Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

This is a rom-com from 2001 starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant

Summary

-Determined to improve herself and find love in a year, as part of a New Year's resolution, she keeps a diary where she tells the complete truth

Cast

-Renee Zellweger: Bridget Jones

-Gemma Jones: Bridget's mother

-Celia Imrie: Una Alconbury

-James Faulkner: Uncle Geoffrey

-Jim Broadbent: Bridget's father

-Colin Firth: Mark Darcy

-Charmain May: Mrs. Darcy

-Hugh Grant: Daniel Cleaver

-Sally Phillips: Shazza

-Shirley Henderson: Jude

Did You Know?

-To get a better feel for her character Bridget Jones, Renee Zellweger gained 25 pounds and worked at a British publishing company for a month. With her now posh accent and using an alias, she was not recognized by her coworkers. She kept a photo of then boyfriend Jim Carrey on her desk. While her coworkers found the photo unusual, they didn't mention anything about it for fear of embarrassing her

-To keep her English accent sounding natural, she used it at every opportunity, even while on set. Hugh Grant stated he didn't hear her speak with an American accent until the party celebrating the completion of the movie. He heard her speak in her American accent and said he heard her speak "in a very strange voice" that he soon found out was her real voice

-Renee Zellweger smoked herbal cigarettes rather than tobacco cigarettes

-In the movie, Bridget was 32. Renee Zellweger was 32 when she did this movie

-This movie is inspired by the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth's character, Mark Darcy, is a combination of the FitzWilliam Darcy role he played in the 1995 film adaptation of the novel

-Sally Phillips is a born again Christian. She received a lot of criticism from her church about her character's heavy use of profanity in addition to questionable attitudes. She defended her role by saying it's her job to create love for people with imperfections. "My position on that is that if you were only allowed to play perfect characters, you would only be allowed to play Jesus, and someone would have a problem with that too, I expect, him being a man and all. People aren't perfect. My job is to play a person with love, to make love for that person possible."

-There was a lot of controversy of casting an American actress to play the very British Bridget Jones. Many of the fans of the book were outraged that an American actress was cast to play the lead role. This controversy was silenced for good when Renee Zellweger won praise and an Academy Award nomination

-Jude, played by Shirley Henderson, is seen crying often in the ladies' room. Ironically, Henderson also played the character of Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter film series

-The only way Hugh Grant would sign on to this movie is if Richard Curtis would be announced as writer

-Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones, who play Bridget's parents, were also in the Harry Potter film series. Jim Broadbent plays Professor Horace Slughorn while Gemma Jones plays the Hogwarts school nurse, Madam Pomfrey

-The crew spent six weeks in London, England filming

-Heather Graham, Nia Vardalos and Tori Spelling were all considered for the role of Bridget Jones