Renee Zellweger admits ‘HR would have something to say’ about Bridget Jones’ work affair with Hugh Grant as she spills the hit films’ secrets for Vogue

Renee Zellweger has discussed her character Bridget Jones’ work affair with Hugh Grant, admitting ‘HR would have something to say about it’.

The actress, 55, and Hugh, 64, have reunited to spill the secrets of Bridget Jones and their 25-year friendship to Vogue.

Bridget Jones lead Renee was interviewed by her co-star and friend for the new issue, to celebrate the upcoming release of the latest installment in the hit film franchise – Mad About The Boy.

During the chat, Hugh asked: ‘Do you think the original film looks dated now? For instance, our romance, do you think people would think that’s very inappropriate. He’s her boss and he’s exploiting his powerful position. Where do you stand on that?’

Renee responded: ‘Well, I’m sure HR would have some stern rules down at the publishing house these days, don’t you think?’

He then followed up by asking: If you were giving advice to Bridget now, at that age, and her boss started sending those messages, would you say you must report him?’

She replied: ‘Oh, isn’t that interesting. I’m really glad I don’t have to have an opinion about this in real life. This sounds complicated. 

‘I’m sure there would’ve been the meeting, right? Everyone would’ve had to get together and talk about how you engage with people.’

At one point during the mischievous conversation, the actress shocks Hugh when she reveals how she went unrecognised during some secret work experience for the first Bridget movie.

Back in the early noughties, as Hugh points out, there was a lot of ‘hullabaloo’ when American Renee was cast as Helen Fielding’s British heroine, with Renee, who admits that unlike Hugh she doesn’t google herself, revealing she only became aware of the furore when she started prep for the movie.

To get into character as a publicity assistant at a London publishing company, Renee spent ‘a month or two’ secretly working at Picador, a major UK publishing house.

‘I was ‘Bridget Cavendish’ because Jonathan Cavendish, the film’s producer, was very good friends with the gentleman who was the editor of Picador.’ she explained to Hugh.

And she soon found it hard to avoid the pulicity surrounding her casting: ‘Part of my job was to take the newspaper clippings from the daily papers and file them under Helen Fielding’s file, because they represented her,’ she revealed.

‘And I started having to clip these articles about this ‘c**p American actor’ who was set to play Bridget Jones.’

A laughing Hugh exclaimed ‘You were clipping your own clippings!’ before delving further as he enquired: ‘Was it in any way natural at Picador or did they just think, ‘There’s the famous American Renée Zellweger poncing around our office”?’

Renee insisted that ‘nobody knew’ despite her Hollywood status, as she mused ‘m aybe I was out of context or maybe it was having more chubby cheeks. It was odd.’

‘One of the ladies who worked in the office was reading the Anna Quindlen novel One True Thing and they made a film out of it [that I starred in], so I’m on the cover of the book.’

‘And she’s there telling me about having finished it on the Tube on the way to work and how marvellous it was.’

Renee and Hugh are back as Bridget and Daniel Cleaver in for the fourth time in the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

The most recent film, 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, saw Bridget shocked when she discovered she was pregnant. It ended with her marrying Mark, the high-flying lawyer who she’d had on and off feelings for across the three movies, and revealed that he was the father to her baby.

However, in Mad About The Boy, Mark tragically later dies while working abroad as a human rights lawyer, leaving Bridget a widow and the book follows her as she battles motherhood alone.

She also quits her job working in television to do the school run, with comical scenes expected as she struggles to keep up with the Yummy Mummies.

Bridget will also find herself in the middle of a three-way battle for her affections, between boytoy Roxster [Leo], PE teacher Mr. Wallaker [Chiwetel] and a returning Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant].

The first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, came out in 2001 and grossed £222 million at the box office – more than ten times what it cost to make.

See the full feature in the February issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 21st January.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is released on Peacock in the US on February 13, 2025 and in cinemas in the UK on February 14.