‘Bridget Jones’ Author Helen Fielding on Bringing ‘Mad About the Boy’ to the Big Screen and Defying Stereotypes About Women Dating Younger Men: ‘Bridget Isn’t Anyone’s Old Bat’
variety.comEllise Shafer The night the third “Bridget Jones” novel, “Mad About the Boy,” came out in October 2013, author Helen Fielding was taking a walk in London when she passed her local pub and was accosted by a tipsy patron. “You’ve killed Colin Firth!” they shouted dramatically. “Well the truth is, I didn’t ever intend to actually kill Colin,” Fielding tells Variety over Zoom, remembering the details of that day with a mischievous smile.
She had instead ended the fictional life of Mark Darcy, the character Firth played alongside titular heroine Renée Zellweger in the “Bridget Jones” film adaptations, of which there were two at the time.
Human rights lawyer Darcy was killed by a landmine in Sudan while negotiating the release of aid workers — an honorable way to go.
As a result, “Mad About the Boy” — the long-gestating film version of which debuts on Peacock in the U.S. Thursday and in U.K.
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