Me, Myself And I – Renée Zellweger

Bridget Jones is back again and actress Renée couldn’t be happier about it

This month Renée Zellweger, 46, is back on our screens at long last playing the universally loved Bridget Jones for the third time. Here the actress talks about how she gets into character, the changes she makes to her body and her rocky road to love...

The first time I took on the lead role in Bridget Jones’ Diary way back in 2001 I was so nervous...

The pressure was more of an internal thing, it was a respect for Helen Fielding and what she’d created and an understanding that I was not alone in loving this character.

And then there was the fuss about my weight loss after I played Bridget...

When you read reports that you are starving yourself, or that you are anorexic, it’s very unfair and disappointing. It’s really not very pleasant to read reports that say you’ve gone too far or this or that.

When I had to put on all the weight for the first movie I was thrilled, well to begin with anyway...

You can then indulge all your fantasies about over-eating. Fantasies about non-stop chocolate consumption or your fantasies about ordering the pizza and the spaghetti and the garlic bread. It sounds like heaven in theory. In all honesty, for two days it’s bliss and then you’re totally full, OK? Then after a week your glucose levels are going crazy. You’re up and down and all over the place. It doesn’t feel good, and no one wants to hear that, but it’s the truth.

For some reason Bridget came under fire for being a bad portrait of women...

I don’t think she’s a setback for women at all. If you look through the course of the book, she really comes into her own, on her own. She decides to be happy now and not in some projected myth of what the future might hold and the happiness that might bring. She blossoms, and if that’s not a positive feminist message, I don’t know what is. It was scary coming back (to play Bridget). Especially since I love this character and didn’t want to disappoint anybody.

I didn’t really understand all of the attention that my ‘new face’ got but...

I’m glad folks think I look different! I’m living a more fulfififilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows. My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was well aware of the chaos and finally I decided it was time to choose different things.

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with my love-life but my boyfriend Doyle is different...

He’s a very sweet man. I’m very, very happy right now.

I’ve got a reputation for always being late but it’s because I’m talking to fans...

I have missed flights, I’ve missed taxi cabs and I’ve made my friends wait because of it. I’m learning to be better at it but I’ll still feel bad if I don’t have time to stop to talk to someone. I hate to disappoint them, and I’m not very good at saying no.

I know that I should never have got married [ to Kenny Chesney] but...

There was no alternative but to let it go. I made the biggest personal mistake of my life. I felt like a fool. I was looking for something else. I just needed to put acting aside. I needed to sit still and not to worry about the dresses, the hair and the travel and the interviews. I was going through huge life changes at the time. I wanted to stop and just be a girl for a while. My marriage came during this time and it was important to me.

I don’t know if I’d ever get married again...

I never say never because I look back on my own personal history and it shocks me. If I would ever have said, ‘Oh, for sure this is going to be in my future,’ most of my experiences wouldn’t have been on my list. So I don’t bother thinking about it, because I’ve learned that there’s no anticipating that stuff.

Renée and musician Doyle Bramhall are very happy together.

The picture on the right sparked rumours of surgery as people make comparisons between her old and new face. AFTER

BEFORE