Renée Zellweger’s Carolina Herrera gown at the 2005 Academy Awards was a showstopper, but it also led to a wardrobe malfunction reminiscent of her iconic character, Bridget Jones. In a recent interview with British Vogue, the 55-year-old actress recounted the incident while reflecting on some of her most memorable looks.
Zellweger described the red, strapless gown as “incredible,” but revealed the intricate undergarments required to maintain its shape. “It’s weighted and stuffed at the bottom so that it holds its shape,” she explained, adding that it also included a bustle to enhance the fullness of the skirt.
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True to Bridget Jones’s often-clumsy nature, the dress didn’t survive the evening unscathed. “I remember that as we were leaving that night, a gentleman had stepped on the train,” Zellweger told Vogue. “And I kept walking in the other direction and it ripped it right off my dress.” The train detached “from right beneath my booty,” she added with a laugh. This forced her to maintain the same pose, hands behind her back, both on the red carpet and as she exited. “And there were parties and things afterwards, but I needed to go home and do a little bit of a costume change.”
The mishaps continued when Zellweger arrived home and realized she didn’t have her house key. “So I had to climb up the balcony to the second floor and climb in through a little bathroom window,” she recalled, “in that dress with the hole under my booty.”
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Zellweger also discussed revisiting the Bridget Jones character over the years in the film franchise. From the infamous “tarts and vicars” party outfit in the first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), to the subsequent sequels, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), and the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, she reflected on the evolution of both the character and herself.
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“It’s such an unusual experience to be able to revisit a character in different stages of her life,” she mused. “With each iteration, I think everyone involved, you know, we’re all different people. And to come back together and explore who these characters might be at this stage in life and to have a lot of folks who have related to these characters for such a long time, it’s pretty special.” She even shared a rumor that her co-star, Hugh Grant, kept a pair of Bridget’s infamous “absolutely enormous” underwear, but admitted she wasn’t sure if it was true. “We’ll have to ask him,” she concluded.
