Renee Zellweger has said the relationship her character Bridget Jones has with her boss in the 2001 romcom would not be appropriate in today’s workplace.
In the first instalment of the Bridget Jones’s Diary franchise, Bridget is seduced by her boss, Daniel Cleaver (played by Hugh Grant) at the London publishing house they both work at, before she finds out he is also seeing another colleague.
Speaking ahead of the release of the fourth film – Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy – for British Vogue, Zellweger, 55, said she thought HR would take a “stern” approach to similar behaviour today.
Grant, 64, asked: “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?”
To which the actress replied: “Well, I’m sure HR would have some stern rules down at the publishing house these days, don’t you think?”
Zellweger said her on-screen romance with Grant would be met with ‘stern’ rules from HR today. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
When quizzed if she would report Daniel over his behaviour, she added: “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.”
Grant replied: “And Daniel would’ve had to be re-educated.”
The actress also said the pressures and prejudices of getting married, which Bridget worries about, was something her mother’s generation “couldn’t escape”.
Zellweger is joined by Leo Woodall in the new Bridget Jones film. Pic: Universal Pictures
She added: “You were not valuable as a woman if you were not partnered up and beginning your own family by a certain age. But I don’t think that women my age are imposing that on their daughters.”
Both Zellweger and Grant reprise their roles for the upcoming film, which follows Bridget as a 50-something widow with two children, after the death of love interest Mark Darcey (played by Colin Firth) some years earlier.
Pic: Nikolai von Bismarck/British Vogue
Grant did not feature in the third instalment in 2016, Bridget Jones’s Baby, in which his character appeared to have been killed off, and Bridget became pregnant.
The film saw billionaire US love guru Jack Qwant, played by Patrick Dempsey, compete for Bridget against Mark.
This time, 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and One Day actor Leo Woodall join the cast.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is in UK cinemas on 14 February.
