Trivia for
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) More at IMDb Pro »

• Renée Zellweger gained a reported 25 lbs. to play Bridget Jones.
  
  
• Renée Zellweger actually worked at a British publishing company for a month in preparation for the role. She adopted an alias as well as her posh accent and was apparently not recognized.
  
  
• Renée Zellweger smoked herbal cigarettes rather than tobacco.
  
  

• Both leading actors' names, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, are mentioned in the book. The first on "Tuesday 24 October" and the second on "Wednesday 16 August". Colin Firth is himself a featured character in the book's sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004).
  
  
• Aside from bearing a resemblance to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the film also features a number of veterans of Austen film adaptations. Writer Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay for _"Pride and Prejudice" (1995) (mini)_, which starred Colin Firth and Crispin Bonham-Carter. Hugh Grant and 'Gemma Jones' both appeared in Sense and Sensibility (1995). And Embeth Davidtz can be seen in Mansfield Park (1999).
  
  
• When Helen Fielding wrote the novel Bridget Jones's Diary, she based the character of Mark Darcy on Colin Firth's depiction of Mr. Darcy in _"Pride and Prejudice" (1995) (mini)_. In addition to the inside-joke casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, there are several other allusions to Jane Austen's story: Mark disparages Bridget to his mother within earshot of Bridget. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy disparages Elizabeth to his friend Mr. Bingley within earshot of Elizabeth. Daniel Cleaver lies to Bridget about a dispute between him and Mark, claiming Mark stole his fiancée; in fact, it was the other way around. In Pride and Prejudice, it's a dispute between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy, and Wickham lies about who's at fault. The Darcy in both stories fails to disabuse the heroine's misinformed notion until it's almost too late. Bridget works at Pemberley Press; Mr. Darcy lives at Pemberley estate. Crispin Bonham-Carter was in both productions (his scenes were cut out of Bridget Jones's Diary, although he can still be seen in the job-quitting scene and can also be seen at the Kafka book launch where Bridget asks Salman Rushdie where the toilets are - he is seen as the man on the left in the conversation.).
  
  
• When Bridget stops at a mall to see her mother, she begins the scene by saying (in a voice over) that, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that as soon as one part of your life starts looking up, another part falls to pieces." This is an update of the famous opening lines of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
  
  
• Director Sharon Maguire was the real-life inspiration for the character of Shazza in the novel. A friend of Helen Fielding's, her name also appears on the acknowledgements page of the book.
  
  
• The film has different end-credits in different countries. In Europe, Australia and Latin America the credits show a montage of stills plus "interviews" about Bridget and Darcy with Daniel Cleaver, Mark Darcy's parents and Bridget's boss. In America, they show a young Bridget and Mark running around the backyard and paddling pool in a home video. The "interviews" can be found as the final deleted scene on the North American DVD, as well as the North American credits are found in the 'Deleted Scenes'-material on the European DVD.
  
  
• While filmgoers were eager to see Hugh Grant play a character opposite to his usual type-cast, it is ironic that original author Helen Fielding describes him, in real life, as being more like Daniel Cleaver, than any of his "normal" roles.
  
  
• In order to make her English accent seem more natural, Renée Zellweger retained it on set even while not shooting. Hugh Grant once noted that he did not hear her speak in an American accent until the wrap party, after the film was completed, where he heard her speak "in a very strange voice" that he soon found out was her own natural tone.
  
  
• After discovering that Daniel is cheating on her, Bridget is watching TV at home. As she browses her channels, a film is shown. It is a scene from Fatal Attraction (1987).
  
  
• While preparing for the role of Bridget, Renée Zellweger worked in a London office. On her desk in this office she kept a framed picture of then boyfriend Jim Carrey. Other office workers, who did not recognize her, found this to be odd, but never mentioned it to her for fear of embarrassing her.
  
  

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