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\n Related: <\/span>‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ Cast: Where Are They Now?<\/span><\/a>
\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\t\t\tTo Bridget, who cannot cook! Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary was a huge hit when it debuted in April 2001 \u2014 and its stars have only kept rising. Ren\u00e9e Zellweger, who played the titular diarist, had already turned in critically acclaimed performances in films including Jerry Maguire and Nurse Betty, but Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary arguably made her [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Us Weekly: <\/strong>How did you choose which parts of the film to keep authentic to your life, and what to fictionalize?<\/p>\nKristin Scott Thomas:<\/strong> The only bits that are really true are the bits that are in animate sequences. Those are my memories, which I sort of gave to the film. The rest is kind of invented. So, it was really great, actually, to be able to take these events that I experienced as a small person and then create another story around it. Not my story, a different story. That was really exciting, to make a different world.<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> Why was it important to make this such a female-driven project?<\/p>\nKST:<\/strong> What I\u2019m examining is the importance of men in our lives, specifically father figures. I think that\u2019s what I was looking at without lecturing about it. Just to say, \u201cLook, you really are important,\u201d because we talk about motherhood and things like this, but it\u2019s also important to understand the absence and presence of a masculine element in women\u2019s lives.\u201d I wanted to have a look at that.<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> How would you describe each of the daughters when we first meet them in the story?<\/p>\nKST:<\/strong> I always like to say that the three daughters are in romantic disarray. It\u2019s catastrophic, their romantic lives, and they\u2019re sort of slightly miffed that their mother, in her 60s, is having the time of her life. You know, she\u2019s super happy, and everything\u2019s going great, and then they are a little disappointed in her choice because they feel like he\u2019s not quite as good as their father was. So you know, \u201cWhy is she taking a downgrade?\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>
\n Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham, Sienna Miller<\/span> Peter Jarowey\/Vertical<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUs:<\/strong> Is there one daughter you identify most with?<\/p>\nKST:<\/strong> To be honest, we\u2019re magpies, actors are magpies. We take a little bit here, a little bit there, we steal this, we steal that. And I think that a lot of the characters that I wrote are probably quite revealing about me. But I wouldn\u2019t like to say where or how! [laughs] And [my] character of Diana, the mother, is my goal as a mother. I\u2019d love to be that sort of\u00a0 brave and kind and wise.<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> Why were Emily, Sienna and Scarlett the right three actresses to play your on screen daughters in this film?<\/p>\nKST:<\/strong> I\u2019ll start with Emily. I\u2019ve been watching her for a few years. She is an extraordinary presence on a film and she\u2019s such an original\/ There is no one else like her around. She\u2019s got this incredible, sort of, transparency, to her face. You can see every thought just floating past like clouds. She\u2019 really is amazing and very sensitive and very creative. Sienna, for me, as I was writing it, I said, \u201cThis has to be Sienna Miller.\u201d Because I know Sienna would get what it\u2019 slike to be an actress in the spotlight and be amused to spear it, somehow. I knew she\u2019d like that, even though I\u2019d never met her. So I was pleased when I asked her to do it and she said yes straight away. And then Scarlett, Scarlett was a big shot in the dark because I was looking for someone who had authority and vulnerability. \u2026I wanted someone who could play a strength of character and a determination and vulnerability. And Scarlett, I just thought, \u201cShe can do that. She\u2019s not English. But She can play English! So I rang her up.!<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> This is the third time Scarlett has played your daughter. How has your relationship with her changed over the years now that she\u2019s a wife [to husband Colin Jost] and mother?<\/p>\nKST:<\/strong> It has, because I first met her when she was 12. She was a little girl when I met her and now a super powerful woman with a wonderful career and a beautiful family. She\u2019s amazing. She\u2019s really great. She\u2019s quite a force of character, but what\u2019s really great about her, which I really appreciated, because it could have easily gone in any direction, is what a team player she is, and how she very quickly just fell in with everybody else and got on with it. It was great.<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> You also reunited with your Four Weddings and a Funeral costar and on screen brother, James Fleet<\/strong>, who plays your new husband. Did anybody make any jokes about you marrying your sibling?<\/p>\n\n![\"My_Mothers_Wedding-0017,](\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/My_Mothers_Wedding-0017.jpg?w=1000&quality=70&strip=all\")
<\/div>
