Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy sees the iconic character in a new chapter of life as a 50-something widowed mom of two who gets back into the dating scene.
Longtime fans of the franchise based on Helen Fielding’s best-selling book series will find familiarity not just in Renée Zellweger’s performance as Bridget, who she’s played off and on for 24 years, but in the character’s signature style.
“It’s so rare that a film has met the same person playing the same character with decades in between,” Molly Emma Rowe, the costume designer for the fourth film, told Yahoo Entertainment. “That makes it such a unique kind of situation and also so relatable.”
Zellweger in Bridget’s original gray hooded coat, with Colin Firth as Mark Darcy. (Peacock)
Well-worn penguin pajamas, that gray hooded coat from the turkey curry buffet and a Tiffany heart pendant are just a few of Bridget’s classic wardrobe pieces brought back for Mad About the Boy — but they aren’t the only ones.
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“We put quite a lot of Easter eggs in,” Rowe said.
Rowe started her costuming journey by watching “all of the films again and again” with the intention of honoring the three previous costume designers “who have created Bridget up to now,” but meeting with Zellweger during preproduction was her biggest inspiration.
“Renée is one of the greatest actors of our time,” Rowe said. “She created this iconic character over 25 years ago — and she’s very sure who Bridget is. So it was really important for me to understand from Renée who Bridget is.”
Molly Emma Rowe, costume designer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. (Courtesy of Molly Emma Rowe)
She said Zellweger, who she described as a “powerhouse” that’s in all but two scenes in the film, “was so involved, so sure [of the character] and collaborative and kind and interested. I felt very lucky and privileged that Renée wanted to find the new Bridget together.”
Rowe said “authenticity was so important to all of us” during the process, and she had a real surprise for the Academy Award-winning actress along the way. She tracked down some of Bridget’s original clothes and props from the Universal Pictures archive.
“I didn’t tell Renée, and when she saw them, it was really emotional,” Rowe said. “We opened this box that had the diaries from the first film, and the gray hooded coat. We’re all Bridget Jones superfans in our department, so we were really excited and overwhelmed, but seeing Renée see those things again was amazing. She said, ‘There’s DNA in here from the first movie.’”
The first outfit Bridget wears in Mad About the Boy is the gray coat. It’s a nod to her meeting future husband Mark Darcy, played by Colin Firth, in the original film. This film is about life after Darcy, which is not a spoiler if you read Fielding’s 2013 book or watched the trailer.
Zellweger with Leo Woodall, who plays her love interest Roxster. (Peacock)
There are other style nods to Darcy. Bridget’s heart necklace, which is the only jewelry she wears, gets the addition of a “D” pendant. Rowe also dressed the widow in some of what she and Zellweger decided would be Darcy’s old clothes, including a cozy gray sweater and a worn button-down shirt.
“I had his initials monogrammed on it,” Rowe said of the shirt. “I don’t think you even see it on-screen, but it was for Renée [to connect with the storyline]. We actually did try some of Colin’s shirts from the archive, but because he’s so tall and she’s so tiny, it was just a little too much.”
Bridget’s penguin pajama top was back after a laborious effort. (Peacock)
Something Rowe couldn’t track down at all was Bridget’s red penguin pajamas, last seen (bottoms only) in the third film, so they were meticulously remade. Rowe called them “a big legacy thing to get right.”
“Who knows where [the originals] are, but Renée and I were like, She’s been laundering them for like 20 years,” so they had to be properly faded. After searching for the right shade of red, the winning fabric was “washed and washed,” Rowe continued. “I had an incredible textile department work on all the costumes to make sure that clothes are creased and shoes are worn. Nothing is new in Bridget Jones. Everything’s been through this lived-in process.”
In Mad About the Boy, viewers will spot the pajama top only, which Bridget wears on a school run paired with track pants and Birkenstocks.
Bridget and Mr. Walliker, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. (Peacock)
Later in the film, Bridget looks for love again — with younger man Roxster (Leo Woodall) and her children’s teacher, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) — and that change is also reflected in her style. (Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver is also back for this installment.)
“She starts off in her pajamas, track pants — very subdued dressing,” Rowe said. “Then we kind of bring color back, and we bring Bridget’s mini skirts back.”
Zellweger as Bridget Jones in Mad About the Boy. (Peacock)
Rowe said a lot of thought was put into “What should a 50-year-old woman wear?” They decided that “Bridget is Bridget, so she’ll wear a mini skirt with tights and boots and a little cardigan. We wanted to dress her very authentically Bridget, but also to prove that that’s what women wear now in their 50s, 40s. There are no rules. We should do what we like.”
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy starts streaming on Peacock Feb. 13.
