In search of love

ROMANTIC comedy Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is out now in theatres.

Starring Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, the film series explores the life events of the character.

Introduced in Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), it follows a woman in her thirties, trying to keep her love life in order while dealing with her job as a publisher.

The fourth instalment’s trailer, which released in November, revealed her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) has passed away. The new film is set to tackle the 51 year-old single mother as she tries to navigate social media and dating apps in search of new love. She is eventually pursued by a younger man, played by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who happens to be her child’s science teacher.

In an interview, Renée shared her feelings on the death of the fictional character, and how she missed working with Colin, who will only briefly appear in the film.

“I love this person that Colin plays when we get together again. And I was heartbroken,” Renée said.

“It was such a peculiar thing to be heartbroken that a fictional character is gone from your life, but I’ve gotten to know him since 2000. And of course, Colin, he’s an integral part of that experience, and to not share it with him... I won’t lie. I shed some tears,” she added.

The film franchise is an adaptation of the Bridget Jones book series by author and journalist Helen Fielding, comprising four novels. However, not many know that Bridget Jones’s Diary started as a newspaper column, which was requested by a publication and initially turned down by Helen.

“I said ‘no’ because it would be, ironically enough, hopelessly embarrassing and exposing,” the British novelist said.

“But I really needed the money and said I would make a character up. The result was that I wrote a comic, exaggerated version of myself, which was read by tens of millions of people, and everyone ended up thinking it was me anyway,” she added.