Renée Zellweger during an appearance on The Late Late Show on Thursday revealed the creators of Bridget Jones’s Baby ‘poached’ ideas from a British TV show.
The 47-year-old actress said they leaned on One Born Every Minute while making the movie.
The Oscar winner said she watched the Channel 4 series, which chronicles action on a maternity ward from the perspective of both the parents and staff, to prepare for her role as pregnant Bridget.
She told chat show host James Corden: ‘I met with a midwife and had lots of conversations about the progression of a lady’s pregnancy and I watched a show – it’s British – called One Born Every Minute.
‘Isn’t it great? It’s crazy. It chronicles a woman’s pregnancy up to the birth and they show these women giving birth – young women and then the geriatric pregnancy.
‘They show some things. You get some insight. We poached a little bit from each of those ladies, so ladies thank you,’ Renee said.
Renée was a guest on the CBS show alongside Jimmy Kimmel and her Bridget Jones’s Baby co-star Patrick Dempsey.
The actress also revealed how she used to work as a lifeguard at a child day care centre.
‘The most high pressure was when I was a lifeguard at the kinder care,’ she said.
‘They are fast – the under two feet variety – those guys are quick and everything becomes a weapon. That’s a crazy responsibility. Not interested,’ she said.
Asked by Jimmy whether there was ‘a lot of pooping in the pool’, she said: ‘The occasional scooper had to come out.’
Renée’s revelation about her former job came after Kimmel revealed an awful faux pas he made while working as a wedding DJ in college.
Jimmy, who will host the Emmy Awards on Sunday, said: ‘When you do somebody’s wedding it’s a very important day in their lives – arguably more important than the Emmys are to, say, Kevin Spacey.’
The ABC chat show host explained how he always met with a bride and groom about nine months before their wedding to discuss which songs they would like played and which family members would be dancing together.
But at one wedding reception, the family failed to mention an important change that had occurred during that nine-month period.
He told Corden: ‘In between that time when we checked all the boxes off and that night, when I called the groom’s mother up for their dance, the mother had passed away. Literally everyone at this wedding started crying, myself included.’
Patrick, who revealed that he had once applied – and failed – to join the circus, made balloon animals for James and his fellow guests during one of the show’s commercial breaks.
The former Grey’s Anatomy star made a mouse for Jimmy, a dachshund for Renée and crown for the talk show host.
He also revealed how he immediately hit it off with Colin Firth while filming Bridget Jones’s Baby.
‘There was mutual respect there,’ he said. ‘It was just respect. We got along fantastically.’
Before he sat on the sofa between Zellweger and Dempsey, Kimmel had taken part in a stomach-churning challenge called Spill Your Guts Or Fill Your Guts with his fellow late night host.
The duo took it in turns to ask one another questions and had the option of either answering or eating an unappetizing delicacy from a table in front of them.
Jimmy tucked into pig blood curd before James had even got his first question out and then sipped on ghost pepper hot sauce rather than revealing the name of his least favourite late night host.
The British host was dripping with sweat after Jimmy asked him whether he was miserable doing carpool karaoke with Britney Spears, but insisted he enjoyed her company.
He grinned: ‘I’m very sad it looked like that. I wasn’t miserable at all. It was great. I genuinely wasn’t miserable. I think she’s great. I’m not lying.’
Jimmy later asked James to name two of the camera operators in the room.
James, claiming it was a ‘different crew tonight’, gagged on a ‘fish smoothie’ before spitting the white liquid out into a bucket.
