colin firth + hugh grant = the perfect romcom? - bonus chapter: bridget jones's diary (movie)

if you were alive in the 2000s you knew three things:

1. Renee Zellweger is a horrifically misguided casting choice for our British icon Bridget Jones
2. the character Bridget Jones is roughly the size of a house
3. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are hot  

after reading and discussing Bridget Jones’s Diary for a previous podcast episode, we decided it’s only fair that we dive into the 2000s film adaptation of Helen Fielding’s classic novel. from casting choices to the long standing (potentially fictional) feud between the two male leads, no stone is left unturned! what twists and spins can the glitz and glamour of Hollywood add to this already classic tale?

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Transcript

Bridget 0:01

Hello and welcome to a Talk Lit Get Hit bonus chapter. The little book chats in between the big ones. We'll talk about reading authors and have discussions with people who, like us, can't shut up about books. We might get sidetracked and talk about literally anything else, but this is a bonus chapter we wrote just for you.

Laura 0:19

Last episode we discussed the book Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding. So it only seems apt that we keep the party going and dive right into a discussion of the 2001 film by the very same name. Bridget, not Jones, let's dive right into it. What are some hard and fast facts you can tell me about the Bridget Jones' Diary movie?

Bridget 0:38

Okay, ready? It was released April 13, 2001. It made$71.5 million at the US box office. It takes inspiration from Helen Fielding's novel at the same name.

Laura 0:51

This is a really great format for everyone. I know they're gonna love it.

Bridget 0:57

Okay. We've got all the boring stuff out of the way.

Laura 1:00

Yeah.

Bridget 1:00

Now we can talk about a little bit more of the interesting stuff. I found the writers of the screenplay to be so interesting and also a bit of a clue as to why I love this movie so much. So there were three people who wrote the screenplay. So the first person was Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones's diary. Second person was Andrew Davies, who also worked on the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC. Incredible. Imagine being an author and getting that person.

Laura 1:31

A match made in heaven.

Bridget 1:32

Amazing. And then equally amazing, Richard Curtis, who is responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, About Time, Yesterday, Black Adder, Mr. Bean, the Vicar of Dibley. Amazing. When I started to read the book, I noticed that he was thanked in the novel's acknowledgements. And so I did a little bit of research on that, and they were actually friends. She actually met Richard Curtis while she was appearing in a college play, and she was wearing fishnet tights, doing a dance with a choir. And afterwards, Richard came up to me and said, I want to be your boyfriend. And I said, What a stupid thing to say. And she said he has been her best friend ever since. Oh, I love that. That's so fitting. It also seems like it would be a fun movie to work on. Like obviously, she's working with her best friend. She's working on the screenplay of her novel, which I think a lot of authors probably don't get the opportunity to do. But also her best friend was a director, Sharon Maguire. This is allegedly who Shazza in the book and in the movie was based off. And so this was Sharon's feature film debut. She was working as a researcher and a producer, director for The Late Show and various documentaries and commercials. I like how this movie is a mix of experienced people in the industry and then people who are also getting started. And also something very impressive is that this was the first movie trilogy directed exclusively by female directors.

Laura 2:57

That is phenomenal. That is really just the dream, you know, having a project or having the means to be able to sort of uplift or, you know, employ your friends in that way. I mean, obviously, people like Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis were quite clearly doing fairly well for themselves, but to work with your bestie, that is so, so cool.

Bridget 3:19

As we know, the movie is starring Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver, alongside a multitude of Harry Potter alumni. Yeah, there are so many. Every time they pop up, I'd be like, oh no, myrtle. And then obviously, this movie and book was inspired by Pride and Prejudice. It has a lot of connection. So obviously, there is a screenwriter, but also we have a few little subtle nods to the book, the TV show. Something I didn't pick up, but I saw in my research was that the actor who played Mr. Bingley in the BBC adaptation, Crispin Bonham Carter, actually appeared in the movie. He didn't have a speaking role, but he was holding up a sign and trying to get Daniel's uh approval or opinion when Bridget was quitting. There were also a few subtle nods to Pride and Prejudice, like the publishing company being called Pemberley Press. But one silly thing that reminded me of Pride and Prejudice was the craziness of the camera angles. I don't know when the last time it was that you watched the 1995 adaptation, but I remember there being a particularly dramatic reveal of Mr. Wickham like mid-passion uh in the BBC remake, and it was eerily similar to the reveal of Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy's wife. And I think that could only be on purpose.

