Renée Zellweger Reveals Why She and Leo Woodall Had Chemistry ‘Instantly’ in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Renée Zellweger says she and her Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy costar Leo Woodall sparked an immediate connection on set.

At the long-awaited movie sequel’s New York City premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 12, the 55-year-old actress told PEOPLE the chemistry between her and Woodall, 28, was “easy.”

“We’re both goofballs, so we laugh really easily,” she says. “So there was a lot of that, instantly. We had fun together. We all did. I’m pretty spoilt rotten.”

Addressing her character Bridget’s age-gap romance with the much younger Roxster (Woodall), Zellweger jokes, “I was very happy for Bridget Jones. Good for her.”

And as for reuniting with franchise veterans Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, she tells PEOPLE it “was like a warm hug.”

“It feels like we have a reunion, adult friends,” she explains. “We’ve been forging this friendship for over 25 years together. Through this journey, shared journey, Bridget Jones’ journey.”

But Zellweger adds that it was also bittersweet. “It was both wonderful and really sad,” she says, referring to the fact that this is likely the final Bridget Jones movie.

Firth — who famously played Mark Darcy, Bridget’s love interest-turned-husband in the previous three movies — makes a few appearances in Mad About the Boy. However, it’s revealed in the opening scene that Mark died four years prior, and a now-fiftysomething Bridget is struggling with widowhood and raising the couple’s two young children alone.

With the help of her family and friends — and old flame Daniel Cleaver (Grant) — Bridget tries to get her groove back. She ends up meeting and finding herself torn between two potential love interests: Roxster, a 29-year-old park ranger, and Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a teacher at her kids’ school.

In a second interview with PEOPLE on Feb. 12, Zellweger said she enjoyed diving back into Bridget’s world once more. “Bridget feels like an old friend,” she shared.

However, the What/If actress noted that this latest chapter in Bridget’s story felt different than the others, as her character was dealing with profound grief in the wake of losing Mark.

“We were familiar with how emotional the material was because the novel [by Helen Fielding] had been out for a while,” Zellweger said.

“But the script was so beautifully written that the emotion just sneaks up on you,” she continued. “You think you’re heading in one direction that feels familiar, and then yeah, it just gets you.”