Audiences loved Renee Zellweger as the very British Bridget in “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Now moviegoers will get the chance to fall for Zellweger all over again as she returns to the role for “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” the sequel to the 2001 hit romantic comedy.
In “The Edge of Reason,” we catch up with Bridget six weeks after the end of “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Bridget and the very handsome Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) have spent six wonderful weeks getting closer and more comfortable in their relationship. But Bridget, ever the self-analyzing young woman, can’t seem to just relax and enjoy the moment. She starts to wonder, after just six weeks, where is this relationship going?

In this interview with Renee Zellweger, the Academy Award-winning actress tells what it was like to climb back into Bridget’s skin. Zellweger also puts to rest the rumors she had been reluctant about gaining weight for the role, and that she’d been against doing a sequel.

INTERVIEW WITH RENEE ZELLWEGER:

Were you reluctant to do this movie? What changed your mind about the film and gaining the weight again, and have you begun to identify more with Bridget’s hopeless optimistic romanticism?
I try my best. I try my best, to answer your second question. About the weight issue, I don't know where the notion that I was hesitant to have that experience in the first place came from, or that I had negative feelings about the experience the first time around. I don't know where that came from. I read it myself somewhere and I don't know where that surfaced, but it didn’t come from me.

It wasn’t a negative experience in any respect. It contributed so much to the experience of bringing Bridget Jones to life the first time. And so I knew that it was essential in repeating the journey. It had to be authentic to me. It had to be. And if you’re not going to become the character and be the character, then I don’t really see the point in undertaking the experience. I wanted to have that experience and people were suggesting to me, “Oh, it might not be necessary.” Or, “You shouldn’t do as much as you did last time because it’s probably not healthy.” For me, then it would render the experience pointless from a creative perspective. I wanted to revisit this character in every respect.

Getting to [the] point [of] deciding to go forward and make a follow-up film, it took a while. Probably because the first experience meant so much to me, and because I have so much respect for this character and also what she represents. I didn’t want to compromise that in any way by following up with a film that meant nothing, just because we could. I wanted to be certain that the motivation for making this film came from a creative place. And I wanted to be certain that it was a film that was substantial enough that it could stand on its own, regardless of what had happened with the first picture. I wanted to be sure that it was a necessary film and that this character had more stories to tell.

I was more comfortable with the idea of making this film because it’s not a sequel in the traditional sense. There is a book that has been written and so her journey has continued and I had nothing to do with it. It was there already from Helen Fielding, obviously. So, that being said, it gave it purpose. But again, it was just being careful that we wouldn’t do anything that might blasphemize the first, or how people felt about this character, because we went forward irresponsibly with her.

Do you identify with Bridget?
I’m trying, like I said. I do my best. It’s what I admire most about her is her ever-present optimism in the face of so much adversity. I love that she’s able to laugh at herself and get back up and keep on trying. Well, I do my best. I keep on trying anyway.