weakened the story. Dempsey has made a huge, huge contribution
to this version. He throws my character into the reeds. [Mark Darcy]
becomes three times more British than he was, if it’s possible. What
do you like the most about Mark? Firth:
Oh, I don’t know. I suppose I recognize him. I mean, I don’t actually
know an awful lot of people that are like Mark. I don’t think he
defines Britishness in the way the mythology would suggest. I have
met repressed people on both sides of the Atlantic. Growing up, my mates
and I would have rather been Sid Vicious or members of the Royal
family. Nevertheless, Mark is kind of an archetype. I think what I sympathize about him, I think he is not without passion. I think it’s quite the reverse. I think he’s completely paralyzed by his whole emotional life. I think he can’t express it and it’s torture for him. And I think Bridget is the only person on the planet that is able to get under the shell. And the baby, well, that opens him up a lot as well. |