- Despite enjoying a successful acting career for over three decades, Renée Zellweger is ‘not sure’ she would choose to go down the same path if she had the chance to start over
- The actor – who will appear as Bridget Jones in the fourth film from Valentine’s Day – discussed being in the public eye in a conversation with co-star Hugh Grant
- Zellweger also talked about her six-year break from acting in the interview
Renée Zellweger has been on our screens for 33 years.
But surprisingly, the actor, 55 – whose new movie, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, will hit theaters on February 14 – isn’t sure that she’d choose her career again if she was given the opportunity.
In a conversation with her co-star Hugh Grant for Vogue magazine, Zellweger spoke of how being in the public eye has changed over the course of her time in the spotlight.
“I wondered if I would [choose to be an actor] too, because I’m not sure that the way that it works now, celebrity and all of that stuff… I don’t know that that suits me,” she mused.
When asked by Grant – who plays Daniel Cleaver in the movie franchise – if she’s noticed a difference in the last 25 years, Zellweger replied, “Probably. There used to be a line between celebrity and art.
“The line has become increasingly ambiguous. And notorious and famous and known are now all the same thing. It used to be that you were known because you had done something that was worth knowing about.”
Renée Zellweger discusses her break from acting
Zellweger famously took a break from acting for six years from 2010.
Now explaining her reasons why, she admitted to Grant, “Because I needed to. I was sick of the sound of my own voice. When I was working, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?’ It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences.”
But far from sitting back to relax during her time off work, Zellweger put all those free hours to good use.
“I wrote music and studied international law,” she went on. “I built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company, advocated for and fundraised with a sick friend, and spent a lot of time with family and godchildren and driving across the country with the dogs. I got healthy.”
Renée Zellweger praises Hugh Grant
While Zellweger herself was the interviewee, she couldn’t help but reverse the roles and ask her friend Grant some of her own questions.
“You’re so good in [horror movie] Heretic,” she told him. “I can’t bear it – is there anything worse in the world than Hugh Grant using his charm and charisma and wit and good looks and the dimples and the grin to be creepy?
“Oh, the darkness on that set every day. Was it awful? And did it mess with you?”
Replying “yes” to both questions, Grant then went on to joke that he found it difficult not to bring his work home with him.
“I went and killed in the evening,” he laughed. “That reminds me, I must kill tonight.”
Exasperated, Zellweger replied, “Can you wait till we leave?”
