Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy director Michael Morris has defended the franchise’s previous films over accusations of misogyny.
Speaking to Variety, Morris fielded questions about the original movie being dated, and whether that was something he considered before setting out to make the fourth and final instalment.
“I understand those comments and I saw similar ones. But I think of it a bit differently, because I remember seeing the movie in 2001 when I was making my own way in London. It was a very different time,” he said.
“We make contemporary films, I think, as documents of the time that we’re in. I was not part of the first films at all, but I don’t believe that the intent of the filmmakers was in any way to be misogynistic or to partake in terrible things like fat shaming.
“I think what they were doing, if anything, was shining a light, in a comedic way, on those pressures that existed and on those things.”
He continued: “Knowing Renée, she approaches everything with this warmth and I think she’s always felt of Bridget as being representative of women who have had to deal with all that shit in the past. And now I think it’s just effortless to leave some of that behind, because I’m not making that film.
“It wouldn’t feel right in any way for her to be chronicling her weight in her diary, because that’s just not the pressure that she’s under. She’s under a whole load of other pressures. Women are under all kinds of other pressures in the age of Instagram to be perfectly slick and tidy and on time and all this other stuff. But it’s just not in the same categories as it was.”
The fourth and final chapter of the franchise – which is adapted from Helen Fielding’s novels – sees Renée Zellweger reprise her title role nine years after the third film.
The story rejoins Bridget as she navigates her 50s as a widowed mother to two, following the death of her partner Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Now, she finds herself in an unexpected relationship with a park supervisor (Leo Woodall), who happens to be 20 years younger than her.
Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson also reprise their roles for the film, while Firth, despite his character being dead, still makes a number of spectral appearances.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy was released on Friday (February 14) after taking a record number of pre-sales, putting it on track to outperform Barbie in the UK.