Hugh Grant pens his own comeback in new Bridget Jones film

Virgin Radio

12 Sep 2024, 10:34

The dashing rogue from Bridget Jones is back! Hugh Grant rewrites his way into 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy' to make sure Daniel Cleaver still has a part to play.

Bridget Jones’ diary just wouldn’t be complete without a bit of chaos from Daniel Cleaver, and Hugh Grant wasn’t about to let the fourth instalment of the beloved rom-com saga be Cleaver-less!

At 64, Grant has taken on the role of script doctor, penning some of his own scenes to ensure his devilish alter ego still makes waves in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

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“I loved the script—it made me cry, and I wanted to help with this one,” Grant revealed to Vanity Fair. But there was one teeny-tiny problem: Daniel Cleaver wasn’t exactly meant to be in it.

Clearly, Bridget’s love triangle between her, Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy, and Cleaver needed a little injection of bad-boy charm, because Hugh decided to step in and fix the oversight himself.

He said: “There’s no part for Daniel Cleaver in it at all. They wanted him in it, and in the end, they’d done something I wasn’t crazy about.”

Not one to shy away from creative control, Grant didn’t just pop by for a cameo – he wrote his own way back into Bridget’s world.

Imagine Daniel Cleaver grabbing the pen from Bridget, scrawling his own chapters in her diary!

“I wrote some scenes”, Grant confessed, with a sly grin, no doubt.

Fans of the original will recall how Cleaver’s rakish charm was a little too much like the real Hugh, as the actor cheekily admitted.

“There are people in my life who have always said, ‘Oh, that’s much more like the real Hugh.’”

Indeed, in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Cleaver’s suave and sleazy approach to romance was a far cry from Mr. Darcy, who let’s be honest, had more reindeer sweaters than charm.

Grant’s only back for a brief spell this time around – just a week’s work, but in true Cleaver style, he’s going to make a lasting impression.

“I’m not in a lot, I did a week’s work, that’s it… But when you see the film, you’ll be very moved,” he teased.

Grant first slipped into the role of the charming yet morally dubious boss Daniel Cleaver in the original Bridget Jones’s Diary back in 2001, sharing the screen with Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth.

It was a departure from his usual heartthrob roles, and one that many close to him found all too familiar.

“There are people in my life who have always said, ‘Oh, that’s much more like the real Hugh,’” he confessed with a knowing smile.

After relishing the chance to revisit Cleaver’s roguish antics in 2004’s The Edge of Reason, Grant stepped away from the character for the 2016 sequel, Bridget Jones’s Baby.

“I really couldn’t fit my character in—he just didn’t belong, so I stepped aside,” he explained, showing that even Daniel Cleaver knows when he’s overstayed his welcome.

Grant isn’t afraid to turn down roles if they don’t feel right, especially when too much studio meddling is involved.

“I’ve turned down a few that I thought were insufficient in quality or independence allowed to the filmmakers — you felt like a big corporation [was] breathing down the neck of these filmmakers, and I don’t want to make that decision,” he shared.