Renée Zellweger "didn’t think" that ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ was "sl*t shaming."
The 47-year-old actress reprises the titular role of the British diarist for the third time in the upcoming movie, which sees her alter ego falling pregnant and not knowing who the father is, but she didn’t realise there was anything controversial about the storyline.
When asked by the Sydney Morning Herald what she thought about the "sl*t shaming" elements of the script, she said: "Gosh, that’s interesting. I didn’t think about it in terms of its morality, I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was looking at the quality of the writing and how it made me laugh. I guess I was a little caught up in the other things."
Renée then deflected the question onto co-star Patrick Dempsey, who admitted that he believed the subject was "contemporary and progressive."
The 50-year-old star said: "Today I think it works because there’s been a break now, that you can get away with that discussion. And I think it makes it very contemporary and progressive in a lot of ways. Something came out of one our interviews this morning about how the women are a little bit more aggressive and the men are retreating. And I think that’s where we’re at right now."
But Renée still believes the character of Bridget Jones is as relatable to audiences now as she was 15 years ago.
She said: "She’s imperfect, and she makes it OK for the rest of us to be imperfect. And we love being privy to her inner dialogue, you know? Her anxieties and her self-deprecating humour. Because we relate to that. We all know what it’s like to find yourself in the middle of an escalating disaster, realising that you can’t get out of it but doing your best to proceed anyway."
Renée Zellweger says Bridget Jones’s Baby isn’t sl*t shaming
