The American actress Renée Zellweger (Texas, 56 years old) inaugurated this Monday 17 November in London a new statue celebrating her famous character Bridget Jones, which she has played for more than two decades. “Three, two, one”, the actress Shally Phillips, who plays one of Bridget Jones’ best friends in the drama, counted down before discovering the comedy, after a spectacular meeting that made the two actors laugh nervously. “It’s a dream come true,” Zellweger commented after seeing the resulting statue, which shows his character with his famous diary and pen in hand. “I mean… What a character! I love her so much”, she acknowledged about that role of a British journalist – thirty years old at the beginning and fifty years old at the end of the saga -, awkward and funny, who complained about being single, but who actually conquers everyone she meets thanks to her naturalness. “I think she’s a lot prettier than me,” he joked after seeing the bronze figure.
The new work is located in the central London square of Leicester Square and is part of the 2020 initiative Scenes in the squarean interactive statue tour that aims to rediscover some of the UK’s best-loved characters and iconic film scenes brought to life in this square of the British capital where cinemas abound. The writer of the original novel was also present at the presentation event. Bridget Jones’s DiaryHelen Fielding, and some actors of the saga, such as the British Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who have a leading role alongside her in Bridget Jones: crazy about him (2025).
The actress’s current partner, presenter Ant Anstead (Plymouth, 46 years old), was not present at the event, but proudly shared his stories from Instagram the happy moment. “Iconic,” he wrote alongside a video showing his girlfriend reacting to the bronze figure. Despite the discretion with which they have been dating for three and a half years, Anstead has always shown his support for the interpreter. In January this year, for example, he went with her to the premiere of Bridget Jones: crazy about him and also brought her two older children – Amelie, 21, and Archie, 18 -. Anstead shares custody with his ex-wife, Louise Anstead, and is also the father of six-year-old Hudson from his second marriage to HGTV star Christina Haack.
At the event, Zellweger assured that, thanks to the experience of having participated in these four films in which he mostly shared scenes with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, he has achieved an “extended family” and has something in common with people from all over the world. “We all share an affinity with Bridget in some way, because she makes us feel recognized and that’s a huge blessing,” the two-time Oscar-winning actress – in 2004 for Cold Mountain and in 2020 from Judy—.
The statue depicts the Bridget Jones character with her hair tied back and one of her signature skirts, clutching her diary and placing a pen on her chin. The sculpture will share the space of the square with other famous characters from British cinema, such as Harry Potter, Paddington or Mary Poppins, despite being the first work of the initiative Scenes in the square dedicated to a romantic comedy.
“Spending a little time in his world and his skin every now and then is a lot of fun,” Zellweger said of Jones. The character was born from an anonymous column called Bridget Jones’s Diary in the newspaper The Independent, written by Fielding in 1995, before being adapted as a literary and cinematic saga. On the big screen, the Bridget Jones franchise consists of four films: Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: I will survive (2004), Bridget Jones’ son (2016) e Bridget Jones: Crazy about himreleased last February.
