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Bridget Jones’s Baby director kept father’s identity a secret from cast

“Bridget Jones’s Baby” sometimes feels like a rehash of her previous adventures, as Bridget (welcome back, Renee Zellweger!) is once again torn between two lovers, one of whom is the perennial Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

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How Bridget Jones personifies our everyday struggles: “We recognize ourselves in her struggles and not just her challenges she faces in her life, but in her struggles toward self-acceptance”, Zellweger said. “I’m really lucky with the people that I work with, we are like minded but it was time”. They have to believe something about it. And it’s a credit to the film that the madcap finale turns out some of the movie’s biggest laughs without cheapening everything Jones has done to get to that point. I believe that with – from what I’ve experienced with the people that I’m closest to, you evolve when you become a mom. She sent me a text saying, ‘Yay, yay, yay!

In the books, Mr. Darcy has quite a different fate. My screen test was the first time I met Renee. I won’t. Watching Bridget Jones’s Baby, I was transported to the happiest moment of my life, just weeks ago, when my newborn daughter was placed in my arms for the first time, and I was happy.

How the film acknowledges that growing old is both terrifying and invigorating: “You lose a lot in your 40s”, Zellweger said. But when she sees her beloved Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) at a funeral, the old feelings overtake her.

But all giggles aside, a more realistic scenario would have involved Bridget actively making the choice to get pregnant, then spending week after week at a fertility center, undergoing round after round of IVF, hoping for a positive result. Oscar victor Emma Thompson is Dr. Rawlings.

“I haven’t heard a peep”.

She added: “I was so joyful when I was reading that script”. It’s the guys that are doing all the running, you know?

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This relatable (if somewhat aspirational) character comes not just from Zellweger’s performance, but also from the assured direction of Sharon Maguire, who helmed “Bridget Jones’s Diary” in 2001, as well as the fast, fresh, and very amusing screenplay. In romantic comedies, it’s so hard to find characters that not only are relatable, but are realistic. Zellweger plays Bridget just as charmingly as she always has – flawed but endearing; just right in her own idiosyncratic way. ‘It could be interesting to watch her improvising her way through motherhood. Because I don’t want to be this person 10 years from now. Are they getting better treatment story-wise than they used to? But, life will throw other fantasies at you, and go with those. So that’s good. I don’t know whether the film flags or signifies anything. I think it’s a diversion, but I think others will read plenty into it.

Renée Zellweger