Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger has opened up about the "liberating" experience of playing "Bridget Jones" despite the massive "fixation" of audiences on the character's appearance.
Zellweger was addressing the cast reunion of “Bridget Jones's Diary” at the Tribeca Film Festival during the 25th anniversary celebration of the series.
"Most romantic comedy heroines are polished, and they fit a particular paradigm for beauty in that moment, and this was not the paradigm," Zellweger said.
The 57-year-old actress said playing such a "messy" character was "liberating," adding that she believes the character garnered so much attention because she was "a normal girl."
"She was a normal girl and she looked like her lifestyle. She liked to have an extra helping and she liked her Chardonnay and she didn't go to the gym every day and she's gorgeous anyway. She gets the guy anyway," she reflected.
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"Maybe more so, because she's so very herself that it makes her more attractive," Zellweger said, adding that she believes the character of Bridget "sort of broke a norm in an unexpected way that it kind of spoke to people, me included."
"I love this character, and when people talk about the weight, I don't think of her as a person who is... There's nothing to fix. I think it sort of shifted our expectations for what a leading lady can look like," she said.
"I loved it," she said. "It was so liberating to play someone who's having authentic experiences authentically. It became one of my favourite things to return to."
Zellweger has earlier been candid about putting on weight for the original 2001 film, as well as the first sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” (2004). However, she chose not to do so for “Bridget Jones's Baby” (2016). Zellweger also reprised her role in last year's “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.”
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