Hugh Grant "wrote some scenes" to make sure Daniel Cleaver fit into 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy'.
Hugh Grant wanted to make sure his character's Bridget Jones return made sense
The 64-year-old actor will reprise his role in the upcoming fourth movie in the rom-com franchise - which stars Renee Zellweger in the title role - after not being involved in the previous film 'Bridget Jones's Baby'.
He told Vanity Fair magazine: "I loved the script—it made me cry, and I wanted to help with this one.
“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.”
Instead, Grant took matters into his own hands, and "wrote some scenes" himself, with the filmmakers working them into the story.
He added: "It’s absolutely the best ['Bridget Jones' book], and I think it’s very funny and very, very moving.
“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.”
He first played the womanising boss in the original 2011 'Bridget Jones's Diary' film opposite Zellweger and Colin Firth, and he was able to break away from his heartthrob typecasting.
He admitted: "There are people in my life who have always said, ‘Oh, that’s much more like the real Hugh.' "
He enjoyed bringing back the character in 2004 for 'The Edge of Reason', before declining a request to play Cleaver again in the 2016 sequel.
He explained: "I really couldn’t fit my character in—he just didn’t belong, so I stepped aside."
Grant isn't above turning down roles if he doesn't think it'll work out, particularly at this point if he expects too much studio involvement.
He said: "I’ve turned down a few that I thought were insufficient in quality or independence allowed to the filmmakers — you felt like a big corporation [was] breathing down the neck of these filmmakers, and I don’t want to make that decision."
Tagged in Colin Firth Hugh Grant Renee Zellweger