The new Bridget Jones movie, which stars Renée Zellweger, Leo Woodall, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is not what you might expect—and that’s a good thing. But even so, some aspects of the franchise had to remain for the fourth and likely final installment.
Lucky for us, it comes in the form of yet another water scene in which a hot guy (Leo Woodall‘s Roxster, this time) wears a white button down shirt that’s plastered to his chiseled body. “There is a proud tradition of beautiful men walking out of water in the Bridget Jones films,” director Michael Morris tells Glamour of the moment that Roxster jumps into the for-decor-only fountain to rescue a dog in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Morris acknowledges, of course, that the tradition goes back even further—all the way to the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, in which Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy emerges from the lake in his white shirt. “This was a big inspiration for us because I wanted to imply a little tiny piece of that, the original Mark Darcy,” Morris says. “Molly Emma Rowe, our costume designer, and I looked at pictures and worked on a look for that shirt that he’s wearing, which would cling exactly the right way.”
Morris says that “poor, old Leo” had to go through many test shots and keep jumping into swimming pool with “jeans on and everything” in order to get the scene just right. “Just to allow for that moment of him rising out [of the water] and taking and peeling it off was really important,” the director says.
The scene took two days to film, but Morris adds that the gorgeous London weather made it much easier and “we were all gleeful about it, including Leo.”
However, Woodall’s delight over the scene came from a very different place. “I had the best deal because it was a 100 degree day, and I got to splash about in a pool,” Woodall tells Glamour with a laugh. “Everyone else had to stand there in uncomfortable suits and dresses and sweat their way through the day.”
Of course that grouping included Bridget Jones herself, Renée Zellweger. “Yes, we were all very jealous,” she says in agreement.
“Yeah, everyone was very jealous,” Woodall says. “But no, it was really, really fun.”
The post Leo Woodall Shares All the Details Behind His ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ Tribute to ‘Pride and Prejudice’ appeared first on Glamour.
