The Film Interview – RENÉE ZELLWEGER

Matt Maytum | Total Film - September 2016

After six years away from the spotlight, the superstar next door is returning to the big-screen in her most iconic role: Bridget Jones. Ahead of her comeback, Total Film talks to the Oscar-winning Texan about life on both sides of the Hollywood bubble.


© Brian Bowen Smith

“You’re asking me about some things that I haven’t thought about in a very long time, so I apologise if it’s taking me a minute to rifle through the files,” laughs Renée Zellweger. It’s a sunny day at the beach in LA, and the 47-year-old actress is occasionally struggling to recall the minutiae of a career that saw her go from glorified extra to award-winning leading lady over the course of a sparkling decade. 

This year marks her return to acting after a self-imposed six-year hiatus during which she has been entirely absent from our screens. “It’s interesting to think about these things that I haven’t thought about for a long time,” she muses, talking in a hushed almost-whisper with that distinctive Texan lilt. Her image has been subject to intense media scrutiny since the first Bridget Jones weight-gain/loss, and she’s faced a similar barrage of unwelcome analysis since returning to public view, so perhaps it’s not surprising that she hasn’t given up all that much time to introspection. 

There’s a good reason for looking back though; today’s chat kickstarts with talk of Bridget Jones’s Baby, a threequel that marks a return from the wilderness for both actress and character. She might not have been the obvious choice as the neurotic British journal-keeper for the none-more- zeitgeisty 2001 film, but the casting was borne out by a charming (Oscar-nommed) turn that became a career-definer. Rather than adding a distracting Hollywood sheen, she fit the role as comfortably as a pair of red pyjamas, so much so it was difficult to delineate a clear Jones/Zellweger divide. 

Bridget Jones’s Diary was one high point in the centre of a white-hot career streak ignited by Jerry Maguire in 1996. Before holding her own opposite Tom Cruise, Zellweger began her career in her native Texas (she was born in Katy in 1969 to a Scandinavian mother and Swiss father). Tiny parts in cool indies like Dazed And Confused and Reality Bites kept her close to home (“I had no intention of leaving!” she laughs), before Hollywood came calling, leading to a run that peaked with Chicago and Cold Mountain (for which she took home the Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe). Her choices weren’t so effective in the latter part of the ‘00s; Leatherheads, Case 39 and New In Town all failed to strike a chord.

Zellweger was so in need of the half-decade break that she wasn’t worried about how difficult it might be to jumpstart her career again. “It didn’t matter,” she admits. “It was important. It was an important time to focus on some other things.” The first role she returned to was actually legal drama The Whole Truth, with Keanu Reeves, but Bridget Jones’s Baby is, appropriately, the first one out of the gate. “In some ways, it was really, really familiar,” she says of returning to the character. “But the rest of it was trying to figure out how to show that she’s grown up and changed and moved on in her life...”

Bridget Jones’s Baby marks something of a comeback for you, and for the character of Bridget. After a six-year hiatus from acting, what made Bridget the right character for you to come back with?

Oh, erm… it’s a good question. I don’t know. It just seemed an obvious decision. A nice reunion with my friends and a character that I love and a town that I love? “OK!” [laughs] There had been conversations about it for a while. It wasn’t a sudden decision. It wasn’t a proposal that came one day and then prompted a decision to return to filming. It was a conversation that we had over a few years. So that’s always been there, and I’d been part of the process. So it was something that had been on the roster for a while.

What has changed for Bridget in the 12 years since we last saw her?

Hmmm... She’s grown up a little bit. She’s advanced in her career. She’s probably a little less naïve but still hopelessly optimistic. And there are certain things about ourselves that we wish we could change and have no control over [laughs] and no ability to grow out of, no matter how hard we try. I’m sure that her little quirky idiosyncrasies remain.

Bridget was such a product of her time, and she became extremely iconic of that era. Do you think she’d be completely different if her story started now?

I don’t know. Maybe so, because there’s the conversation that was happening – the collective conversation that was happening in society at the time, among women especially, perhaps. I don’t know that it would be too terribly different today. I mean, we’re still having some of the same conversations unfortunately.

