Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy contains an age gap both on the screen and in real life. The movie centers on legacy character Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and her romance with a younger man, Roxster (Leo Woodall). Zellweger is a two-time Oscar winner who earned her first nomination for her тιтle role in the 2001 Helen Fielding adaptation Bridget Jones’s Diary. She is reprising that role for the third time in Mad About the Boy, after appearing in two sequels, namely 2004’s The Edge of Reason and 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.
Before joining the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy cast, Zellweger’s young co-star Leo Woodall had his breakout role when he starred opposite Ambika Mod in Netflix’s 2024 limited series One Day, based on the novel of the same name by David Nicholls. At that point, his star had already started to rise after he took on a main role in The White Lotus season 2, opposite a star-studded ensemble that included F. Murray Abraham, Jennifer Coolidge, Tom Hollander, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Aubrey Plaza, Haley Lu Richardson, and Will Sharpe.
Renée Zellweger Is 27 Years Older Than Her Bridget Jones 4 Love Interest, Leo Woodall
Their Real-Life Age Gap Is Similar To The Characters’
The ongoing Bridget Jones story picks up with the character having entered her early 50s in Mad About the Boy. While her exact age in the new movie is somewhat unclear, it is specifically stated that Roxster is 29 years old. Thus the age gap in their relationship – which kicked off with a classic “meet-cute” when he rescued her while she was failing to climb a tree – is somewhere between 21 and 25 years.
Leo Woodall is slightly younger than his character…
However, Renée Zellweger is slightly older than her character, having been born on April 25, 1969. Meanwhile, Leo Woodall is slightly younger than his character, as he was born on September 14, 1996, giving them a real-life age gap of roughly 27 years. Filming for the movie took place between their two birthdays, beginning on May 10, 2024, and ending on August 8. Therefore, during the time when the movie was sH๏τ, Zellweger was 55 years old while Woodall was only 27.
Why The Age Gap Is So Important To Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’s Story
It Is A Core Piece Of Bridget’s Character Arc
The reason the age gap in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is so important is because it helps bring the тιтle character full circle. The Renée Zellweger movie begins with Bridget emerging from her grief over the death of her husband (Colin Firth). After having settled down, it seemed like she would no longer be the lovelorn singleton who was introduced in the original movie. However, as she unexpectedly re-enters the dating pool, Bridget’s relationship with Roxster forces her to contend with how much she has changed, even as he helps her rediscover her youthful enthusiasm for romance.
