‘So weird, but nice’: Bridget Jones immortalized as London welcomes statue of Britain’s favorite single | film

forBridget Jones, the heroine of Britain’s most famous and unhappiest romantic comedy, stands in a short, rumpled skirt and open jacket in central London, clutching her diary and pen. Alcohol units: 0, Cigarettes: 0, Calories: 0, Weight: 31 stone – and according to actress Sally Phillips, “no intention of losing any of it”.

Phillips was in Leicester Square on Monday morning to unveil a life-sized bronze statue of the comic character, alongside Helen Fielding – who first cooked it up in a newspaper column 30 years ago, and whose novels have now been translated into more than 40 languages ​​– and Renee Zellweger, star of the four Bridget Jones films (with a box office total of $900m (£683m)).

The statue joins the likes of Paddington, Harry Potter and Charlie Chaplin as part of Westminster Council’s ‘Scenes in the Square’ scheme to boost the site’s credentials as a cinema centre. It is home to four cinemas and the site of most of London’s red carpet premieres.

A pink carpet was laid in honor of the bronze Bridget, who was planted in a bed of fuchsia plastic flowers and covered with a purple silk sheet that required a great deal of tugging when it came time for the big reveal — an on-brand hurdle for a character famous for her bumbling news reports.

“It looks really nice,” was Zellweger’s verdict. “I mean it’s really weird, but it’s really cute.” She said seeing herself immortalized in this way was “not something she expected to happen,” especially during her lifetime. Her ambitions when she made her first film 24 years ago were more modest: “I hoped I wouldn’t get fired.”

Phillips said the fact that the statue is holding stationery instead of traditional utensils such as cigarettes and chardonnay is “good.” “She’s not super drunk in the fourth movie. She’s doing without the wine because fucking isn’t just about alcohol.”

But while the statue’s slim figure also seems inspired by the latest film – in which widowed Bridget is no longer drinking vodka and ice cream but juggling single motherhood and two new suitors – her wardrobe harkens back to an earlier era. “She’s obsessed with boy-era weight with Diary-era Bridget Jones clothes,” Phillips said thoughtfully. “Very strongly,” Fielding nodded.

Nor are the famous “mummy pants” that Bridget wore to soften her silhouette on display — which is unnecessary, said a representative of the 3D Eye studio responsible for the artwork, because “sculpting in clay probably works in a similar way to sculpting pants.”

“Her stomach is as flat as a pancake,” an emotional Fielding said, though she later admitted there was “a kind of dangling” on the belt line – an effect enhanced by the artistic decision to leave her bottom three buttons undone and the jacket appearing to come apart to reveal a triangle of torso.

Could fans be tempted to rub her belly for luck? “How beautiful,” Zellweger said of the idea. “I never imagined it. I love it so much! Maybe we should all go rub her belly?” And her feelings on her exposed midriff? “Well, it’s very real.”

Also in attendance was Eric Fellner, co-president of Working Title, the production company behind the films. “Portrait is hard enough,” he said. “But doing it in 3D is more challenging. They have a good attitude, which is what’s most important.”

Fielding said that while the sculptures are not what she seeks out first on her travels — “those pubs” — she did take some selfies of the sculptures with Jilly Cooper in September, when the two novelists were in Chatsworth for an event hosted by Queen Camilla.

“We went around all the statues to decide whether we liked the naked men or the dogs more. My generation liked the dogs and I preferred the men. But we really liked both.”

Fielding said she hoped people would bring packages of chocolates and pieces of silk to lie at Bridget’s feet on the pilgrimage, echoing the scene in her novel in which her heroine places flowers at the doors of Kensington Palace after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

She said her character’s popularity is due to “the gap between how we all feel and are expected of us and what we actually are. Bridget doesn’t have a superpower. She can’t fly like Mary Poppins. She can’t do magic. She’s definitely not a bear. She can’t fly like Mary Poppins. She can’t do magic. She’s definitely not a bear.”

“But those British qualities of kindness, support for your friends, community, and the ability to laugh at all your faults – the perfection of imperfection – make them relatable to people.”

Its enduring appeal, especially with people who weren’t born when it first appeared, has been credited to a mounting crisis of confidence among young people. “When I first wrote Bridget, we were being bashed by mass media, Photoshopped magazines: really skinny ’90s girls in ads. But Gen Z has gotten it a hundred thousand times worse because they’re not just seeing it from a distance. They’re seeing their friends filtered out. There’s this huge culture of presenting a fake version of your life.”

“But they also feel guilty about worrying about their bodies because of body positivity. So imagine you’re Bridget and you feel bad about your body and Feeling bad about feeling bad.”

At a literary festival in Magaluf recently, an influential person told Fielding that “Bridget helped her not feel so strange or bad or guilty about herself. In Japan, these beautiful little women come up and say they identify with her. Lots of different people feel that she comforts them just by being a human being.”

The fourth film in the series was released in February. Its stars, Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor, as well as director Mark Morris, were also present at the unveiling, with Morris saying he hopes a fifth film will follow.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy grossed £46 million in the UK, still the second highest-grossing film of the year, but went straight to streaming in the US – much to the disappointment of Morris and Fellner. “In America it’s thought that anything that’s not a big movie event ends up on streaming,” Fellner said. “We disagree and believe good stories really work in a shared community experience.”

Fellner was keen to point out the comparisons between Fielding and another author whose best-known works are immortalized in Leicester Square: JK Rowling.

“The creativity of one individual can become this huge thing on a global scale,” he said. “Politicians like to look at the industry as tough stuff, but creativity is an industry in itself, and you need to get more young people from all walks of life able to come up with ideas like Joan.” [Rowling] And Helen. The more intellectual property is created, the better for the country.

Fielding said she expected Keir Stamer to take a keen interest in the morning’s events, given that he is often seen as an inspiration for the dashing and morally indubitable human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth). “I am sure his attention will be focused on this issue,” she said, expressing her hope that the Prime Minister will be reminded “to take the arts seriously and invest in them.”

She also urged that funding be distributed fairly and fairly, rather than being concentrated in the capital. “I’m from Leeds,” she said. “And all the humor in Bridget is based on Northern comedy; on the joke of bringing fancy things to the ground. There’s a lot of creative talent and humor in the North, but honestly, if I spoke at a Yorkshire children’s charity or something like that, I’d be shocked.”

Fielding likened today’s north of England to the environments she witnessed while working for Comic Relief 40 years ago, saying: “I feel like I’m back in East Africa in the 1980s: children without shoes, families without food. The gap between north and south in Britain is much greater than it is in most Western countries.”

In Leicester Square, the crowds began to disperse, the pink carpet looked more muddy, and the sight of a small metallic woman with a seductive face and fuzzy buttons began to look like a permanent fixture.

“I think we know it’s not Nelson’s Column,” Fielding said. “It may not be around in three centuries. But still, it’s nice that Bridget is meaningful in this country.”