Hugh Grant rewrote his part in Bridget Jones 4 before joining the cast

Hugh Grant is returning to the world of Bridget Jones’s Diary — but he made some tweaks to the movie before he signed on.

The actor recently discussed his part in the forthcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (out Valentine's Day 2025), saying he was impressed by the screenplay but remained unsatisfied with his character's role in it.

"I loved the script — it made me cry, and I wanted to help with this one," Grant recalled in a new interview with Vanity Fair. "But really there's no part for Daniel Cleaver in it at all. They wanted him in it, and in the end, they'd done something I wasn't crazy about."

So the Notting Hill star, who typically prepares meticulously before a project, decided to rework the material himself. "I wrote some scenes," he said, noting that they ultimately ended up in the final version of the script. 

Now, Grant has nothing but praise for the new project — though he's not going to pretend he's a massive part of it. "It's absolutely the best [Bridget Jones book], and I think it's very funny and very, very moving," he said. "I'm not in a lot, I did a week’s work, that's it… But when you see the film, you'll be very moved."

Grant was one-third of the classic love triangle in the original Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001, which saw his Daniel Cleaver compete with Colin Firth's Mark Darcy for the heart of Renée Zellweger's titular protagonist. Grant's womanizer character is often compared to his real self, the actor told Vanity Fair, saying, "There are people in my life who have always said, 'Oh, that's much more like the real Hugh.'" He ultimately lost the battle in the first movie, but Daniel returned for 2004's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason for another round of flirtation and betrayal.

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Grant opted out of the third movie, Bridget Jones's Baby, in 2016. "I really couldn't fit my character in — he just didn't belong, so I stepped aside," Grant told Vanity Fair. As a result, Daniel was written out of the film, presumed dead after a plane crash. It seems rumors of Daniel's death were greatly exaggerated, however, as a newspaper headline at the end of the third movie revealed that he is actually still alive. Grant's character will now make his way back to Bridget's vicinity in the fourth installment.

Grant's next film, the A24 thriller Heretic, hits theaters Nov. 15. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — which will bring Emma Thompson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, and Isla Fisher into the series for the first time — lands in theaters and on Peacock on Feb. 14, 2025.