Bridget Jones star Sally Phillips recalls Renée Zellweger ‘suddenly losing a stone and talking in a Texan accent at the wrap party’
Actor had stayed in character as a Londoner throughout filming
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Bridget Jones’s Diary actor Sally Phillips has reminisced on filming the movie, 20 years after its release.
The 2001 rom-com, which starred Renée Zellweger as a 32-year-old single woman living in London and Colin Firth and Hugh Grant as her love interests, will celebrate its 20th anniversary next week.
Reflecting on Firth and Grant’s iconic fight scene, Phillips – who played best friend Shaz in the film – told ITV’s Lorraine: “This is them improvising... slapping each other, trying to kick and missing. We filmed this scene for a whole week. As you can see we’re not in it very much so we sat in deck chairs and watched Hugh and Colin slap each other for a week. And Jim Carrey was there. Renée was dating Jim at that point. So he was bigger and taller and harder and fitter than both of them, so I think they were even more embarrassed.”
Speaking about Zellweger staying in character on set, Phillips said: “It was really weird. I’d made quite good friends with her during the filming, I realised towards the end when she suddenly lost a stone in the last week and started talking in a Texan accent at the wrap party, I’d made friends with Bridget, not Renée.”
She added: “I felt like those women must feel who’ve had a relationship with an undercover cop, a bit deceived and weirded out. But I think it was genius actually [to cast her]. There were lots of people up for that part.”
It was recently revealed that Zellweger went undercover working at a British publishing company for a whole month to prepare for the role.
Zellweger, an American, used a posh accent as well as an alias, and was said to be unrecognised by the workers around her.
The one thing that would have clued people up to her identity, though, was a framed picture of Carrey that she kept on her desk.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments