Colin firth‘s moose sweater, or sweater, in The Diary of Bridget Jones is iconic, but he said wearing it on set wasn’t a dream come true.
“The set was lit at about 140 degrees Fahrenheit; it melted candles and dried out turkey curry,” Firth, 63, recalled Entertainment weekly in a resurfaced interview. “I almost tore the sweater to pieces and took it off between takes.”
Firth, who played Mark Darcy in the film franchise, joked, “I probably lost about 15 pounds,” and confessed, “I didn’t have much love for it towards the end.”
The actor wore the ugly sweater in the 2001 rom-com when his character Bridget Jones first met (Renee Zellweger) during a New Year’s celebration.
“Maybe this was the mysterious Mr. Right I’ve been waiting for all my life,” Bridget says in her head during the movie before Darcy turns around and she sees his bold sweater choice. “Maybe not,” she jokes.
The garment, which apparently predates the trend of wearing ugly sweaters during the holidays, was also difficult to make, according to the film’s director. Sharon Maguire.
“We sent the knitting challenge to about 20 to 30 knitters,” Maguire previously said EW. “At first none of the designs worked. They were beautiful, but they just weren’t funny. So we finally decided it had to be a moose, not a reindeer.”
Looking back, Firth revealed he’s not a fan of over-the-top party jumpers. “I have sometimes been wrongly blamed for the subsequent increases in Christmas jumper sales,” he said. “For whatever reason, I tend to sweat when I see them.”
Firth then confessed, “I never noticed it was a moose.”
Despite having an awkward shooting experience, Firth reprized his role in 2004 Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and 2016 Bridget Jones’ baby.
The Oscar winner has also not ruled out a fourth installment, which is telling Collider in September 2016: “One of the biggest incentives to do this again was seeing Renée in the role again.”
“I like Mr. Darcy, but I don’t feel like playing Mark Darcy again. It’s not ambition,” Firth explained. “But it’s a bit of an ambition to see Renée reprise that role, because I think it’s one of the best characters ever created.”
Zellweger, 54, teased in April 2022 that she hopes to reprise the role. “I love being in her shoes,” she said during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show. “The choices we have to make about how uncomfortable we can make her circumstances make me giggle every day on set. It’s just so much fun.”