Hugh Grant has opened up about his role in new Bridget Jones film.
During his conversation on The Graham Norton show, Grant revealed his character, Daniel Cleaver, did not have an obvious role in the film.
The film, based on Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, follows Bridget, played by Renee Zellweger, as she adjusts to life a single mother after the death of her husband, Mark Darcy. Meanwhile, Daniel was Bridget’s former love interest and the antagonist in the earlier films.
Although there was no clear part for Daniel in this new storyline, Grant said he came up with different backstory for his character to make his return fit better.
“It is a good and moving script – it is extremely funny but very sad. There was no obvious role for me, but I was crammed in,” he said, adding, “So we didn’t have a 60-year-old Daniel Cleaver wandering around looking at young girls, I made up a good interim story for him.”
Additionally, Grant revealed his parents’ lack of support for his acting career, saying, “My mother was a churchgoer and wanted me to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. In their world show business meant nothing.”
He recalled the time when Four Weddings and a Funeral made him famous, revealing, “my mother went to a dinner party with like-minded people and when asked about her two sons she said, ‘One is an investment banker and the other is a film star’. Another guest said, ‘How very interesting, which bank?’ That’s the world I grew up in.”