Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant Set to Reprise Roles in New Bridget Jones Movie
Stuntmen were utilized for the scene where they crashed through the window, but the climactic showdown between Mark and Daniel was improvised. Firth shared with the Los Angeles Times in 2016, “We’re two very ineffectual, frightened, angry yuppies going at each other—pulling hair and wanting to run away at the same time.”
Grant mentioned in an interview with Cinema.com, “I’ve been trying to do something like that for years. You know, when the script says ‘they fight,’ to ban the stunt coordinator from the set. Because they always try to make it look so Hollywood. You know, we fight the way two middle-class educated Englishmen would fight. Which I’ve always maintained would be sort of girlie and cowardly, you know? With squealing!”
Grant humorously added, “But if they had to fight for real, ‘well obviously I’d win!’ Grant promised. ‘You know, I was trained to kill! But Colin did marvelously, for someone who’s not very, well, sporty.”
Despite their hesitant approach, their on-screen confrontation was a hit with audiences and requests for more were made.
“Hugh and I have only ever worked together in order to fight,” Firth deadpanned in a Fandango Extras clip after they were compelled to tussle again in the 2004 sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. “On the first film we had very little together, except the fight. Here we are again, doing absolutely nothing except fighting, again.”
When they reunited for the anticipated scene, they engaged in trash-talking banter before the showdown.
“He complained bitterly, of course,” Firth said. “I was ‘hurting him,’ he had bruises. I think probably if we ever did do it again I would advise him to get in a bit of training first.”
Grant joked, “Colin now has to spend even more time in the trailer, poor old boy, ’cause he’s, you know, he’s losing it a little. I think he’d be the first to tell you that. He’s gone a bit jowly and the neck’s gone a bit scrawny and all that.”
Firth retorted, “I think he was spending a bit of time paying attention to his body and his fitness at the time. It’s remarkable the difference three years can make, really, because it was certainly easier for me because he was much fleshier and his contours were softer. It was more like wrestling my grandmother from that point.”