Renée Zellweger on missing Hugh Grant, returning to acting and her own pair of enormous panties

The third movie in the Bridget Jones Franchise, it comes 12 years after The Edge of Reason and following a six-year break from acting for Renée.

Many fans will note the absence of Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver from the film. When asked what it was like filming without him, Renée said: “I missed him as an actor because he's my buddy. We have fun together. But it felt like the story had progressed…”

And in the words of Daniel Cleaver himself, has Renée ever owned a pair of “absolutely enormous panties”?

“Yes… I have a little pile of specialty underwear.”

Excellent news. She really is the everywoman.

Renée went on to emphasise the importance of creating more interesting roles for women over 40, and said she feels the industry is going in the right direction: “Come on, ladies. Let's do it.”

She added that she had enjoyed her break from acting, saying: “Part of what I love so much is that when you step away and you're out of people's consciousness, they don't notice you so much. The normalcy of that is something that I had missed a lot.”

Renee Zellweger is back as Bridget Jones – but there something's missing: Daniel Cleaver. Hugh Grant's womaniser is absent from this third outing of the franchise built around our favourite singleton, but according to Zellweger, the story has moved on without him.

“I missed him as an actor because he's my buddy," she tells RadioTimes.com. "We have fun together. But it felt like the story had progressed…”

Progression comes in the form of Patrick Dempsey who joins our favourite Mr Darcy, Colin Firth, as a rival for Bridget's affections.

Bridget Jones's Baby is out in UK cinemas on Friday 16th September but first, see what Zellweger had to say about her break from acting and whether she owns her own pair of – in the words of Daniel Cleaver – "absolutely enormous panties":

Bridget Jones’s Baby is in UK cinemas from Friday 16^th September