Laura 4:45

That kind of like dream sequence. Yeah. Yes. Another connection, I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but I thought Hugh Grant getting out of the lake with his white shirt was very much a nod to Colin Firth getting out of the fountain or lake or whatever he's in. It would have to be, surely. I don't know if I'm just a little bit dense, but I did think the sort of ties to Pride and Prejudice were much more obvious to me watching the movie than it was reading the book.

Bridget 5:12

I agree. And I think that I like the movie better because of that. I like the familiar structure, and I think just the way that the narrative progresses is so enjoyable to me. And like you know it's coming, but it still surprises you.

Laura 5:26

Well, in terms of casting choices, I couldn't possibly imagine this movie without Renee Zellweger, also without Colin Firth or Hugh Grant. But interestingly, when I was doing some research, I read that some of the other actresses potentially in the running to play Bridget were Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Blanchette, Emily Watson, Rachel Weiss, who was deemed too pretty, Cameron Diaz, and Tony Colette, who I believe was actually offered the role but declined due to a schedule conflict. There was predictable outrage when Renee Zellweger was cast as Bridget Jones due to her not being from England. But Renee Zellweger worked extensively on her British accent and spent time with the same dialect coach that Gwyneth Peltrow used for Shakespeare and Love. She also spent time working in the offices of the publisher Piccadillo in order to gain some insight into Bridget's world, which I thought was quite interesting because I think neither in the book or the movie does the fact that she works at a publishing house play a major role. Like I think it's cool that she does, but I think really she could have almost any job.

Bridget 6:34

Yeah, I don't think she cares about her job. I did like the fact that it was the publisher who published Bridget Jones's diary that she worked at. I thought that was funny. When I was reading about her undercover work, I was thinking that you don't hear stories like that often anymore. And I love it. I love the fact that she had a picture of Jim Carrey, who she was dating at the time, on her desk. And there I think there was one colleague who sort of thought, you look a lot like Renee Zerwegger, and she was pulled to the side and quietly told, like, shut up, don't ruin it. But I love that no one thought it was weird that this new person working in the office had a picture of Jim Carrey on their desk. They just thought she's a bit weird.

Laura 7:18

Well, actually, you've just clarified something I was really confused about because I had read that, but I thought that the picture of Jim Carrey was on her desk throughout the actual movie. And her co-workers, like the actors in the movie, were confused as to why a picture of Jim Carrey was there. And I was like, this is very strange. Are they not having conversations? Like, are they, you know, they're all actors, aren't they? Not in the scene, but that makes so much sense. My little, my tiny little Jim Carrey shrine. Oh, I love that so much.

Bridget 7:49

When this movie came out, we were in grade two, and at that time in my life, I was reading anything I could get my hands on. So I was reading books, I was reading magazines, I went the hairdresser, I'd be, you know, flicking through Women's Day, new idea, Mum would get them, and I would just like devour anything I could. And so this time in Hollywood pop culture is seared in my brain. So to my core, I know that she was too thin to play Bridget Jones. I know that she was not British enough. I know that she had to gain 20 pounds. And I also weirdly remembered that she got married to somebody on a beach. The wedding only lasted for five months. Her husband was wearing this horrible, ugly black cowboy hat, like massive, way bigger than his head. And I never knew who the man was. And then the other day I was thinking about it. I was like, why do I know so much about this woman? And like seemingly she just dropped off the face of the earth. And so I Googled it. It was actually Kenny Chesney, like the country singer. Oh. But I think it's so funny, like this little, I don't know, seven-year-old girl, so many facts about Renee Zellweger, and they've stayed in my brain. Like, as we were talking about in the last episode, what else could there be in my brain other than this information?

