Interview with “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” Director, Michael Morris

Full transcript of Interview with “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” Director, Michael Morris.

0:23KT: Michael Morris, thank you so much for your time and welcome to the For Your Reference Podcast.

0:27Michael: It's a pleasure to be here.

0:29KT: We have time, but we don't have all the time to talk about the BBC miniseries, which is the spiritual love of Bridget Jones. I love the Bridget Jones films. I'm so excited to talk to you today. How does it feel? Big question. How does it feel to, I guess, enter a successful, I would say, fourth entry into a well beloved franchise?

0:54Michael: Yeah, it's definitely a big responsibility, you know, and you know, the Bridget Jones franchise was really important to me too. I mean, I remember feeling so much like Bridget because we were going through sort of weird moments in our life at the same time in the first film. Yeah. And of all the characters in that film that you'd think I would, uh, you know, identify with I definitely was Bridget. And so she always, like, had a, had a really special place in my kind of movie heart, you know, for that character. So it definitely felt special to me. And I think if I stopped to think about it too long it would have been a bit like

1:28KT: It's a bit, yeah, because we can have our power suits, but we do have our naughty little skirts, you know, where we have our moments as well. And I think it also says a lot to the love of not just Renée, but also Helen being in the screenplay. I believe she wrote the screenplay during COVID, which would have been a very. Calcifying sort of time and it also speaks to the tone of Bridget Jones. But we also have Chiwetel as well as Nico Parker, Leo Woodall. So we have new people that are injected into the world with you as well. How did it feel being able to, I guess, meld what was there?

2:03KT: And I guess what more life is to come?

2:06Michael: Yeah, that's that's a really interesting question, because like to me, like you're going to naturally. Have some continuation, right? Because part of what's so special about this film is where it comes from. Because you've got 25 years of history with it. Including, you know, not just Renée, like, watching her grow up as Bridget Jones has been amazing. But understanding What her life is like. Understanding she's got this great love in Colin Firth's character. And she's got this kind of like, spiky on off with Hugh Grant, you know, over the years. And she's got this amazing support with Sally Phillips and Shirley Henderson and James Callis. You know, all of this backdrop just makes, in my mind, um, just everything more textural and everything more, um, rich, really.

2:48Michael: You know, so it gave me a lot of advantages that you wouldn't necessarily have. Mm hmm. And because this film is Also, a bit of a departure from, you know, Tonally, from the previous ones. All of that stuff just helps, I think, you know, um, Allow us to, to tell a story in a slightly different way than we have before.

3:09KT: And that's absolutely right because I, I think we all come to Bridget Jones for an escape, a reprieve, a good time with the gals, you know, get around with all your snacks. But it's very much following the hijinks of it. There's not necessarily, okay, she's got the man, she's got everything is fine. Now it's not fine anymore. Um, But we don't really live in the moments of what it is to be in a relationship. We saw a little bit of that in the second film, but it is kind of followed in the hijinks and the relatability that Bridget Jones has. What I really love about Mad About the Boy was that there were moments where yes, there was levity.

3:50KT: Yes, there was comedy, but there were really heavy moments that we just sat in that. And I think for a lot of us when we get to the next stage in life, we might have got in the pumpkin carriage, hopefully, right? But no one really talks about what happens after that. And this is kind of like a guidebook for late 30s, early 40s of how do you even do life? You've got it all and now you need to start again and grief was one of the most beautiful Approaches that I've seen in this film, and I would love to talk a little bit about that

4:23Michael: I think you put it so beautifully. I'm gonna remember that getting the pumpkin carriage, but what happens next? I think that's absolutely what this is because she's the end of the last movie. You know it was ended on a wedding You know she had her Prince

4:36KT: yeah,

4:36Michael: and and she was a princess in that moment and and you know part of us was like Oh, that's the end of Bridget's story, but but it isn't you know and and life like has a habit of Sending us on a curve just when we least you know expect it And so I was very interested in how a character so well created by first Helen and then Renée over all these years Someone so optimistic and joyful and someone who does not kind of just sit, sit only in negative ever, like she's a positive human. How does that person deal with something really, really difficult,

5:10Michael: you know? And I don't want to make it sound like, I mean this is not about like sitting in like sadness, this is about what it takes to move on, what it takes to start living again, you know, uh, and, uh, and Bridget was, is a perfect character for that because she, you want her to live. You just want her to, to get out there and be herself.