What are your memories of landing the role on the first film?

There’s probably a million of them. How unusual it seemed, and how excited I was about the challenge, and fear that came with not knowing whether or not I could actually pull it off. I got excited about that. Living in London for nine months for the first time was really exciting. My life changed for a moment there.

Did that fear go away quickly?

[laughs] It never goes away. It never goes away. No! Every day, you go home, you go to bed, and ruminate thinking certainly you’ll be fired when you go to work in the morning.

Obviously at the time, quite a lot of people were dubious about a Texan playing a Brit, but back then there was no social media. Would it be more difficult if you’d been cast today?

[laughs] You’re probably right. I was naïve to it at the time. I was not aware of that conversation, which is nice, by the way, because you never want to enter into things considering millions of opinions. So yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I mean, everything was easier before social media, pretty much, wasn’t it? I mean in terms of staying away from information that isn’t necessarily healthy for you to know.

You’ve spoken a lot about the frustration with people’s obsession with the weight gain aspect of the role. Do you think things have got better or worse on that front in recent years?

I’m not sure that I could speak to whether or not that’s changed. I get the question pretty regularly in the street about losing weight, or how I lost weight, or opinions about whether or not I should keep that 25lbs. [laughs] I guess it’s interesting.

Coming back after a six-year break, was it a difficult decision for you to decide to put acting on the backburner, or was it just something you felt you had to do? 

Both. It’s something that I really, really love. [Pause] I didn’t want, I suppose, a hiatus that separates you from creative opportunities, but I needed to, and it was really something I needed to do. It became more about that I needed to think more about my life outside of my profession. I don’t think I would have been effective in my job if I hadn’t taken that time off. So it didn’t really matter if I’d wanted to or not. It was necessary.

© Brian Bowen Smith

Presumably you were still having offers coming your way. Was there anything you felt particularly disappointed to pass up during that time while taking a break? 

No, because I understood… I had postponed it for those reasons for a while, and I knew that, well, you could just keep going indefinitely unless you make the conscious decision to just stop.

Has the criteria by which you choose your roles now changed? 

I think so. I might be a little more cautious about what I’m filming, with respect to how a project might fit with my life. I guess it’s the same with most people when they decide to commit to anything.

It has to appeal. I have to want to see it – that would be the first thing [laughs]. If I don’t want to see it, I can’t spend however much time working on it. But yeah, the writing – probably the writing, meeting the folks who are involved, and taking the time to see these folks. 

Was it scary when you first went to LA from Texas? 

Well, it was an interesting time to come to Los Angeles. It was right after the riots and right before the big earthquake of ‘94. Yeah, it was an interesting time. Scared? Not so much. Maybe because I’d never been in a big city before. But my curiosity trumped that. Yeah! It was exciting. I found myself driving in a new part of town, and going to a studio for an audition. It just made me laugh, that somehow I’d gotten an appointment to drive onto Paramount’s backlot and that they were going to let me drive straight on. [laughs]

With those small early appearances in the likes of Reality Bites and Dazed And Confused, did you feel like you were getting somewhere, or was it frustrating to have such limited screen time? 

No, never frustrating. Never. If I had a good audition, I felt like I had accomplished something. I never experienced that idea that I was trying to get somewhere. I was more interested in where it went as opposed to fixating on this idea of what things were supposed to be. So I never felt like I was failing. If something didn’t go well, that was not a fun day, and I would try to do better the next time. It was a personal challenge, more than anything. I didn’t know what would happen. It wasn’t a big priority to do better than to have a really great audition. 

After Dazed And Confused, you worked with Matthew McConaughey on The Return Of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Did you two bond as a pair of young Texans trying to make it in the world of acting? 

[laughs] We probably bonded more over trying to survive that shoot. Those were precarious days of filming. I’m not sure how much of it was legal by union standards. What a great time. Great memories, and a good lesson too about the truth of filming: glamour doesn’t really exist in the job. [laughs]

Was there any particular role that felt like a breakout or a turning point? 

