Hugh Grant and Colin Firth had some company from an unlikely star as they filmed their famous fight scene in Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Sally Phillips, who played Shazza opposite Renée Zellweger as Bridget, has revealed that Jim Carrey watched on as the pair fought in character as Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver. 

Ahead of the film’s 20th anniversary, Sally appeared on Friday’s edition of Lorraine, where she recounted Hugh and Colin filming the scene. 

She said: “This is them improvising… slapping each other, trying to kick and missing.

“We filmed this scene for a whole week. As you can see we’re not in it very much so we sat in deck chairs and watched Hugh and Colin slap each other for a week.”

Sally then revealed: “And Jim Carrey was there. Renée was dating Jim at that point.

“So he was bigger and taller and harder and fitter than both of them, so I think they were even more embarrassed.”

During the interview, Sally also told of how strange it was for her to see Renée, who is from Texas, finally breaking out of her English accent at the end of the shoot, joking she felt “deceived and weirded out”. 

“It was really weird,” she said. “I’ve made quite good friends with her during the filming, I realised towards the end when she suddenly lost a stone in the last week and started talking in a Texan accent at the wrap party, I’d made friends with Bridget, not Renée.

“I felt like those women must feel who’ve had a relationship with an undercover cop, a bit deceived and weirded out. But I think it was genius actually (to cast her).”

Sally continued: “There were lots of people up for that part, like Toni Collette I think was offered it.

“Once They got Hugh Grant and Colin Firth on board it went from being a tiny indie movie to a massive production and they started looking for big stars.

“American women do do charm in a way British women don’t, we have a kind of bottom note of battleaxe that we can never quite get rid of and I love that about us.”

Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV.