Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How Renée was
spotlight is back on her she’s going to be offered all sorts of dramatic and different roles.”
Renée took the Golden Globe, Bafta and SAG awards for playing the insecure, pill-popping alcoholic Judy Garland in the final months of her life. At the heart of the film are the performances at London’s Talk of the Town nightclub. The former child star of The Wizard of Oz was flat broke, drugdependant and had been evicted from her hotel suite. She couldn’t afford to turn down the work.
Like Garland, Renée has seen the uglier side of fame. After breaking through as Tom Cruise’s love interest in the 1996 hit Jerry McGuire, she had more hits with Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001 and the musical Chicago a year later. Both won her Best Actress nominations at the Oscars.
An Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Cold Mountain followed in 2003.
But then her career stalled with a series of lacklustre films. And she was working so hard she lost sight of who she was.
“I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable, and didn’t allow for taking care of myself,” she admitted. “I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion.”
Struggling with depression, Renée turned her back on Hollywood in 2010, began to exorcise her demons with a therapist, and she kept her head down for six years.
“He recognised that I spent 99 per cent of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life,” she said. “I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.” While away from acting, Renée appeared to have had drastic cosmetic surgery. Gone were her signature squint and puffy cheeks, while her lips now seemed inflated. “Is that you, Renée Zellweger?” asked CNN.
She denied having had work done, saying: “I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life.
“I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows. It’s a quieter life and I love it.”
Film critic McCarthy said: “Taking a break could have ended her career. Studio executives might have thought her over the hill, or having big personal problems.”
In 2016 Renée returned to acting with Bridget Jones’s Baby: a retreat to the romcoms she had vowed to escape. She even gained 20 pounds for the part. And then her career revival quickly faded.
“She made several small movies that disappeared or just didn’t work,” said McCarthy. “But it allowed people to forget Renée long enough for her to emerge reinvented as a dramatic actress with this astounding performance in Judy.”
Finally happy in Hollywood, the former cheerleader from the small Texas country town of Katy must be careful not to crash and burn after her Oscar success.
“Winning an Oscar, her price will go