Erm… [Pause] I think Love And A .45 probably. Yeah, there was a bit of a shift after Love And A .45. It felt like that… I’d always thought that I was not going to immediately go to Los Angeles, unless I have a reason to go to Los Angeles. I guess I understood that it was a business. If I didn’t have a reason for going, I wouldn’t go. And at that point, I’d been getting some phone calls to meet with people. I guess that, probably - that film. And Jerry Maguire, I think. The next shift would be Jerry Maguire for public recognition, probably – being recognised on the street. It’s like: “Are you the girl from the Tom Cruise movie?” 

Did you ever feel intimidated opposite Tom Cruise?

I don’t think he allows for that. He’s so generous. He’s such a kind and warm person. You know, that smile. He widens that smile, and lights up the screen in a movie. He’s just a sweet, generous person. And Cameron [Crowe] is such a lovely man. He’s fun and interesting. We had interesting chats about music, and we talked about filming different characters. It was great. It was just a great experience. A million gifts from that experience. It goes way beyond the film itself.

Did you suddenly feel more ‘famous’ after that?

I got kind of busy after that. I spent a lot of time in condemned parking garages where we would be filming. I didn’t see a lot of people off the set. I suppose it started changing after that movie, probably. It’s funny, it’s such an insular experience when you go to film. I didn’t have a lot of awareness about those things. Again, that might be pre-internet. I mean, not technically, but yeah, it was. It was pre media interaction and social media.

You’ve done a fairly even split of comedy and drama. Where do you feel more comfortable?

Creatively, it’s the same. Sometimes you have to be in the mind-set to take on darker material, and it probably depends on what else is happening in life. It’s a different kind of focus with the more dramatic material sometimes. But the work is the same. The process is the same.

You worked with Ewan McGregor on both comedy and drama in Down With Love and Miss Potter...

First of all, he’s magnificent. He’s one of the greats of his generation. He’s an incredible – incredible – talent. And fun. He’s just fun. I like Ewan McGregor. He’s a lovely man. He’s authentic. He’s such a genuine person. He’s so committed to what he’s trying to achieve. His motivation for doing things is always genuine. You sense that when he’s working. He gives so much effort. He’s fearless. Whatever he’s doing, it’s true. So comedy and drama? It’s just truth.

Are you someone who can switch off as soon as you leave the set?

I don’t like to switch off when I’m off the set. I like to keep thinking about what it is that we’re trying to do. I don’t know. In terms of dragging home the darkness, I’m not that dramatic a person. But it’s sort of a concentration; I like to stay connected to the trajectory of the narrative. I want to stay in it, in my mind, so that I’m not starting over every day. So I never really let it go. From the set, you go home and prepare for the next day. It’s that kind of thing. But in terms of when we’re finished? Yeah. [laughs] When we wrap? Yeah, no problem. 

Chicago was the first time since Empire Records that you sang in public, right?

Oh yeah. The first time.

Was that an ambition you’d harboured?

Oh, probably not... It was a surprise. It was interesting because I wasn’t familiar with the musical. Reading it on the page was as you imagine – I didn’t understand it. But it became very important to me really quickly after having met Rob Marshall. We had dinner and he tricked me. He started singing at the table. You think, “Oh yeah, I can get into this.” [laughs] And then we had kind of playdate where we hung out in a workspace, and we went through a few scripts together. I thought we were just hanging out, but he was making sure that he didn’t have a great disaster in front of him. I think he figured it was manageable, and we went from there.

What do awards mean to you? You won the Oscar for Cold Mountain after receiving a number of nominations...

It felt like it was a gift. I don’t take it for granted, when folks feel a connection to your work, and it feels that it matters [to them] in the way that it matters to you personally. It’s a surprise because the work is the gift, right? And then to go on to have that experience, it’s surreal. It’s surreal. But I’m not that cynical that I would roll my eyes at it. It’s not the goal. The goal is to have a great experience. It’s about what you take with you from that experience in which you live your life. But beyond that, it’s a special… I don’t know. It’s a special experience.

Did it feel the work you were being offered changed after you got that sort of accolade? Did it give you more power to choose?

