It’s been 24 years since the world was introduced to the celluloid Miss Jones, an endearing hot mess (Renée Zellweger) who vacillated between two posh boys – one snooty (Colin Firth), one caddish (Hugh Grant) – as she negotiated adulting, big knickers and glasses of Chardonnay. And as is now standard for all beloved movies, Bridget has had some less successful sequels, a period of absence and now gets a real-time revisit. Like Ghostbusters, Top Gun: Maverick and Gladiator II, this legacy sequel reunites the original cast (despite Grant’s character being killed off in the previous film) and invites audiences to check in with their favourite characters at a later stage in their lives.
Universal Pictures/StudioCanal
As she noted in her first outing: It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces. Though Bridget happily married Mark Darcy, she’s now a single, widowed parent to two small children, four years into a crippling grief process having lost Mark (Firth touchingly appears as wish fulfilment). Her delightful Hampstead Heath house is all over the place, she’s still rubbish at cooking (burnt pasta instead of blue soup) and she pitches up at the practice of her gynecologist (Emma Thompson) with any type of ailment. But she’s muddling through with the help of friends including still-concupiscent Daniel Cleaver (‘I was dead for a bit,’ Grant shrugs) and the memories of Darcy. When concerned ‘smug marrieds’ suggest she get back into the dating game, Bridget stumbles across two possible loves: younger park ranger, the improbably-named Roxster (Leo Woodall), and ‘whistle-obsessed fascist’ teacher, Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Like the Darcy/Cleaver love-triangle that percalates through previous movies, audiences are asked to choose for Bridget here: the doe-eyed boy who jumps into swimming pools to rescue dogs but may be emotionally immature? Or the attractively brusque teacher who understands her withdrawn son but is reserved himself? Throw in some callbacks (Bridget’s red pyjamas and her Netflix sign-in, a trip to Borough Market, Darcy’s Christmas jumper) and trademark humiliating moments (Bridget buying condoms, announcing how much sex she’s had to an audience, falling over) and it’s like no time has passed at all. But where this version of Bridget really works is leaning into unapologetic sentiment and exploring sorrow in a genuinely affecting way. Zellweger’s Bridget has always been a touchstone for women in terms of struggling to have it all, but now she’s not just juggling suitors, silly little skirts and sex. Her tussling with menopause, feelings of maternal failure and ageing hit differently, more profoundly. Combining that with Grant’s specific brand of sweet/spicy (still getting the biggest laughs with his sardonic disdain but also disarmingly vulnerable and supportive) and a tangible ache for the husband and father that is missing from the picture – and Mad About The Boy manages to equal the original film, with more emotional punch.
Universal Pictures/StudioCanal
Zellweger is still as reassuringly daffy and adorable as Bridget but layers in a relatable world weariness of a mourning woman just trying to get through a day, which works a charm in later scenes when she makes a decision about a man she might not have made in film one. Her suitors are less well-sketched – Roxster a contender for his looks in a wet t-shirt, Mr Wallaker merely by being age-appropriate – but Woodall and Ejiofor manage to breathe enough life into their roles. Meanwhile national treasures Thompson and Grant threaten to pocket the picture with brief scenes discussing lips and poetry readings respectively. Must put in diary. V. Good.
Words by JANE CROWTHER Pictures courtesy of Universal Pictures/StudioCanal Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is in UK cinemas now
Hanging out and talking with Mikey Madison over a couple of days as she cooked breakfast pancakes, attended events and revisited her childhood home was a unique experience – and a perfect example of what Hollywood Authentic represents. Fiercely talented yet shy and incredibly honest, Mikey shared the artist at the core of her work without artifice. And it was a fascinating moment for me; I was watching a star being born. This issue is all about capturing rising raw talent. Monica Barbaro, who I last photographed at the Golden Globes during Top Gun: Maverick’s awards run, is now a formidable awards contender as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown. Leo Woodall, who shot into our consciousness with The White Lotus, is now Bridget Jones’ possible new romantic interest. Malachi Kirby, a BAFTA winner with Mangrove, is now headlining a new binge-watch obsession. They say that luck is just a case of preparation meets opportunity. But it’s also about integrity and feeling sure that when opportunity knocks, you never miss.
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Greg Williams steps on set of the fourth Bridget Jones instalment and director Michael Morris tells Hollywood Authentic why this latest chapter is reassuringly the same – but different.
