The weight is over... back on set, slimline Renée filming new Bridget Jones movie
A MONTH after it was confirmed that Bridget Jones is returning for a fourth instalment, filming has begun.
Renée Zellweger, 55, was spotted happy and laughing on set in West London in a green dress, boots, cardigan and a thick coat.
And one thing was immediately evident: this time the Oscar-winning actress hasn’t had to bulk up to play the famous singleton. She looked slender as she filmed scenes alongside co-star Sally Phillips who plays Bridget’s best friend Shazzer, for the first time in eight years.
She has previously admitted she struggled to gain the extra two stone needed to play the size 12 heroine in the first films in the series which began in 2001.
She reportedly went on a 4,000-calorie-a-day diet, telling The New York Times in 2000: ‘I’d have an omelette with cheese and sauce for breakfast with a fatty yogurt and then a fruit salad with a topping and juice and coffee and cream and a bagel with butter and a few hours later a chocolate shake with weight-gain powder in it.’
But it was revealed last month that Bridget’s obsession with losing weight will be ‘played down’ in the upcoming sequel, sparing Ms Zellweger a similar ordeal. A source said: ‘We will be more reflective of what people think about body image these days. Letting go of Bridget’s weight obsession is seen as the right thing to do.’
The fourth instalment in the franchise – based on the books by Helen Fielding – will be titled Bridget
Jones: Mad About The Boy. Given that Bridget’s husband Mark Darcy, played by Colin Firth, is killed off in the second book, the film will reportedly focus on her move into online dating and her dalliance with a much younger suitor.
He is expected to be played by Leo Woodall, 27, who starred in hit Netflix drama One Day.
Hugh Grant will return as love-rat Daniel Cleaver. He has claimed that the film – due to be released next Valentine’s Day – will be the ‘best one’ yet and has moved him to tears.
A movie source told The Mail on Sunday in February: ‘Bridget is back and is about to take over London. Renée is excited about bringing Bridget back. She adores the character.’
The most recent film, 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, saw the character shocked to learn she was pregnant. It ended with her marrying Darcy, the high-flying lawyer for whom she’d had feelings across the three movies, and it was revealed that he was the father of her baby.
Grant did not appear in that movie because Cleaver was presumed dead at the beginning – though at the end there was a newspaper report that said he had been found alive. In the Mad About The Boy novel Darcy is dead, leaving Bridget a widow, although it is not known if the movie will be faithful to that plotline.