Guy Pearce’s favourite comedy movie: “It’s just beautifully executed”
Guy Pearce is definitely having a moment right now. Following a period out of the spotlight, the Australian fired back into the spotlight with a supporting role in the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown.
In 2024, he completed his comeback with a stunning performance in Brady Corbet’s gargantuan Oscar contender The Brutalist. As Harrison Lee Van Buren, a wealthy industrialist who harnesses an architect’s immense talent for his own gain, he blew away critics and audiences alike, securing his first-ever Oscar nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
While there isn’t much to laugh about in Corbet’s dark tale of ambition and the American dream, Pearce hasn’t ever shied away from less serious projects. One of his earliest successes was The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a comedy about a group of drag queens travelling across the Australian outback. He’s also appeared in the Adam Sandler vehicle Bedtime Stories and the 1999 film Ravenous, a horror-cum-black comedy about a group of cannibals.
Pearce clearly knows a thing or two about making people laugh, with or without the eating of human flesh. Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes about his five favourite films, only one comedy made the list – the era-defining ‘chick flick’, Bridget Jones’ Diary.
“I guess it’s [Renée Zellweger‘s] performance,” said Pearce, musing on why he was such a big fan of the Sharon Maguire-directed project. “I remember there was a lot of talk about the fact that they cast an American in that role, but I think she captured the sensibility of a repressed English girl who was desperate to fall in love so beautifully”.
He continued: “And, as an actor myself, often you caught slack if you’re playing a gay person and you’re not really gay, or you’re playing an American and you’re not really American, or you’re playing whatever it happens to be. I just think if you can find the essence in a character and pull it off, then it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your nationality is, etc. There’s something to me about that film that’s like the perfect romantic comedy. I just think it’s a bit hard to put my finger on what it is, to be honest. It’s just beautifully executed. Everything’s so well balanced.”
Based on the Helen Fielding novel of the same name, which itself was inspired by the author’s column in British newspaper The Independent, the movie stars Zellweger as the eponymous 30-something. Jones’ life is dominated by her search for love, as she is torn between slick barrister Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and her charming if somewhat sleazy boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). The two famously come to blows in one of the most wonderfully pathetic fight scenes in cinema history.
The star of Memento isn’t the only one who was mesmerised by Bridget when she first appeared on screen. The first film was a huge hit, much like its source material. This inspired a sequel, The Edge of Reason, three years later, before the series went on hiatus until 2016. Since then, two more films – Bridget Jones’ Baby and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – have been released to similar success.
Considering some of Pearce’s other picks included A Streetcar Named Desire and The Godfather, Bridget Jones’ Diary is in some truly elite company.