On the surface, there may be little similarity between director Michael Morris’ last film – searing, raw social drama with Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie – and his latest, the fourth outing for a romantic comedy franchise that sees an older Bridget Jones try to find new love after the death of Mark Darcy. ‘This isn’t a sort of genre that I usually play in,’ Morris admits when Hollywood Authentic catches up with him during a break from mixing Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. ‘But what I saw in this was: how often do you get a chance to take not just a character who’s completely beloved and who we’ve known for 20 years, but a relationship, in Bridget and Darcy, that is beloved? What you end up with is a challenge as a filmmaker: can you do a comedy of grief? That, to me, became the animating principle of the film. So everything became more grounded about this film. I want it to still be everything we love about Bridget, but now she’s in a different part of her life. It gave me the opportunity to tell the story differently.’
In that respect, Mad About the Boy shares some commonalities with To Leslie – a woman struggling with loss, parenting and her reality told through a virtuoso actor. ‘Renée’s a character actress first, who happens to be a movie star. It’s pretty spectacular what she, Helen [Fielding] and Working Title have put together over the years. I can’t think of another film franchise that is about a woman who doesn’t fly or turn into an animal or can breathe underwater. Bridget’s just a person. It’s brilliant.’
While Zellweger and her original cast return for a tale set in London amid the snow (Morris actually shot in mid summer and trucked in fake snow to Flask Walk in Hampstead, which is where Greg Williams captured some on-set moments), new romantic options also meant new cast members. Chiwetel Ejiofor is one possibility as teacher, Mr Wallaker, and Leo Woodall (see page 12) as young Royal Parks officer, Roxster. ‘Casting Chiwetel opposite Renée is a statement of its own because he’s such a beautiful, nuanced actor known for all kinds of drama, as well as being able to do comedy. And Leo leapt out because he’s my favourite kind of actor – he can straddle both leading man and character actor.’
While Morris admits to feeling somewhat daunted by the legacy of Bridget Jones, he notes that having a cast who have worked together over 25 years created added poignancy. ‘I think there’s a great sense of joy about everybody getting back together again, and finding a story that really needed to be told. Not just doing it again, but there’s a reason to tell this particular story in her life. But there’s a sense of an ending, and it made it quite emotional.’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Words by JANE CROWTHER
White Lotus and One Day actor Leo Woodall tells Hollywood Authentic about trusting his gut and getting romantic on Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
or someone who admits to initially being resistant to acting, Leo Woodall is doing pretty well. Having made a splash as Jack in season two of The White Lotus and followed that up with One Day, he’s now playing a key figure in Bridget Jones’ life in the latest chapter of the beloved singleton’s adventures – which is where Greg Williams caught up with him on set in July. The London-born actor comes from a family of performers; his dad, Andrew, and step-dad, Alexander Morton, are actors, his mum went to drama school and he’s related to Maxine Elliott, a theatre and silent film star. ‘Having acting in my family was, I think, the catalyst in me going, “I don’t want to do that”,’ he says of his teenage reluctance to join the family business. ‘But they call it “catching the bug”. And at 19, I caught it.’
Woodall didn’t catch it from family, though – he credits the performances of other British actors essaying the sort of flawed, nuanced young men he now excels in playing himself. ‘Peaky Blinders definitely played a part. It was around the time that I would find myself pretending to be Tommy Shelby [played by Cillian Murphy] in the mirror. And earlier on it was Jack O’Connell in Skins. I was fascinated and really excited by it. For the first time, I did a little deep dive into an actor’s history, and where they started, and I looked at where he first began.’
Woodall began at ArtsEd drama school at 19 and it was there that he felt a sense of kinship, that he might be able to master acting. ‘I think the first time I felt like I was stepping into my own was at school, and we were doing A Streetcar Named Desire. I got the first three scenes. The bit up to the big “Stella!” moment. I loved it. I thought, “OK, I could have a lot of fun doing this”.’ After graduation, that fun began with the standard rite of passage for any British actor: a role in an episode of medical drama, Holby City. ‘It was a big deal because it was my first-ever professional acting gig,’ he recalls. ‘I was terrified. I had to bring quite a lot of the acting chops to that show because I had to bring all the “panic” acting!’ That formative gig led to roles on two feature films, Nomad and the Russo Brothers’ Cherry, with Tom Holland. ‘It was very low-pressure. It was just a bunch of young lads being soldiers. It was just a lot of fun, and it was great to see how those big-budget movies work.’
