TV & Movies
Hugh Grant Pokes Fun At Colin Firth’s Bridget Jones Casting
“They’re still wheeling him out.”
Hugh Grant pulls no punches when it comes to his friend and Bridget Jones co-star Colin Firth. During the Nov. 13 episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers, the actor was asked about Firth’s casting in the upcoming film Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, in which Grant and Renée Zellweger both revive their roles as Daniel Cleaver and Bridget Jones, respectively.
“Poor Colin. They’re still wheeling him out,” he joked, leaning into their characters’ rivalry. “No, it’s fine. It’s nice to give the old boy some work.” Host Seth Meyers then asked if it was “charitable” for Firth to have reprised the role of Mark Darcy in the franchise’s fourth installment, adding, “When we see Colin Firth in films, we should see that as an act of charity? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah, and actually, he looks fine,” Grant jokingly replied. “He’s had a lot of work done. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but it’s brilliant work. ... And he’s great with his makeup. He does his own.”
Adapted from Helen Fielding’s 2013 novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy follows the original 2001 rom-com Bridget Jones’s Diary, and its two sequels, The Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones’s Baby. Along with Grant, Firth, and Zellweger, the upcoming film stars plenty of new faces, including potential love interests Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall.
Colin And Hugh’s Longstanding Feud
Like their Bridget Jones characters, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, Grant and Firth have engaged in a playful feud for many years after the original film’s release.
In a recent Vanity Fair interview, Grant joked that his idea of “perfect happiness” is to witness the downfall of Firth. “Drinking a pint of London Pride while munching Twiglets and reading about Colin Firth having a critical and box office catastrophe,” he said.
In 2022, Grant also dedicated a chair at BAFTA to Firth, with a plaque that read, “In loving memory of Colin Firth. Not dead yet, but looks it. Sponsored by Hugh Grant.”
Despite his consistent jabs, Grant clarified at the 2003 Love Actually premiere that it’s all in jest. “I’m never very kind about Colin, but if truth be told, he’s just about the only actor in the world I genuinely like and admire.”
Firth also spoke highly of Grant during a 2012 interview with The London Standard, calling their feud “a running joke.” He continued, “I get on really well with him. I like the guy, despite his outrageous rudeness about me. ... We do it to each other. I’m always hearing how he’s announced that I’m too old to be in the cinema anymore.”