Laura 9:03

Well, it's funny that you say that because one of my notes was that I know next to nothing about what to expect from this movie, but I do know that Renee Zellweger is morbidly obese. That's the impression that I had. And I remember reading or sort of hearing about all of these things where she had packed on nine kilos only to watch this movie as a 31-year-old adult and think, oh my god, she is so skinny. I cannot imagine what her body would have looked like before she gained nine kilos.

Bridget 9:34

Well, I think she gained it and then promptly lost it after every movie. So I remember there was newspaper articles like detailing her exercise regime and what she did to drop the pounds, and they were worried about what this constant strain on her body would do to her health.

Laura 9:50

I think we should have been worried about bigger things like the overarching impact that would have on women worldwide.

Bridget 9:58

Also, like the Iraq War.

Laura 10:02

Also that. So many things.

Bridget 10:05

With the recent press for the new Bridget Jones movie, it is quite jarring to hear her speak in her natural Southern American accent. I think she should do an Austin Butler and just adopt the Bridget Jones voice for the rest of her life because I think it suits her so, so well. She is so charming and endearing and she does it so well. It's incredible. And I saw that Hugh Grant said that he did not hear her speak in her accent until the rat party, and he said that he could hear her speaking in a very strange voice. And it turned out that was her actual voice.

Laura 10:38

Well, I don't think I've seen her in anything else except for this one movie called Miss Potter, which was about Beatrix Potter. Devastating movie. Loved it so much, and she used that accent, and it was an immaculate fit.

Bridget 10:54

In what must feel like the most powerful feeling to have ever felt, all of that criticism led to nothing. There is nothing but praise for her. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. It made so much money. I think if I was Renee Zellberger, I'd be thinking, yeah, bitches. See, I did such a good thing here, and you suck.

Laura 11:17

It would feel so good. And obviously, there have been sequels and she has done other things with her life. Fact check that. I'm not too sure, I'm just assuming. But I get the impression that the first movie was so successful that she could have just done that and then lived off that money for the rest of her life. Her portrayal of Bridget was immaculate. In our previous episode where we were trying to read out quotes from the book, it was really hard. It was such a difficult tone to capture. I would say the audiobook I listened to did a really spectacular job of it, but I don't know how you can portray this character in such an earnest way, but she did it.

Bridget 11:59

She did, and I think that she made, and I mean this in the most respectful way possible, made an absolutely insane script. Believable and so endearing. There was one point, I think it was when she had to make the introductions for Mr. Tits Purban at the book launch. That was so embarrassing to I had to put my head, I actually put my head in my shirt. I could not hand Oh it makes me feel sick just thinking about it. But nevertheless, she perseveres. And that's what I love about her. Like she's does these stupid, stupid things time and time again. But she doesn't let her get it down. At the end of the movie, when she's making the speech at the parents' wedding anniversary when they've just announced that Mark Darcy's moving. Yes. Oh. Just shut up. Go away. Just leave.

Laura 12:53

No. But she's so good. She is so good. I just think she sells this character with so much heart. And I think she's able to carry through that thing that we were talking about in our episode on the book, where the humor is not really generated at the expense of Bridget. The humor is just there. I think a good example of this is right at the start of the movie where she's singing all by myself. And side note, what a cozy scene. She's in these little flannelette pajamas. She's got her socks on. Something about flannelette pajamas and socks on inside makes me feral. What a cosy vibe. And so she's got, I think, like her glass of wine or potentially a bottle of wine, and she's singing all by myself. And I was thinking in any other movie, the character would be sobbing in this scene. And they would be painting a picture of what a pathetic woman she is by herself, and she's crying because she's sad. But in this scene, she was doing kind of like a comedic, like singing into her wine bottle, thrusting her hand out, like fully embodying this song. I just thought it just so perfectly captured that spirit of Bridget persevering no matter what.

Bridget 14:06

I think if this was an American movie by an American author, I think that scene would have come off as sad. But I think it it has that quality that we see in comedy from the UK and also comedy from Australia, where people are not taking themselves too seriously, but like sort of like Larricanism, I guess. I thought the same thing. I thought this just so it's funny.

