Two decades ago Renee Zellweger was on the roof of the world with the films "Bridget Jones" and the musical "Chicago". In 2003, she even won an Oscar for her role in Cold Mountain, and then abruptly disappeared. When she returned to the spotlight after six years, he lit up a face completely different from the ones we remembered. But she, for her part, was not too excited. vice versa.
"I came out intensified by the reactions of the people, it's absolutely not something that left me with emotional scars or anything like that," says Zellweger. "At that time I had a sick friend and I was not at all interested in what I looked like. On the contrary, I went to the same event where I was photographed at her request, she wanted me to go out in public and have fun, and so it was."
It had been several years since the same headline-grabbing films made until Zellweger's comeback was completed and officially crowned a success in early 2020, then won a second Oscar for her role as Judy Garland and joined an exclusive club of actresses with more than one Oscar, including Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Catherine Hepburn.
"The awards and the honor are not the source of happiness in my eyes."
Zellweger, Photo: E.P.
"Whether you stay conscious or not, there are pros and cons to every choice," Zellweger says in retrospect.
In retrospect is there a preference?
"I guess it depends on everyone's personal point of view and how you define things. Awards and respect are not a source of happiness in my eyes. Even if you do not receive praise or progress to high places, you do not stop if the work is really happy and important to you. Even if you Writes in a drawer.
"There's also the matter of material reward," Zellweger is not pious, "you have to get drunk somehow and in some cases make sure it does not hurt the time you have to create. "A day when I was not dependent on the waitresses and went for a game with all my might, it felt amazing."
"I found happiness"
Zellweger, 53, radiates a lot of calm and even arrogance.
She does not pursue the next project, does not hurt any monstrous cinematic corporation rolling in billions, and most of all does not indulge in nostalgia for the highs she has reached with commercial successes or awards.
Since returning to the game in the last decade her resume has not been filled in many roles, but only in a third Bridget Jones film, a few independent films and a Netflix drama series called "Implications" from 2019, which dropped after just one season.
The moment of enlightenment came, she said, following a meeting with another esteemed actress in Hollywood.
"A few years ago I came across my dear friend Selma Hayek at the airport, we were both on our way to different flights with tight schedules and congestion at work. We had some time to sit and talk about how crazy our careers are that we have no time to set up to meet properly, circumstances did not allow .
Do you feel anxious about a state of inaction?
"Not exactly, I grew up in a home where it was never boring. My parents are both free-spirited souls who have always loved to travel and devour the world. My brother and I were educated for curiosity and adventure, and did not know what idleness is. I believe from those foundations I also found my inner happiness. "I was lucky and never lived in a sense of missing out or with some heavy baggage. My life is exactly what I created for myself, and I am happy for my part."
beyond imagination
Zellweger now stars in the mini-series "All About Pam" (Thursdays on HOT and yes), a six-part crime drama based on a true case that took place in Missouri in 2011, when a terminally ill cancer patient was stabbed with a knife and her friend Pam Hup's testimony helped convict The murdered woman's husband.
However, an appeal by the husband began to reveal suspicious details about the nature of the relationship between his wife and Happ, who surprisingly inherited all of the murdered woman's fortune, and not her family members.
Happ, a life insurance saleswoman who was previously fired for forging signatures, is played by Zellweger, who is also one of the series' producers.
Zellweger in the filming of "The Diary of Bridget Jones", Photo: AP
The complicated affair was exposed on the famous investigative program "Dateline" on the NBC network and eventually became a successful podcast, which won more than 20 million downloads in the listening services, and according to which the script for the series was written.
"I feel like the pace of work on TV is right for me, I really enjoyed it," Zellweger declares in a zoom call to promote the series.
"I didn't find much difference compared to working on a set of a low-budget film, everything moves pretty fast and we promote the plot all the time, so it requires constant creative thinking. I felt it was a successful workout for me."
Why this particular series?
"It's the kind of story no one would have thought of making up. About three years ago I was driving all the way down the highway from Los Angeles north to San Francisco to a university veterinary center, where my dog Chester underwent knee replacement surgery. He's my son, a German shepherd. Anyway, I remember that during the trip I eagerly listened to the podcast and could not believe it, a sequence of absurd discoveries throughout the investigation of the affair, which only gets more and more hallucinatory. our.
"In practice, it took quite a bit of preparatory work, first of all for our lead screenwriter Jenny Klein, but also for me as a producer. ", And examine every possible element that sheds light on what really happened there."
What was particularly difficult?
"To recreate the accent of the region in America from which she came, and specifically as she speaks, I really had to work on it quite a bit. I would hear her recordings constantly. I read books of behavioral researchers, to try to understand her hidden motives. And all this preliminary work is reflected. In my character. "
"Maybe I'm a little crazy if I enjoy having pieces of latex glued to my face."