When I got offered the role [in White Lotus], I didn’t know what the scripts looked like. I’d only seen the scenes I’d auditioned with. I had a meeting with Mike, and he gave me a brief on what happens, but not really. And I finally got the scripts, and I read them, and was like, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be so fun’
But it wasn’t film that catapulted him into audience consciousness – it was streaming. ‘I knew The White Lotus was a big show, and based on the reaction to some of the people around me, it kind of informed that even more,’ he says of going into the audition process of the zeitgeist show with creator Mike White in 2021. Woodall was vying to play an Essex boy whose sunny disposition and romantic potential at a hotel in Sicily covered much darker depths. ‘When I got offered the role, I didn’t know what the scripts looked like. I’d only seen the scenes I’d auditioned with. I had a meeting with Mike, and he gave me a brief on what happens, but not really. And I finally got the scripts, and I read them, and was like, “Oh my God, this is going to be so fun”.’ Like Sidney Sweeney before him, on season one, Woodall was the breakout in a cast of big names, and suddenly famous.
‘It was a bit of an adjustment,’ he says of the attention. ‘You get used to people recognising you in the street, and that’s a challenge on its own. But like anything, with a bit of time, you get a bit more used to it, and learn how to navigate it. It just becomes part of the gig.’ The recognition also opened up casting doors and another novelty: choice. ‘It does take a lot of thought and a lot of conversations with the people that help guide your career, and people who are just in your life and want the best for you. You have to be good at listening to people’s opinion, and also just trusting your gut at the same time. I feel like I’m quite good at trusting my gut, and knowing what feels right and what I want to do, and what the benefits are. I know when something feels right, when I’m thinking about it a lot and it stays in my mind. You kind of already start mentally preparing for it, even if you haven’t been given an official offer. I think that’s the thing that draws me towards projects, if I’m ignited by it.’
One Day (which he auditioned for while filming White Lotus) ignited him, playing the feckless Dexter Mayhew in Netflix’s adaptation of David Nichols’ bestseller. So did playing Roxster, a young man who rescues Renée Zellweger’s widowed Bridget from a tree and presents a romantic possibility. ‘When I read the script for Bridget, I saw a lot of myself in Roxster, a kind of happy chap. So it’s not a huge stretch. The real challenge was not to buckle under the pressure of working with someone like Renée, who’s a legend, and also the pressure with a big studio, and how widely marketed it will be, and how many people are going to see it. But it felt like if I was given the opportunity, there’s no way I wouldn’t want to do it. It’s just joyous as well. I like to have a balance of things that are deeply challenging and require real blood, sweat and tears, and then also the projects that are sunny, fun, lovely and make your heart feel warm.’ So will Woodall be the new Colin Firth? After all, he does exit a pond in a white shirt in the film… ‘It was definitely never about who can replace Mark Darcy. No one can really do that.’
I feel like I’m quite good at trusting my gut, and knowing what feels right and what I want to do, and what the benefits are. I know when something feels right, when I’m thinking about it a lot, and it stays in my mind. You kind of already start mentally preparing for it, even if you haven’t been given an official offer
Woodall will next be seen in something that is certainly less cheery – in Nuremberg, he’s one of a list of accomplished actors telling the real life story of psychiatrist Douglas Kelly, who interviewed leading Nazis to determine their fitness for standing trial in 1945. Rami Malek plays Kelly with Woodall portraying the German-Jewish translator who worked alongside him. Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Richard E Grant and John Slattery round out the cast. The experience, filmed before Bridget shot last summer in London, was ‘a heaven job’. ‘Working with Russell and Rami was like, “Oh, OK. I have to bring it. I have to be the best version of myself as an actor, and as a bloke.” But, what I’m learning is, you go to work, and these highly decorated actors are also just people. Most of the time, they’re just good people, and they want to do well, and they want you to do well, and you collaborate together and try to make something great.’
When we talk in November, Woodall has just finished filming Tuner, a heist story of a young piano tuner who works with his mentor uncle, played by Dustin Hoffman. He’s now looking for his next project to ignite him. As a young British man, is he thinking about playing 007? He laughs. ‘I think I’m well out of the question for Bond. I’d love to be Bond. But I probably need to earn a few more stripes before that conversation. I love moving through this industry and seeing what comes at me.’ He pauses and considers what he now wants from the business. ‘If I can be lucky enough to stay in this position, and maybe have some choice, that’s really part of the fun. It’s basically just about what feels right, and going back to my gut.’ His gut has served him well so far.
