Celia Imrie has admitted she wasn’t a fan of the original script for Bridget Jones ’s Diary. A reinterpretation of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, the 2001 movie was based on Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel of the same name and starred Renee Zellweger in the title role, with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant playing her love interests . It was praised by critics and was a box office success, eventually being followed by the sequels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in 2004 and Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016.
A fourth film, Mad About the Boy, is also currently being filmed in London , with new cast members including One Day’s Leo Woodall and Isla Fisher. However, Celia, who played Una Alconbury in the first three films, has revealed she wasn’t quite convinced about signing on to the movie 23 years ago. First introduced in the original film Celia’s character was a friend of Bridget’s interfering mother Pam.
Throwing a garden party that was initially themed ‘Tarts and Vicars’, there was a change of plans however Bridget wasn’t informed and turned up in a Playboy bunny costume. Although Celia, 71, has returned for Bridget Jones 4, she’s now spoken about thinking the original ‘would never get made’. ‘I was really embarrassed to say that I was at a read-through for a film, and it was about somebody who wanted to give up smoking, and they thought they were having too much white wine and they wanted a boyfriend and they wrote a diary.
..and I thought i.