Laura 14:29

Something we talked about in our discussion of the book was that based on the source material, there really wasn't that much to say about either Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy. I think this is drastically different in the movie because I could talk about them for days. What about you?

Bridget 14:44

Yes, 100%. I remember in primary school, and I'm I'm not saying this because I'm not like other girls, a lot of my friends were obsessed with Channing Tatum. And for me, it was Hugh Grant and Colin Firth because they are so good in this movie, and I mean any movie, but this movie in particular.

Laura 15:05

I love them. I love them too. In our previous episode, we were talking about how the character of Daniel Cleaver is quite nasty and obviously emotionally unavailable and rakish, to use the Bridgerton word once again. And I think this was a real difference in his character in the movie because I found him, although still a bit of a dickhead, to be a lot more sort of sympathetic, a lot more emotionally available to Bridget, really charming, quite warm, and it just made it so easy for me to understand why she keeps going back.

Bridget 15:42

Yes, I think that is exactly what it was for me as well. Because in the book at the end, like she's gone out with Mark Darcy or maybe not gone out with him just yet, but is you know, tossing up between the two. And I was just thinking, there's no competition. Like, what is wrong with you? But there is competition in the movie. They're two completely different characters, pros and cons for both. They're like fully formed characters. I was sort of wondering how much of that is due to Hugh Grant, if we're talking about Daniel Cleaver, or how much of it is due to the writers of the screenplay. And I did see that Hugh Grant only signed on to this movie when Richard Curtis was announced as the writer. I feel like Richard Curtis, with his back catalogue of amazing comedy, Hugh Grant obviously felt like there was a character that could be built within that.

Laura 16:28

I don't know anything about the relationship between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, but I get the impression they were both sort of rising up in Hollywood at this same moment in time. Maybe they're friends, maybe they're not, but there was also such a chemistry between them. I mean, they're barely on screen together, but even just them in opposition with one another, it was just so charged. It was fantastic.

Bridget 16:52

I love whenever Hugh Grant is on a press tour because he always manages to get in some jabs at Colin Firth. A good example of this is when he was doing an interview with Vanity Fair. He was asked about his idea of perfect happiness. And he replied and said, drinking a pint of London Pride while munching twiglets and reading about Colin Firth having a critical and box office catastrophe. And I really love this. I've seen him do it in quite a few different interviews. But in 2012, he did tell the London standard, I like the guy, despite his outrageous rudeness about him. It's a running joke and we do it to each other. Did you have a favorite moment for Daniel from the film? It's pretty corny, but when they get in the car and he revs the engine and he does like the ra alongside, I thought that was pretty good.

Laura 17:44

He's just so silly. He was silly, and I think that was something that really boosted him in the movie. Like when they were at the rowboats and they were drunk, and Mark and his girlfriend are very serious, and Bridget and Daniel are just seemingly off their faces, trying to jump from one rowboat to another. I found when I watched that scene, I was just like, oh, I get it. They're having so much fun together. It's like what you said before, they're both so different, but you see what she gets from both of them. Two other moments I really enjoyed. The first was I think a line from the book. And I'm pretty sure it comes after Daniel realizes Bridget somehow knows Mark Darcy. And when he asks how they know each other, she says, Oh, I used to run around naked in his backyard, or whatever the line is. And he says, I bet you did, you dirty bitch. And here Grant's delivery of that was so good. Just another scene that I really enjoyed was at the book launch of Kafka's motorbike or whatever it was, when she is blundering through that speech. Just like the look on his face and just sort of the utter enjoyment he seemed to be taking in just watching her be her. I found that so charming. To me, it didn't seem like cruelty. I really got the sense from his portrayal that Daniel Cleaver does genuinely like Bridget.

Bridget 19:10

I think so too. I like in all of the moments when her ridiculousness is being shown, he goes along with it. Like he's in on the joke and he's just so likable.

Laura 19:22

What about Mark Darcy? Because I know you're a big Colin Firth fan.

