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When Helen Fielding wrote the novel "Bridget Jones' Diary", she based the character of Mark Darcy on Colin Firth's depiction of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1995). In addition to the inside-joke casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, there are several other allusions to Jane Austen's story: Mark disparages Bridget to his mother within earshot of Bridget. In "Pride and Prejudice", Mr. Darcy disparages Elizabeth to his friend Mr. Bingley within earshot of Elizabeth. Daniel Cleaver lies to Bridget about a dispute between him and Mark, claiming Mark stole his fiancée. In fact, it was the other way around. In "Pride and Prejudice", it's a dispute between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy, and Wickham lies about who's at fault. The Darcy in both stories fails to disabuse the heroine's misinformed notion until it's almost too late. Bridget works at Pemberley Press; Mr. Darcy lives at Pemberley estate. Crispin Bonham-Carter was in both productions (his scenes were cut out of this movie, although he can still be seen in the job-quitting scene, and can also be seen at the Kafka book launch where Bridget asks Salman Rushdie where the toilets are - he is seen as the man on the left in the conversation). When Bridget stops at a mall to see her mother, she begins the scene by saying (in a voice-over) that, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life starts going okay, another one falls spectacularly to pieces." This was a reference to the famous opening line of "Pride and Prejudice": "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." In the third movie, it was revealed that Mark's middle name is Fitzwilliam - which is Mr. Darcy's first name in the novel.
To prepare for the role, Renée Zellweger gained 25 pounds, then worked at a British publishing company for a month. Using an alias and a posh accent, she was apparently not recognized. She also kept a framed picture of her then-boyfriend Jim Carrey on her desk. Her co-workers found the photo odd, but never mentioned it for fear of embarrassing her.
In order to make her English accent seem more natural, Renée Zellweger retained it on set even while not shooting. Hugh Grant once noted that he did not hear her speak in an American accent until the wrap party, after this movie was completed, where he heard her speak "in a very strange voice" that he soon found out was her own natural tone.
Sally Phillips, a born-again Christian, received criticism from officials of her church, since she portrayed a character who exhibits a harsh amount of swearing and a questionable attitude. She has defended her participation by saying her job is to create love for imperfect characters; "My position on that is that if you were only allowed to play perfect characters, you would only be allowed to play Jesus, and someone would have a problem with that too, I expect, him being a man and all. People aren't perfect. My job is to play a person with love, to make love for that person possible."
The snowy scenes during the end of this movie were filmed during summertime.
The Bridget Jones film franchise eventually became the first movie trilogy directed exclusively by female directors, as well as the only romantic comedy trilogy of the new millennium.