Cult director Richard Curtis
Today he would do “Bridget Jones” differently
Renée Zellweger celebrated great success with “Bridget Jones” – but would the film still be a box office hit today?
© imago images/Mary Evans
“Bridget Jones” was a huge cinema success in the 1990s. Today, director Richard Curtis looks at the cult film much more critically.
Cult director Richard Curtis (66), who is responsible for cinema hits such as “Love Actually”, “Bridget Jones” and “Notting Hill”, now looks at his work in the 1990s with a much more critical eye such successful films. The British filmmaker revealed this during an appearance as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, where he was interviewed by his daughter Scarlett Curtis (28).
In an interview, the screenwriter and director admitted that jokes about women’s weight are “not funny anymore” these days. In addition, it was wrong to let the 1999 film “Notting Hill” with Hugh Grant (63) and Julia Roberts (55) in the main roles play without black characters – even though it is a diverse London district.
“These jokes aren’t funny anymore”
“I remember how shocked I was five years ago when Scarlett said to me, ‘You must never use the word ‘fat’ again,” Richard Curtis said. “In my generation, it was funny to call someone chubby – there were jokes about it in Love Actually. Those jokes aren’t funny anymore.” Today he agrees with his daughter.
From today’s perspective, several of his previous films shame female characters for their looks and body weight. In “Bridget Jones”, for example, Renée Zellweger (54) is often criticized for her appearance and described as “chubby” or “overweight”, even though she weighs around 60 kilograms. In the film, Bridget Jones says of herself that she has a “butt the size of Brazil.” In Love Actually, domestic worker Natalie, who falls in love with the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant), is referred to as “the chubby girl.”
“Wish I had been ahead of my time”
Regarding the cast in “Notting Hill,” the director said, “I wish I had been ahead of my time,” Curtis said. He went to a school that wasn’t very diverse and had little exposure to it through his friends at the university. When it came to the issue of diversity, he held on to the feeling that he didn’t know how to write these roles. “I think I was just stupid and made a mistake,” he says today.
Curtis’ daughter Scarlett is an award-winning author of feminist books and an activist. Her mother is the British radio announcer Emma Freud (61) – a great-granddaughter of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939). Scarlett Curtis was represented at the literature festival with her book “Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (and other lies)”.