Hugh Grant Pokes Fun At Colin Firth's Bridget Jones Casting

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 sequel, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which also stars Grant as Daniel Cleaver and Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones.

“Poor Colin. They're still wheeling him out,” he joked. “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 Bridget Jones’ 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. Whoever did it ... 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 romcom 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 also stars plenty of new faces, including potential love interests Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall.

Colin & Hugh’s Longstanding Feud

Like their Bridget Jones characters, Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, Grant and Firth have engaged in a playful feud in the two decades since the original film’s release.

During a recent Vanity Fair interview, Grant joked that his idea of “perfect happiness” is to witness the downfall of his nemesis. “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 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 admitted in 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,” he confessed.

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.”