Helen Fielding will always be a fan of Renée Zellweger.
The Bridget Jones’s Diary author, 66, spoke with PEOPLE at the New York City premiere of the film Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy on Feb. 12, and said that she always has the Oscar-winning actress in mind when she pens her character.
“When I write Bridget now, I write for Renée,” Fielding told PEOPLE.
Zellweger starred as titular character Bridget Jones in the 2001 film adaptation of Fielding’s novel, as well as the sequels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016). She’s reprising her role in the latest edition to the franchise, out Feb. 13, alongside Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
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Fielding first created the Bridget Jones character for a column that she wrote for British newspaper The Independent in the 1990s. The unbylined column was constructed as the fictional diary of a single woman in her 30s living in London.
In 1996, Fielding turned the column into the novel Bridget Jones’s Diary. She published a sequel, The Edge of Reason, in 1999.
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“I was absolutely terrified and couldn’t believe it at all happened,” Fielding said of the story’s success. “I mean, it was just a newspaper column written anonymously that I thought would be stopped after six weeks for being too silly. And who knew, really, that all this would still be happening.”
Fielding also told PEOPLE that the success of the franchise, particularly with its female-centered story, was surprising to her.
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“I think it’s very unusual because normally, in [franchises], you have wizards and stuff blowing up and fast cars and things like that, but in this, there’s just the perspective of one woman,” Fielding said. “That’s it. That’s the franchise, that’s it. The sense of humor.”
“The fact that it’s still going on, and people are still talking about it — even if they’re being rude about it — is really interesting to me,” she added.
Zellweger also noted the importance of the franchise to PEOPLE, as well as how hard it was to say goodbye to the cast once filming ended.
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“We’ve been forging this friendship for over 25 years together through this journey, shared journey, Bridget Jones’ journey,” the actress said. “It was both wonderful and really sad.”
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