Bridget 19:25

I love his character as well. Every time I looked at Mark Darcy, it made me want to cry because he loves her so much and he's got the sweetest little face. When they were in the rowboat, and like he was just watching Bridget and Daniel having a lovely time, and he's stuck on his boat with his boring colleague or girlfriend or whatever she is, and she's doing some sort of work, and he's just like, please, Mum, can I go and play with him? Like he's rowing sadly, and I think he just loves her so much. Like in the apartment when he's helping her cook the disastrous blue soup. Oh, I actually can't put it into words. He's so lovely.

Laura 20:06

He's a real acts of service kind of guy. Because something that was excluded from the movie that I feel portrayed this same kind of idea in the book was the whole shebang where Bridget's mum is scamming people out of their money and then scamming and being scammed. Yeah. And then fleeing to Argentina. And we have the whole Darcy and Mr. Wickham and Lydia kind of situation where he does the act of service of freeing the family from disrepute. So we kind of get that in the book. And it's not in the movie, but I think you get the same sense of who he is and how he's interested in putting himself on the line to aid Bridget.

Bridget 20:48

I think that's a great way to put it because when he offered her the interview with his clients, I was like, have you seen her? Yeah. Have you seen her TV show? She sucks. So I mean she put she came through, she did a good job, but I think he had full faith in her. I wouldn't.

Laura 21:07

No, I don't think anyone would.

Bridget 21:09

Something interesting that I saw in my research was that Colin Firth accepted the part because he saw it as an opportunity to lampoon his Mr. Darcy character. He wanted to sort of distinguish himself away from that character. And I think it's so funny to make that decision and play a character that has the same name and I mean many of the same qualities.

Laura 21:32

I'm not sure he read the script before he signed up for it, if that was his intention, because I don't think he's really differentiated himself whatsoever.

Bridget 21:40

It's also so funny because both Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are two real people mentioned in the original book. Bridget talks about Hugh Grant's affair with the sex worker when he was with Liz Hurley. And she also talks about Colin Firth's relationship with the actress that plays Elizabeth when they were 15. Bright and Prejudice.

Laura 22:01

Oh my god, I hadn't even thought of this. It's so funny.

Bridget 22:03

Like they it's so referential, like to all parts.

Laura 22:07

I'm just thinking about other Colin Firth roles, and one of my notes that I wasn't able to make sense of until now just said Mamma Mia. And I'm thinking I must have written that down, being like that was when he'd reached the end of the line. He was like, I've really got to do something different here. But in a way, I feel like it's the same character again.

Bridget 22:27

Yeah. I love Colin Firth. I love him in The King's Speech. That's one of my favorite movies. It is a good movie. Did you have a favorite Mark Darcy moment?

Laura 22:36

Not so much a moment as a line, but I just really loved his delivery of Bridget used to play naked in my paddling pool. And the sort of smug, how it's just a smug inside joke between them.

Bridget 22:47

One last thing I will say about Mark Darcy is following on from his predecessors being himself and Matthew McFadden is I'm not creeped out by the intense eye contact. I think that all three of the Mr. Darcy's are just staring. They just be staring constantly. I don't hate it.

Laura 23:11

No, I think he's like the original yearner. Everybody else who yearns via eye contact is a pale imitation. It's disingenuous yearning. And we can smell it a mile away. Not round here, partner. Not round here plucking out eyeballs. There were a couple of things in this movie that made me think, God, bring back movies like this. And one of those things is tied quite closely to discourse that I feel like we're seeing a lot of today, and that is that people in this movie looked like real people. Bridget had frizzy hair and it just looked like frizzy hair. It didn't look like someone had carefully crimped it, teased it out of place. You know, how friends were probably wearing makeup because it's a movie, but it didn't really look like they were wearing makeup. People's clothes looked lived in, the homes looked cozy and real, and I just was so struck by that. Nobody was particularly, with the exception of Hugh Grant, the hottest person I've ever seen in my whole life. It was so nice. I would love to see more movies like this.