5:28KT: Yeah. And I believe in one of the red carpet interviews you talked about, this is a comedy about grief. And I think some of the funniest moments, you know, like I have a big cultural family, you know, funerals, very funny things happen. It's a celebration as well. And I really love the tone that we had. Was it hard to find that balance of we're going to pull back now. We're going to sit in this There was a particular scene and I don't want to spoil it too much but there is a scene where Bridget is just reflecting and you know with the diaries writing a letter and In that in that small media screening Michael, I had to I had to like suck that back in But how was it finding that balance of?

6:09KT: Even if you are the most positive person, life happens.

6:12Michael: But that scene is really, that's a really astute one to talk about, like, in a way. Again, I'm not, I'm going to try not to spoil anything for anybody, but the reason that scene is there. She wasn't, she as a character wasn't ready for that scene. Yeah. Until that moment. And I knew that, like, Renée and I were in absolute partnership on this film in the sense that we talked so long about what How we were going to approach it and how when the time was right in the film, you know There was no way or there's no way through like any sort of

6:40Michael: a grief whether it's a comedy or Or not. There's no way through it without going through it It's just you can avoid it for as long as you want to avoid it, but you can't avoid it forever and so I knew that there just needed to be a scene where Where she feels some of the stuff that she has to feel. And who better to play that than Renée Zellweger, who's both a great physical comedian, but also an unbelievably, um, uh, skilled dramatic actress. So, so, how, to me, I knew, I just, to your tone question, I had the perfect actor.

7:15Michael: Perfect storm. My God, look at that. The world agrees, I think. Yeah, they're underlining what I just said. I love it.

7:21KT: How was it, uh, exploring Bridget as a parent? Because it's no spoiler that Bridget Jones's Baby, she's gonna have a baby. Um, but I think even envisioning what that could look like as Bridget Jones trying to manage her own life and two young children. How was that, um, on set and I guess through the script and bringing it to screen?

7:40Michael: It was, it, it, we, we had such an enormous I think international search actually. You know, funnily enough, our brilliant casting team just were tireless. And, um, at the end of it, uh, found these I mean, there are some wonderful children that that that that came we came across to to play these. But the two that we've got He's, he's such a wonderful actor, Casper, that he was able to sort of really take on board what Colin Firth is like, you know, how he carries himself, how he, how Colin as Mark Darcy approached life in the first

8:12Michael: three films, and I think you see that in him, uh, you know, Hugh's character, Daniel Cleaver says, uh, how a miniature Darcy, you know, like he, he's like a little Mark Darcy, and, and Mila Jankovic, this, this, this is her first thing, she was only six years old when she started to audition for this. And, uh, and she's just like a little Bridget because she's just filter free. And she's not trying to be anything other than Mila. And Mila's just like a wonderful little kid. And so, you've got these, this dynamic in the family. And to your point about what was it like on set. Like, Renée's so great. We did some rehearsals before we started to shoot.

8:47Michael: And, Renée if you imagine, like, she's a proper Hollywood star, you know, coming in. These kids could have been like, oh my God. She erased the boundaries between them instantly. And the kids were crawling all over her and sitting in her lap and like playing and laughing and stuff, like right in the first rehearsal. So. That sense of family chaos and love and like all over the placeness, I, I feel like we were very fortunate to capture it.

9:12KT: Uh, I am about to wrap up, but before I wrap up, I know we can cry and laugh forever with our, um, with all of our loves. But, uh, before I do that, I want to just highlight the soundtrack. Um, I think all of the Bridget Jones have, in a lot of ways, It's thematically and in film, but the music is core. Um, I think one of my favorites was an Al Green song. Yeah, and the way that it was paired, sorry, and the way that it was paired as well was so beautiful. I was falling in love as well. Yes. Um, but I want to thank you so much for your time and wrap up with our final question.

9:47KT: Yeah. Well, We finish our reviews. This can be a very easy cop out, but we finished our reviews with a recommendation. So what would you pair with Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy as a double feature?

9:57Michael: Oh, wow. That's a great question. That's a re that's actually a really interesting question and one that I really wish I had more time to think about, but, uh,

10:06KT: sorry, we're talking about grief and getting it now.

10:09Michael: I'll tell you, like, it's definitely like a double whammy in a way. But, um, one of my favorite. Thematically connected films recently was and it's under seen I mean you may have seen it meant your listeners may have seen it I hope they have but there's a Working Title film that Richard Curtis wrote and directed called About Time, which is just a cool. I honestly think that one will stand up. It's a beautiful film

10:34KT: Well I want to thank you so much. I really really love this full film as well as all of them And thank you so much.

10:40Michael: Thanks so much. What a pleasure. Thank you