Renée Zellweger is set to be honored with a statue immortalizing her as beloved rom-com character Bridget Jones in London’s Leicester Square.
Jones, the quirky heroine created by Helen Fielding, will become the first character in a romantic comedy to get the star treatment on the iconic trail, which features over a dozen sculptures from the cinema world.
Zellweger will be in attendance for the statue’s unveiling November 17, Deadline reported.
The unveiling ceremony will be hosted by actress Sally Phillips, who plays Bridget’s loyal friend Shazzer in the four-film franchise. Actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall, who play Bridget’s love interests in the newest installment of the series, will also be in attendance.
Jones will join other legendary characters immortalized in bronze on the trail, like Daniel Kaluuya’s character from Jordan Peele’s hit movie Get Out, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins, and Paddington Bear.
“Unbelievably and a first for Working Title, we’re getting a statue of one of our most loved characters in bronze being put in Leicester Square and that’s very exciting,” Working Title co-chairman Eric Fellner told the outlet.
“We’ve never had anything like that before. And I think it’s great because Bridget’s a proper London heroine and the idea of having Bridget ever present in a brilliant location in the center of London is really exciting,” he added.
The honor comes ahead of next year marking the 25th anniversary since the first movie, Bridget Jones’s Diary, was released, becoming an instant classic.
The 2001 movie introduced Zellweger as an irresistibly hilarious journalist caught in a love triangle between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth’s characters. After the smashing success of the first film, its sequels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones’s Baby and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy followed, with the latest being released directly to Peacock in February.
Bridget was initially written in a newspaper column at The Independent, with Fielding using the imaginary character to create a fictional diary starting in 1995. Fielding published Bridget Jones’s Diary as a novel the next year, and it became a global bestseller.
Fellner told Deadline, “I love the idea that her brilliant writing in a newspaper 30 years ago ends up as a statue in Leicester Square. It’s kind of gorgeous.”
Reflecting on her start, Fielding said in 2016, “I’ll always be grateful to the newspaper for giving me the freedom to write anonymously in an idiosyncratic voice."
All of the films have been based on Fielding’s already published columns and bestselling novels, but Zellweger has been open about her willingness to keep playing Bridget if Fielding writes an idea for the fifth movie.
“If Helen writes something then, well, I’m in,” Zellweger said at the fourth movie’s premiere.