Bridget 24:20

That's one of the reasons why I find the all-by-myself scene so endearing. She is looking pretty haggard by usual movie standards. But I think what I was struck by when I watched it, I was like, wow, she has like wrinkles. And they're not like wrinkle wrinkles, but her face moves and she's literally just wearing flannelette pajamas. Her hair's a mess. She just looks normal. And I think that's another reason why the character is so endearing, because it just seems like someone who is someone that we know. I felt the same way about the friends as well. And I also thought that they were a bit more realistic than the book, or a bit more likable than in the book, I think. You could see their dynamic and what each person brought to that friendship group. And I liked the way I can't remember if it was in the book or if it was in the movie, but they referred to themselves as an urban family. I thought that was really nice. And I think the way that they sort of showed up for Bridget time and time again was a good, I guess, role model of a good friendship group when you're an adult.

Laura 25:22

Yeah, I found I really believed them as a friendship group as well. Because I think, as I've so often mentioned, I really struggled to buy into fictional friendship groups. And even in movies, when the friendship group is rocking up and they're like, hey to us, best friends in the world. Cheers, we're gonna be friends forever or whatever. I just really struggled to believe it. But I think it was probably influenced by all of those things, like them looking like real people, their dialogue being quite good, you know, expert screenplay, really nice cinematography, costuming that matches what we're seeing on screen. It just felt very real, quite immersive. I bought into it.

Bridget 26:02

Speaking of real, let's quickly talk about the fight scene. I really, really enjoy this part of the movie. I think it is so deeply funny when they get knocked into the restaurant and they stop to sing happy birthday. And because of their upbringing and their manners and whatever, like the way they apologize to the people around them, yet still continue on with the fight, is so funny. And I love the story about this. So Hugh Grant recently said in an interview that it was a challenge to stop stuntmen getting involved in choreographing the fight. And he said that Mark and Daniel are two middle-class Englishmen, and when they fight, it's shit. And they're not landing good punches, they don't look hot, they don't look sexy, they're just flailing around trying to land a hit. And I think they pull that off so well. It was a hot mess of the fight. I think if I ever got in a fight, that's what it would be like.

Laura 27:03

Yeah, that's what I was just about to say. I watched it and thought, yeah, this is pretty much how it would go.

Bridget 27:09

Colin Firth also spoke about it talking to the Los Angeles Times, and he said there was an idea to have them really buff and to rip their shirts off and make it into a sexy fight. And he said, You're never going to get that type with me. And I don't think it would have had the same effect. I think it's just the way it is is perfect.

Laura 27:28

It's just so thoroughly English. It was a great read by them. It's exactly right. And the fight is a departure from what happens in the book as well. We don't have anything like that at the end of the book.

Bridget 27:39

I like the way that all of that stuff was revealed a lot better in the movie. I like that Bridget didn't know the truth about Daniel until the very end. And I think that added a bit of tension to the fight. And also the shot of Mark Darcy leaving the fight with his jacket over his shoulder. It's so funny because they're like, to use today's terminology, like two beta males pretending that they're alpha males. Like they're still such dorks. One of them's a lawyer, one of them works in a publishing company.

Laura 28:06

I mentioned earlier that I found the costuming to look really lived in and authentic, but something that I neglected to say was that I also found it to be fantastic. Every outfit Bridget wore, I thought, oh, I'd wear that. Even the first one, which I gather is meant to be quite hideous. Like the first one at the Christmas party, it's like a sort of matching red set with a big collar. I thought, oh, that's very dance and matter. That's quite nice. I like that. There was a look that she wore to work, which I'm not like sure is strictly appropriate for work, but it was sort of a sheer top with a I think just a bra underneath. Obviously, I'm obsessed with the flannelette pajamas, the headscarf. Ah, it was just all so fantastic. I'll have to make a carousel and put it on Instagram.

Bridget 28:52

As an extension to that, I love their apartments. Bridget's apartment, amazing. Daniel's apartment was so beautiful. Like all those books. It was gorgeous. What a dream. And also the way that the office was furnished, I love. They had that beautiful see-through iMac computer, a bit like Elwood's and Legally Blonde. That's a big reason why I love romantic comedies from this time. I love looking at their apartments. When I was a kid, I thought that everybody would be able to afford apartments in a city London that looked like this.