Renee Zellweger, Photo: EP
The role obliges Zellweger to undergo a serious make-up, which included prostheses attached to her face, a fat suit and an unflattering overall look.
"The more you lose yourself in the job, the more protected you feel to play and explore in depth the person in your shoes you are in. I went through a significant physical upheaval every morning in the makeup room, and the more prostheses I got attached to, I felt Sharana manage to hide."
Did you like the feeling?
"It's amusing, because I'm still pretty new to this matter of heavy makeup and a dramatic makeover in the mirror. I've never had a makeover on a set of photos as far-reaching as this time. It was as if the prostheses took on a life of their own and took me somewhere else. And not just the face, my whole body was different. "Everyday and I enjoyed it. Maybe it means I'm a little crazy if I enjoy having pieces of latex and silicone glued to my face."
Also in your previous role as Judy Garland you played a real character.
"To play Judy was to step into the shoes of a legend, and I also had a lot of material to draw inspiration from for the character. All the archive footage from performances and interviews she gave over the years served as a huge bank of documented treasures that I used. There were some interviews with her that I could watch and try to learn about the woman, but not beyond.
"In our imagination we all develop expectations about a person we've heard something about, what he thinks we should be like, but it's better to watch the series and then form an opinion. I feel I came as close as I could to present it realistically."
Judy is actually closer to your reality.
"If you mean the starting point, then yes, we are both women who are identified with Hollywood. And our whole being always comes up for public discussion, and everyone has an opinion, there is curiosity around us, probably about the cinematic roles we are identified with. But I felt a connection to Judy beyond that. She experienced difficulties, but perhaps not the desire, as Marilyn Monroe had to go through. 1939 in "The Wizard of Oz." But that was no longer the case in the later stages of his career. It was a product that Hollywood nurtured with rigidity and mechanics.
"When I compare it to my local in the industry today, or to other actresses who are still active, it is no longer the same pressure cooker that overwhelms and forces you to say over and over again how grateful you are that you even work. "I feel like I grew up as an actress in a freer and healthier time."
Feels like new
Zellweger was born in April 1969 in the city of Katie on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, to a Swiss father who worked as an electronics engineer, and to a Norwegian mother, a nurse and midwife by training who worked as a childminder.
She was an outstanding student and active in several classes.
During her academic studies for a degree in English literature she joined a drama course and began to take an interest in acting.
In the early 1990s she appeared in films such as "Biting Reality" and "The Chainsaws from Texas: The Next Generation," but she owes her big break to the sports drama "Jerry Maguire," in which she starred alongside Tom Cruise.
She later starred in the comedies "Sister Betty" and "Me, Myself and Irene", then also met Jim Carrey, whom he became engaged to in 2000, but after a year of dating they broke up.
"For me it's learning another tier of the acting profession. Because as soon as I looked completely different it felt like the prostheses took on a life of their own and took me somewhere else. And not just the face, my whole body was different. It took out playing abilities I didn't know before."
Along with appearances in films such as "Who Will Find a Woman of Valor" and "Cinderella Man" alongside Russell Crowe, Zellweger has been credited over the years with a variety of passing romances, including with Paul McCartney, George Clooney, "Friends" star Matthew Perry and Rocker G. K wait.
In 2005, she surprisingly married country star Kenny Chesney, but four months later she filed for divorce.
She then moved into the arms of Bradley Cooper, before his big break in Hollywood, and after two years together she began a relationship with musician Doyle in Ramallah, which ended in 2019.
In the past year, her name has been linked to that of British TV presenter Annette Ansted.
In keeping with all the relaxed conversation with her, even regarding the future of her career Zellweger is not worried and lets things happen.
"I turned 50 three years ago. I proudly mention it because I feel like new, in my mind's I'm a girl," she says, "I walk around feeling like 'here, I'm got this far - what's next?'. There's a sense of rebirth, That a lot of new doors are opening and I am stepping with excitement and renewed vigor into the current chapter in my life. "This is reflected in the context of work for me. There are many things that should be sacrificed for them, but not for a role."
Does age make you a better actress?
"I can not attest to myself. I hope the experiences I have had in life penetrate the characters I play and add layers that I bring from myself. I do better manage myself as an actress, know the craft of the game and see the whole thing differently. My boundaries have changed, and in the current round already I do not have the same commitments that accompanied me at the beginning of my journey and sometimes made it difficult for me. I was not good at setting boundaries at all because I come from an innocent and pure place. "Exercising, running, meditating or cycling, it clears my head and helps keep me sane."
But you avoid social networks.
"I'm not against social networking, not against anything. Any platform that provides proper information in my eyes because in many cases it connects people for the benefit of the general public, just personally I have never found interest in opening an account and I have no regrets about it. If so, then there are interviews "My past that I regret things I said, so the very thought of tweeting and then regretting a quote that will stay in my mind and haunt me forever, is enough to make me continue to keep my distance from social networks for now."
dcaspi@goldenglobes.org
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