Renée Zellweger was at the height of her career when she seemingly disappeared from Hollywood in 2010.
The six-year hiatus that followed left many wondering what happened to Zellweger, and questioning if she would ever come back to Tinseltown.
She not only returned, but enjoyed a career revival, including a best actress Oscar win, in the years that followed, and now she is shedding new light on why she walked away.
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Zellweger appears on the February cover of British Vogue, sporting a chic new short haircut and looking impossibly youthful for 55.
An accompanying cover story has been written by her longtime co-star Hugh Grant, with whom she has just reunited for the fourth film in the Bridget Jones franchise, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
The wide-ranging interview covers the backlash she received when it was first announced an American had won the role of Jones, her thoughts on the movie’s themes and the HR nightmare that would come today from her character dating her boss.
But it was her answer to the question of why she took a self-imposed six-year break from acting that was the most revealing, with Zellweger replying, “because I needed to.”
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“I was sick of the sound of my own voice,” Zellweger explained.
“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.”
When asked if she simply did nothing during her time off, she replied, “No, no, no,” before elaborating on how she stayed so busy all those years.
“I wrote music and studied international law,” Zellweger said.
“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.”
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Zellweger added that she also “got healthy,” and revealed elsewhere in the interview that she now sprints one mile (1.6km) three times a week and does sit-ups because “I have to” due to herniated discs.
Zellweger, whose breakthrough role was in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, opposite Tom Cruise, worked steadily in the decade that followed, filming two movies a year.
Roles in comedies such as Nurse Betty and Me, Myself & Irene led her to Bridget Jones’s Diary, before she starred as Roxie in the film version of Chicago in 2002.
That role netted her her second Academy Award nomination for best actress (her first was for playing Bridget Jones).
She finally won an Oscar for best supporting actress for the 2004 film Cold Mountain.
She received the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Judy Garland in the 2020 film Judy.
Zellweger told Grant she now lived in southern California to be close to “my fellow”, her boyfriend of four years, Ant Anstead, and his son, Hudson.
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