\n James Fleet, Kristin Scott Thomas, Scarlett Johasson<\/span> Peter Jarowey\/Vertical<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nKST:<\/strong> No, thank goodness! I\u2019m glad about that. He\u2019s great. James Fleet, he really is. And he played my husband in another theater play that we did many years ago. He\u2019s always been in my mind.<\/p>\nUs:<\/strong> Speaking of Four Weddings and a Funeral, that film, like My Mother\u2019s Wedding, really balances marriage and love and comedy with tragedy very well. What did that film teach you in preparation for this one?<\/p>\n\n
Kristin Scott Thomas:<\/strong> The only bits that are really true are the bits that are in animate sequences. Those are my memories, which I sort of gave to the film. The rest is kind of invented. So, it was really great, actually, to be able to take these events that I experienced as a small person and then create another story around it. Not my story, a different story. That was really exciting, to make a different world.<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> Why was it important to make this such a female-driven project?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> What I\u2019m examining is the importance of men in our lives, specifically father figures. I think that\u2019s what I was looking at without lecturing about it. Just to say, \u201cLook, you really are important,\u201d because we talk about motherhood and things like this, but it\u2019s also important to understand the absence and presence of a masculine element in women\u2019s lives.\u201d I wanted to have a look at that.<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> How would you describe each of the daughters when we first meet them in the story?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> I always like to say that the three daughters are in romantic disarray. It\u2019s catastrophic, their romantic lives, and they\u2019re sort of slightly miffed that their mother, in her 60s, is having the time of her life. You know, she\u2019s super happy, and everything\u2019s going great, and then they are a little disappointed in her choice because they feel like he\u2019s not quite as good as their father was. So you know, \u201cWhy is she taking a downgrade?\u201d<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> Is there one daughter you identify most with?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> To be honest, we\u2019re magpies, actors are magpies. We take a little bit here, a little bit there, we steal this, we steal that. And I think that a lot of the characters that I wrote are probably quite revealing about me. But I wouldn\u2019t like to say where or how! [laughs] And [my] character of Diana, the mother, is my goal as a mother. I\u2019d love to be that sort of\u00a0 brave and kind and wise.<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> Why were Emily, Sienna and Scarlett the right three actresses to play your on screen daughters in this film?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> I\u2019ll start with Emily. I\u2019ve been watching her for a few years. She is an extraordinary presence on a film and she\u2019s such an original\/ There is no one else like her around. She\u2019s got this incredible, sort of, transparency, to her face. You can see every thought just floating past like clouds. She\u2019 really is amazing and very sensitive and very creative. Sienna, for me, as I was writing it, I said, \u201cThis has to be Sienna Miller.\u201d Because I know Sienna would get what it\u2019 slike to be an actress in the spotlight and be amused to spear it, somehow. I knew she\u2019d like that, even though I\u2019d never met her. So I was pleased when I asked her to do it and she said yes straight away. And then Scarlett, Scarlett was a big shot in the dark because I was looking for someone who had authority and vulnerability. \u2026I wanted someone who could play a strength of character and a determination and vulnerability. And Scarlett, I just thought, \u201cShe can do that. She\u2019s not English. But She can play English! So I rang her up.!<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> This is the third time Scarlett has played your daughter. How has your relationship with her changed over the years now that she\u2019s a wife [to husband Colin Jost] and mother?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> It has, because I first met her when she was 12. She was a little girl when I met her and now a super powerful woman with a wonderful career and a beautiful family. She\u2019s amazing. She\u2019s really great. She\u2019s quite a force of character, but what\u2019s really great about her, which I really appreciated, because it could have easily gone in any direction, is what a team player she is, and how she very quickly just fell in with everybody else and got on with it. It was great.<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> You also reunited with your Four Weddings and a Funeral costar and on screen brother, James Fleet<\/strong>, who plays your new husband. Did anybody make any jokes about you marrying your sibling?<\/p>\n KST:<\/strong> No, thank goodness! I\u2019m glad about that. He\u2019s great. James Fleet, he really is. And he played my husband in another theater play that we did many years ago. He\u2019s always been in my mind.<\/p>\n Us:<\/strong> Speaking of Four Weddings and a Funeral, that film, like My Mother\u2019s Wedding, really balances marriage and love and comedy with tragedy very well. What did that film teach you in preparation for this one?<\/p>\n
\n Scarlett Johansson, Emily Beecham, Sienna Miller<\/span> Peter Jarowey\/Vertical<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>
\n James Fleet, Kristin Scott Thomas, Scarlett Johasson<\/span> Peter Jarowey\/Vertical<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n