Hugh Grant Cried Over The “Really Moving” New Bridget Jones Movie

Even Hugh Grant can’t resist crying over a good rom-com — including one he’s starring in it. In a new interview on Nov. 13, the actor revealed that the script for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth and final movie in the Bridget Jones saga, actually moved him to tears.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Grant sang the film’s praises in advance of its theatrical release on Feb. 12. “I haven’t seen it, but obviously, I know the script and I’m a harsh judge of script, and it was really good,” he said. “Really moving as well as funny.”

He went on to reveal that the film was inspired by Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding becoming a widow, which gave it more emotional heft and even made him teary. “This last book is based on her own experience of losing her husband and bringing up her kids alone,” Grant said. “It’s got a huge amount of heart. It made me cry. Have I made it sound too dumb? It’s also extremely funny.”

Grant portrays publisher Daniel Cleaver, the former boss of Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and one of her perpetual love interests in the franchise. He appeared in the original 2001 film as well as the 2004 sequel, The Edge of Reason, but didn’t return for 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, with his character being presumed dead due to a plane crash. (At the end, a newspaper headline reveals he’s still alive.)

Grant’s Bridget Jones Absence & Return

Grant went on to explain why he skipped the third movie, saying that while he loved the storyline of Bridget having a baby and not knowing who the father was, he struggled to process his character’s emotions in this situation, leading the writers to craft a new love interested played by Patrick Dempsey instead.

“That was marvelous, but I could never work out how Daniel would handle either being a father or not being a father,” he explained. “We went through agony months and months and in the end I said, ‘I think I’d better sit this one out.’ So I did. And they made a wonderful film anyway.”

Daniel makes his grand return in Mad About the Boy, and is affectionately called “Uncle Daniel” by Bridget’s children in the trailer. Speaking to Vanity Fair in September, Grant revealed that he also had concerns about fitting his character into the fourth movie, but he managed to make it work.

“Really there’s no part for Daniel Cleaver in it at all. They wanted him in it, and in the end, they’d done something I wasn’t crazy about,” he explained, before revealing that he “wrote some scenes” that made the final cut. “I’m not in a lot, I did a week’s work, that’s it... But when you see the film, you’ll be very moved.”