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Renee Zellweger Looked To Albert Square For Bridget Jones Inspiration

Renee Zellweger has admitted that when she was looking to immerse herself in British culture to play hapless singleton Bridget Jones, she looked to Albert Square for her inspiration.

The long-running soap ‘EastEnders’ was seemingly a great help in introducing her to real Britishness when she first won the role in 2001, she told the Daily Telegraph.

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“I listened to ‘The Archers’, I watched ‘EastEnders’ and ‘Ali G’on TV,” she said.

“I watched the news. I read magazines to see who were the current-day icons in English culture, to get an idea about who she might aspire to emulate.

“After a while I was humming along to Spice Girls songs.”

She also spoke about Bridget’s differing physique to her own – she put on two stone to play the character back then – and her frustration at how it’s often fixated upon by the media.

“I don’t think about it like weight gain,” she said.

“She just needed to look like her lifestyle, and this is a girl who loves her ice cream. She drinks a lot of chardonnay, smokes a lot and goes to the bar not the gym.

“It’s like cutting her hair or wearing those black boots or the black bra with the see-through top – it’s about creating this character.

“I love this character and all the people involved. So many people feel they can relate to her because they’ve shared her awkwardness and they’ve shared her humiliation.

“She makes it OK to be imperfect and we are all kind of looking for that.”

Zellweger is back playing Jones in ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’, due out across the UK on September 16.

Image credits: Getty/Working Title