Helen Fielding would ‘never’ write Bridget Jones story unless it felt authentic

Author Helen Fielding has said she would “never” write a Bridget Jones story unless there was something “authentic” she wanted to say.

Fielding wrote the screenplay for the Bafta-nominated film adaptation of her book Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy starring Renee Zellweger who reprised her role as the witty and chaotic protagonist.

The film follows the television producer as she navigates being a widowed mother to two children while also exploring the modern dating scene.

Speaking at the red carpet of the 79th British Academy Film Awards, Fielding told the Press Association: “It was partly based on personal experience. So it’s really important to me that it should be true to what actually does happen when children lose their father.

“When someone is quite funny and normal, and when someone dies in their life, you don’t stop being the same person. You don’t stop laughing, you don’t stop setting the spaghetti on fire. You don’t change.

“I would never write a Bridget story unless there’s something authentic that I wanted to say about women, an important story and people.”

The rom-com, which also stars Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Leo Woodall, has been nominated for the outstanding British film Bafta award, and is up against Hamnet, I Swear and 28 Years Later.

Speaking about the recognition, Fielding said it “really touching” and that it felt like a “triumph of being honest about what a mess we all are underneath”.

“It is that acknowledgement that we’re all very vulnerable and we need each other to be nice to each other and be funny.”