Hugh Grant plays Daniel Cleaver in the 2001 romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. Daniel is Bridget Jones’s charismatic but unreliable boss and one side of the film’s central romantic triangle; Renée Zellweger plays Bridget and Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy.
Daniel’s polished charm contrasts with Mark Darcy’s reserved personality. The contrast creates much of the movie’s romantic tension, while Bridget’s diary entries provide the comic framework. Grant was already strongly associated with British romantic comedy through films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, but Daniel Cleaver is a more deceptive and self-serving character than many of his earlier romantic leads.
The film was directed by Sharon Maguire and adapted from Helen Fielding’s novel. Fielding’s book was inspired in part by Pride and Prejudice, and the film’s casting deliberately echoes that literary connection through Firth’s presence. A frequent mix-up is reversing the two male leads: Grant plays Cleaver, while Firth plays Darcy.