November 9, 2004
UK PREMIERE OF 'BRIDGET JONES THE EDGE OF REASON'
AT THE ODEON LEICESTER SQUARE

London played host to one of the most anticipated premieres of the year on Tuesday (November 9, 2004), as darlings of the silver screen, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth turned on the charm for hundreds of fans braving the November weather. 

Talking to Reuters, the American actress Renee Zellweger said, "I loved the experience, and the film, the film has been very warmly received and for that I am completely relieved. And it makes me smile, what I can tell you." The on-screen trio reunite to continue the tale of hopeless romantic, Bridget Jones and her endeavours to bag her dream man, the seemingly-perfect Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth "I think it works possible better than the first one, said Colin Firth at the London premiere, "On  the level that it is supposed too in which it is a fairy tale and it produces belly laughs in an audience and I don't know how often we really see that." 

The story picks up four weeks after the first film and already Bridget Jones is becoming uncomfortable in her relationship with Mark Darcy. Apart from discovering that he's a conservative voter, she has to deal with a new boss, strange contractor, and the worst vacation of her life.

With the entry of a leggy threat in the form of Rebecca, Darcy's work colleague, Bridget's pink clouds begin to turn  grey as her attacks of self-doubt sorely test her relationship with Darcy. And just when it seems that the waters couldn't get any choppier, Bridget's former boss, womanizing heartthrob Daniel Cleaver (Grant), sails into view. 

But trying to ride the success of a film that has a huge fan base and has been a powerful force at the global box office is not without it hazards. 

"It is very difficult to make me do any film at all and particularly a sequel," British actor Hugh Grant explains. "There is a certain sigma attached to a sequel. So we all made a huge, 'queenly', fuss about the script and it got better and better the more writers that came on. In the end it became a very good script, and we have a film that people love and don't think is a travesty of the first one."  

Speculation over Zellweger's manipulated waistline, which expanded from a slender size 6 to a buxom size 14, has raged ever since she debuted as the neurotic, London-based singleton in 2001. Zellweger, once again having radically dropped back to her usual Hollywood-star-size walked the red carpet. "It saddens me a little bit; the implication that it is a good thing that I have changed and I don't look like Bridget anymore. But the truth is that wasn't part of the experience. The experience was realising and revisiting this character, becoming her, that was the journey." 

The film's director Beeban Kidron believes people should applaud Zellwiger's commitment to buck the trend of the Hollywood body beautiful and take on once more the ever expanding waste line of Bridget Jones "What Renee should be congratulated for is her phenomenal lack of vanity. You know here we are in a world of perfect images of woman, and she puts on 18 pounds to play a part. She put it on, she took it off. If it was Robert De Niro, you know everyone would congratulate him, and I hope that everyone congratulates her. She is absolutely stunning tonight, back to her own self."  

But Zellweger was keen not to let idle gossip of her weight loss detract from her admiration for her on screen character. "You know it is a privilege, every part of playing this character is a privilege and what makes it exciting is being able to experience that transformation and live in someone else's shoes for that limited period of time, a character that I feel so much affection for." 

Other stars braving the notorious English weather included tantrum-prone Elton John, on-screen comic Rowan Atkinson, Ozzy and Sharon Osborn and Brit pop star Robbie Williams. 

Bridget Jones, the Edge of Reason goes on general release in the UK from November 12.