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Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film
Rhiannon Ingle
Bridget Jones fans have been left seriously confused after hearing Renée Zellweger's real voice for the first time.
As many of us know, Zellweger stars as the loveable, yet totally flustered protagonist in the beloved film franchise that spans four cracking films over an impressive two decades.
The first film, Bridget Jones's Diary, hit our screens and warmed our hearts back in 2001, with the sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, coming out three years later in 2004.
It was a pretty sizeable wait for the third instalment in the saga, Bridget Jones's Baby, to arrive in 2016 before, at long last, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, was finally announced to hit cinemas this week on Valentine's Day (14 February) — a whole 24 years after we were first introduced to Bridget, Mark Darcy, Daniel Cleaver et al.
Zellweger has cemented herself as somewhat of a icon for British fans following her performance of everyone's favourite damsel in distress, however, people were in shock after realising she's not actually British at all and is, in fact, American!
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Following her appearance on The Graham Norton Show last month (31 January) ahead of the latest's film's release, BBC viewers were once again left seriously confused after hearing her real voice.
Watching her on the famous talk show, fans said hearing the Hollywood A-lister's actual accent 'is like hearing Santa doesn’t exist'.
"I’ve only ever watched Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones so I'm not used to her regular accent!" one viewer wrote on X.
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"It still feels weird to me Renée Zellweger isn't a Brit & does the whole accent perfectly," someone else said.
A third chimed in: "I’m thinking the same! How did I not know?"
Another claimed she 'seems to be more Texan than ever' during her appearance on the show.
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"Renée plays a brilliant British accent considering she's actually American lol," a final fan praised.
Talking to Newsweek in January about the legacy of Bridget Jones, Zellweger gushed: "It's very moving, and it's very touching. I'm a cross between speechless and really embarrassed."
Speaking of the beloved character, she continued: "I was aware that I'd not seen anyone like her before. She was just a different combination of idiosyncrasies and charm that I hadn't seen before.
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"[I appreciated the] opportunity to share these intimate kind of vulnerabilities with this character, as a reader first, and then as an audience member, which I found really touching."