I think that I didn’t think about that because I wasn’t aware of it because I was so busy. I was busy. I had probably already committed to two things, maybe three, for the next year or two at the time. I just got on with what the responsibilities were that came with that, instead of wishing around at how my life was different, you know?

© Brian Bowen Smith

How did you find the awards circuit?

It’s fun. You’re not born to deal with the things that unexpectedly roll in with the life decisions that you’ve made, and there are things that happen to you as a result. And you have to learn, as I had to learn – I’m still learning – that there are things that I’m not good at. I’m very clumsy with certain things that come along with the job that I didn’t anticipate. I think I probably have a better perspective now, having moved away from it for a little while. Hopefully, I’ll have a better sense of how to manage the challenges of that.It’s fun. You’re not born to deal with the things that unexpectedly roll in with the life decisions that you’ve made, and there are things that happen to you as a result. And you have to learn, as I had to learn – I’m still learning – that there are things that I’m not good at. I’m very clumsy with certain things that come along with the job that I didn’t anticipate. I think I probably have a better perspective now, having moved away from it for a little while. Hopefully, I’ll have a better sense of how to manage the challenges of that.

You’ve worked with the likes Cameron Crowe, Anthony Minghella and Ron Howard; do they have anything in common that makes for a great director?

That’s a very nice list of people. [laughs] I was thinking, ‘That’s a nice list of people who I actually know as friends.’ They’re different. Different in their methods and their approach. There’s a clarity about what it is that they want to achieve and the story that they want to tell. They have a focus. It feels like a natural… sort of… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a calling of some sort for those guys to tell these stories.

Anthony Minghella said that when he was first meeting you to discuss Cold Mountain, he didn’t think he’d recognise you because you’d played so many different roles. Was that an intentional decision you’d made?

Not for any reason other than it was interesting to try something different. Well, [I was] probably just subconsciously trying to find something that was a little scary because there was so much that was unknown about it that I wanted to discover. It’s one of my favourite things about the job that it requires you to learn in order to properly bring a character to life. It’s a fantastic opportunity to be close to things that you wouldn’t have the chance to learn about otherwise – and I love that.

What attracted you to your upcoming roles in The Whole Truth and Same Kind Of Different As Me?

The Whole Truth was interesting to me. I liked the idea of a psychological dramathriller. I liked the idea of playing a woman who seems to be self-possessed and have it all together, but she has lost her belief in her identity. It does things, to grieve. And I love Courtney Hunt movies. Frozen River – I thought it was spectacular. Just beautiful. Beautifully raw. I was eager to do something like that.

Same Kind Of Different As Me – I wasn’t familiar with the book, but I got a call from a friend of mine, which is always fun, to go work with your friend. It’s a first-time director named Michael Carney. He explained to me the backstory about the book and the authors of the book, and that it is a true story about this couple from Fort Worth who had transformed this mission for the homeless community and what happened as a result of that, in terms of their advocacy for homelessness.

Anyhow, he said, “So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go to Mississippi, and we’re not going to build a set. We’re going to find a mission that needs a little bit of care, and we’re going to refurnish it. We’re going to build a kitchen for these people so that they can properly care for the community, and we’re going to fix their electrical problems, and we’re going to beautify the neighbourhood.” And I said, “Let’s do it! [laughs] I’m in! I’m in! And if we make a good movie, then great!”

Now that you’ve returned to acting, do you see yourself being back in the fold for good?

I haven’t thought about it. I haven’t thought about it. Let’s see what happens, but I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Bridget Jones producer Eric Fellner has said that they wanted to do a franchise following one person throughout their life. Could you ever imagine yourself for returning to the character at a later point in her life?

How fun would that be? How interesting and how fun. I don’t see why not. It’s an interesting idea, isn’t it? From a selfish perspective, I know her and she’s a lot of fun. Any excuse to have another reunion, I would be game for it. Yeah, it’s an interesting idea. I think about Lucy – Lucille Ball. She started out in New York City in black-and-white and then she had a baby and then she was living in the ranch and house in California. And then her show was in colour and she was working at the bank and had her apartment. It didn’t really matter. It was just fun to spend time with her. Yeah, I wonder, along those lines – that could be fun.