I said, ‘The only way we can get him in and make him enjoyable and relevant is if we invent a real story for what’s happened between Bridget 2 [The Edge of Reason] and Bridget 4, in the intervening 22 years. Something needs to have happened, more than him just picking up girls at parties, shagging them.’ And so we did come up with something. I mean, he’s still Daniel, but I hope he now has added layers.”
Grant also expounds on his idea to improvise the famous fight scene between him and Firth in the first film: “I never really believed fight scenes in movies, because they are so choreographed by stuntmen,” he confesses. “So there was something of a struggle when it came to that scene, to get rid of the stunt team, excellent though I’m sure they were, and say, ‘No, no, we’re just going to go free-form and fight like two hopeless pussies.’”
The death of Darcy is devastating for many reasons, perhaps the most tragic being that now there’s a very slim chance of seeing him once again physically fight Cleaver, a diabolically terminal shagger whose apartment is on Clink Street in London, fittingly right across from a prison museum.
It’s a testament to Grant’s craft that he can imbue even the most detestable bachelors with his trademark smoldering charm, ensuring the general consensus forever oscillates between thirst and revulsion:
