Bridget Jones 3: Shirley Henderson 'too old' to star in next film

The actress said she's yet to be asked to join the forthcoming sequel

Bridget Jones Diary actress Shirley Henderson has said she's 'too old' to appear in the new film (Getty Images)

Poor Bridget. After Hugh Grant said he was unsure he would star in the next Bridget Jones film, actress Shirley Henderson has said it is unlikely she will either.

The Scottish actress, 48, who plays Bridget’s good friend Jude, said she thinks she is too old to appear in the third film.

“I’m probably too old for it now. And, put it this way – if there is to be a third film, then I’m still waiting for the call.”

Her comments come after Hugh Grant said he would not appear in Bridget Jones’s Baby because of issues with the script.

“The book’s excellent, by the way, but the script is completely different – well, the script as I saw it a few years ago,” he said.

He added he also thought he may be too old to play Bridget’s romantic interest aged 54. “They’ll bring in some fresh blood”, he said.

In a statement, Grant’s publicist said Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth also had “some issue with the present script”.

Last week, Zellweger responded to speculation that she had undergone plastic surgery after pictures emerged of her looking unrecognisable.

“I’m glad folks think I look different”, she said. “I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows.”

Henderson refused to comment on the speculation, telling The Telegraph: “I think that is up to her. She is her own person and she can do what she wants and what makes her happy.

“I’m not going to comment on that, that is her business and she is lovely. She is such a lovely woman and a very bright woman so, you know, good luck to whatever she wants to do.”

Bridget Jones’s Baby is based on Helen Fielding’s latest instalment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which finds the hapless heroine a widowed mother of two after the death of Mark Darcy.