Bridget Jones film to ‘play down’ her obsession with losing weight – as new sequel is thought to be first time Renee Zellweger is not putting on pounds to play iconic role

Bridget’s obsession with losing weight will be ‘downplayed’ in the film following protests that could potentially make her a bad influence.

She does Zumba and as a healthy size 10, she won’t panic if she gains a pound or two, as she has done before.

“We’re going to be thinking more about what people think about body image these days,” says a source involved in the film.

‘Letting go of Bridget’s weight obsession is seen as the right thing to do.’

It is believed to be the first time Renee Zellweger has not gained any weight for the role.

The premise of Bridget Jones’s Diary, the first film in the series, is that Bridget Jones is fat and Renee Zellweger made headlines for coming in just over second place to play the character (photo: Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary in 2001)

Meanwhile, in the second episode, we saw even more of Bridget’s preoccupation with her weight, which was explicitly tied to her search for a partner.

Bridget was routinely fat-shamed in both Helen Fielding’s original books and the first film, despite weighing just over 61kg – the same size as the average British woman at the time.

Zellweger gained weight twice to play the size 12 heroine – once in 2001 for Bridget Jones’s Diary and again in 2004 for the sequel The Edge of Reason – before her character reached her “ideal weight” in the third film, albeit shortly before she became pregnant.

The premise of Bridget Jones’s Diary, the first film in the series, is that Bridget is fat and Zellweger made headlines for earning just over two stone to play the character.

The actress admitted she struggled to gain weight for the role and followed a 4,000-calorie-a-day diet to reach the goal quickly.

She told The New York Times, “I would have an omelet with cheese and sauce for breakfast with a fatty yogurt and then a fruit salad with a topping and juice and coffee and cream and a bagel with butter and a chocolate bar a few hours later.” shake with weight gain powder in it.”

Meanwhile, in the second episode, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, we saw even more of Bridget’s preoccupation with her weight, which was explicitly tied to her search for a partner.

After hearing love interest Mark Darcy, played by Colin Firth, insult her to his mother in the second film, she says of herself, “And that was it. Right there. Right there, that was the moment.

‘I suddenly realized that unless something changed soon, I was going to live a life in which my most important relationship was a bottle of wine and that I would end up dying fat and alone and three weeks later being eaten by the Alsatians, or I was about to die. turn into Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.”

Renee Zellweger repeated the weight gain process to star as Bridget in the second film, after losing the two stone she gained after the first film.

Speaking to Closer magazine at the time, she said: ‘It would be silly for Bridget to talk about her chubby thighs and them not being chubby.’

In 2016, Zellweger revealed that although she wanted to gain weight for the third film, the idea was rejected by the directors.

She explained that writers wanted Bridget Jones’s Baby to show that her on-screen character had “reached her ideal weight.”

The actress admitted she struggled to gain weight for the role and followed a diet of 4,000 calories a day to reach the goal quickly.

Renee Zellweger repeated the weight gain process to play the role of Bridget, after losing the two stone she gained after the first film

In 2016, Zellweger revealed that although she wanted to gain weight for the third film, the idea was rejected by the directors.

She explained that writers wanted Bridget Jones’s Baby to show that her on-screen character had “reached her ideal weight”

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Renee revealed: ‘Sharon hoped we could show that Bridget had reached her ideal weight, but at the same time it didn’t mean her life was perfect.

“I wasn’t sure about that, though, because we all have something that we think is wrong, that needs to be fixed, that represents in our own minds the ideal that we need to achieve. And I like the idea that that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”

During an interview with British Vogue, Renee explained that her character in the third film was a “completely normal weight.”