‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ director defends previous films over accusations of misogyny

nme.com:

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.