Laura 29:27

There are a couple of fun pieces of trivia connected to this movie, and one of them came from an article in decanter.com that said Bridget Jones effect blamed on slump in Chardonnay sales. So this was published on the 28th of May 2008, and it said 2,000 fewer shoppers bought Chardonnay in the past 12 months compared to the previous year, equating to a 3% decline in penetration year on year. Wine writer Oz Clark blamed the slump in Chardonnay sales on what he calls the Bridget Jones effect, a reference to the popular film in which the lovelorn anti-hereroine drowns her sorrows in a large glass of Chardonnay. Chardonnay has made some of the world's greatest wines. Everyone appreciated it. Until Bridget Jones, he said. Before Bridget Jones, Chardonnay was really sexy. After, people said, God, not in my bar.

Bridget 30:18

I would argue was Chardonnay ever sexy because all I know about Chardonnay is from Catherine Kim. And also my dad wrote a porno. The podcast, uh, the main character, Belinda, loves a glass of Chilean Chardonnay.

Laura 30:33

Sounds like propaganda from Big Chardonnay, if I'm being honest.

Bridget 30:37

It's like they're trying to guilt us into buying their wine. Oh, feel sorry for us because nobody wants to buy Chardonnay. Oh, get a crib.

Laura 30:45

The second piece of trivia is related to the sweater that Mark Darcy wears, which is a carryover from the book. While they were making the film, director Sharon McGuire asked about 20 or 30 knitters to come up with design ideas for the ugly Christmas sweater that he would wear. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said, At first none of the designs worked. They were lovely, but they just weren't funny. So eventually we decided it had to be a moose, not a reindeer. But Colin Firth, who played Mark Darcy, wasn't a fan of the sweater because it was hot on set. He goes on to say, I almost tore the jumper to pieces pulling it off between takes. I probably lost about 15 pounds. I had little love for it by the end. Also, I never noticed it was a moose.

Bridget 31:28

That is so funny. She was consistently appalled by that sweater. Like it really shows its age. Obviously, it's pre-hipster. Yeah. Because I was thinking, what's wrong with the jumper? And like people would wear it ironically. I mean, maybe not now, but thinking about 10 years ago, like the millennial heyday. People would be wearing that jumper everywhere. When I re-watched this movie, I had a bit of a realization. I think I've realized a big misconception that I had about my life when I was young that I thought I was gonna have to face when I was older. It's partly the fault of this movie, and it's partly the fault of Sims 2. But I really thought that schmoozing would be more integral to my life. She's struggling at these parties trying to make small talk. She's so, so bad at it. And I just remember watching it and really stressing about having to go to those sort of parties when I was older and do that same sort of thing. And then simultaneously stressing when I had to invite the headmaster over in Sims 2 to see if I could get my son or daughter into private school. And I had to bake the best meal and I had to schmooze and I had to do all these things, and it was really a lot of pressure at the time.

Laura 32:46

Yeah, I really did think that knowing how everybody was connected to everybody else. Yes. And like where they sat on a social ladder would be a big part of my life. So I really didn't know where that sentence was going when you started, but I I know where it's ended, and I agree. One final thing that I will say on this movie is bring back the 90-minute movie. Bring it back.

Bridget 33:13

One of the big reasons I think why I don't watch movies is because it is a big chunk of time to spend doing one thing. I had a great time when I was watching it, and I didn't realize until the end that it was only 90 minutes. It was moving so quick. And I saw it was 90 minutes. Perfect time for a movie.

Laura 33:31

It was 90 minutes of pleasure. And I think even if I hadn't read the book, those 90 minutes would have been just as pleasurable. And at the end of them, I, and I hope that you would also have been saying, Bridget Jones is me. Bridget Jones is me.

Bridget 33:48

Bridget Jones is me. Well, Diary, that's all for now. Make sure you follow along because our book for May is Yellow Face by R. F. Quang. Have your say on what we read next by keeping an eye on the link in our show notes and on our socials. Make sure you subscribe to the show, and if you want to be on the same page as us, follow us at talklit.get on Instagram and TikTok.