Colin Firth looks back on 'Bridget Jones's Diary'

Colin Firth looks back on co-starring in Bridget Jones's Diary, 20 years later.

Video Transcript

- I should have done this years ago.

- Done what?

- This. [PUNCH]

- [GRUNTS]

ETHAN ALTER: Colin, we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of "Bridget Jones's Diary" in the next few months. One of the great scenes in that movie is you and Hugh Grant having it out fighting. What do you remember about filming that-- that particular scene?

COLIN FIRTH: We-- as you can probably tell, we just made it up. I-- you know, they always tell us, you know, how to do that. It has to be so carefully choreographed and, you know, we have to know how to shoot it. And-- and perhaps that's true in some-- in some conventions.

But no, we were in rehearsal one day with one of the professional stunt guys who was, you know, very professional, very macho, I guess probably ex-military or something. And he was telling us how you send a puncher out from here. And, you know, this guy had sort of muscles, you know, out the wazoo.

And-- and we thought, OK, we're playing a couple of cowardly, angry, frightened yuppies, you know? We're just to cover-- how the hell would we know how to start a punch and how to, you know, we-- we wouldn't. The last time we fought-- these two characters-- the last time we fought was probably when we were about seven years old in the school playground, and this fight will probably look exactly like that.

And so in the end, that's what it was. I mean, you know, and it doesn't take much to put, you know, to put Hugh and me together. It doesn't take much to have us pull each other's hair, and-- and scratch each other, and kick each other, and run away. I mean, that's-- we're-- we're inches away from that every time we see each other. So you know, it was one of the most organic things ever committed to film.

[MUSIC - GERI HALLIWELL, "IT'S RAINING MEN"]

It's raining men--

[GLASS SHATTERING]

--hallelujah, it's raining men.

- Oh.

- Oh.

STANLEY TUCCI: I think you should do a new "Fast and the Furious" with you and Hugh. But it would just be called, like, "The Angry and the Frustrated," or something.

COLIN FIRTH: Yeah, "The Medium to Moderate Speed and Somewhat Disgruntled," you know?

[LAUGHTER]

That will be the title.

STANLEY TUCCI: "The Slow and the Angry."

[LAUGHTER]

ETHAN ALTER: "Get off of my lawn" and the-- right, exactly.

COLIN FIRTH: "The Slow and Irritated."

STANLEY TUCCI: Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

ETHAN ALTER: Well, Stanley, you've got your own rom-com anniversary. "Devil Wears Prada" turns 15 as well this summer.

- That, I can't even talk about.

- All right, everyone, gird your loins.

ETHAN ALTER: I think you're a great part in that, great scene stealing part in that. What did that movie teach you about-- about fashion, and how has that afterlife been for you? It's-- it's still beloved now.

STANLEY TUCCI: Oh, gosh. Well, I love fashion. I mean, I always have. So I was really excited to do that-- that movie. And it taught me a great deal. You know, Patricia Field, who-- who did the costumes for that, taught me an enormous amount.

Her pairing of a tie and a shirt and a, you know, whatever, you-- you were like, how would you put all those disparate patterns together and still make it work? And, she did. I mean, absolutely brilliant. Brilliantly designed, and beautifully directed. And I got to meet one of my best friends and now my sister-in-law, Emily. So that wasn't so bad.

ETHAN ALTER: Does your character run his own magazine now? We know he got forced out, he didn't get the job that he wanted. Do you think he got it eventually? Did Miranda gave it to him?

STANLEY TUCCI: In my mind, yes. But-- [CHUCKLES] but probably not.