Renée Zellweger

• 1. Introduction

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  Renée Zellweger was in the bathroom when her name was called at the Golden Globes for Nurse Betty. The man reading the winner's name was Hugh Grant, who would soon become her co-star. She later protested, "I had lipstick on my teeth!"

  Born on the 25th of April 1969, the American actress went on to collect two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and four Golden Globes. Yet her career did not run in a straight line. Some of her biggest hits sat beside box-office disappointments, and one stretch of her working life ended in a long silence.

  How does a Texas English major who dreamed of journalism end up on that list? Why did one British role, played by an American, stir up so much argument before a single scene was shot? And what made her walk away from the screen for four years, just when she seemed to have everything?

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• 2. Texas Roots

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  Katy, Texas, is where Renée Kathleen Zellweger grew up, the child of parents with roots in Switzerland and Norway. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, came from the Swiss town of Au in St. Gallen. He worked as a mechanical and electrical engineer in the oil-refining business.

  Her mother, Kjellfrid, was Norwegian, of Kven and Sámi descent, and grew up in Ekkerøy near the town of Vadsø. A nurse and midwife, she crossed the Atlantic to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger has summed up her religious upbringing as that of a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".

  At Katy High School, Zellweger was a cheerleader and played soccer and powderpuff football. In 1986 her academic paper "The Karankawas and Their Roots" took third place in the first Houston Post High School Natural Science Essay Contest. Nothing about this résumé pointed toward Hollywood.

  She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Journalism was the plan. A drama course taken as an elective, plus a little time on stage, changed it.

  In her junior year the small jobs began. A Coors Light commercial earned her a Screen Actors Guild card. On the Austin-filmed horror-comedy My Boyfriend's Back she was a local hire, cast as "the girl in the beauty shop, maybe two lines". The scene was cut.

  Her first job after graduating was a beef commercial, and she auditioned around Houston at the same time. The next stretch of film work would be modest and low-budget.

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• 3. Screams and Breakthroughs

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  A Taste for Killing, from 1992, was among the independent and low-budget films Zellweger made while she was still based in Texas. A year later came the ABC miniseries Murder in the Heartland and an uncredited part in Dazed and Confused. In 1994 she turned up in Reality Bites, the directing debut of Ben Stiller, and in 8 Seconds, directed by John G. Avildsen.

  The 1995 horror film The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre gave her a first main role, opposite Matthew McConaughey. She played a teenager who leaves a prom early with three friends. A car accident leaves them at the mercy of a murderous family led by Leatherface. Few people noticed the film, but Joe Leydon of Variety called her "the most formidable scream queen since Jamie Lee Curtis went legit."

  The crime comedy Love and a.45 cast her as a woman planning a robbery with her boyfriend. It reached only a limited release, yet it won her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. Around then she moved to Los Angeles. She had put the move off several times, convinced she lacked the talent and experience to compete there.

  Jerry Maguire, in 1996, was the turning point. Tom Cruise himself chose her to play a single mother who becomes the love interest of his glossy sports agent. The film grossed over US$273 million worldwide. Cruise later praised her for "revealing the core humanity of the movie." Roger Ebert wrote that she "reminds us that true love is about idealism." She earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for supporting actress.

  In 1998 she played a young woman chafing against her religious community in A Price Above Rubies. It flopped, though Ebert called her performance "ferociously strong". The same year she appeared in One True Thing with William Hurt and Meryl Streep. Her character, based on the author Anna Quindlen, puts her life on hold to nurse a mother dying of cancer. It took in a modest US$23 million in the United States, and Todd McCarthy of Variety singled her out for the gravity and impatience she showed.

  Comedy followed in 2000. Me, Myself & Irene paired her with Jim Carrey, and the Farrelly brothers' film grossed US$149 million worldwide. Then came Nurse Betty, directed by Neil LaBute and costarring Morgan Freeman. She played a Kansas waitress who suffers a nervous breakdown after witnessing her husband's murder. The San Francisco Chronicle described her as a performer who gives off kindness and a pure heart.

  The following year she would take on a character who barely existed on the American side of the Atlantic.

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• 4. Becoming Bridget

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  In 2001 Zellweger was cast as Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones's Diary, alongside Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The film was based on Helen Fielding's 1996 novel. Critics of the casting had three complaints. She was not British, she was not plump, and she did not smoke.

  During casting she was told she was too thin for the chain-smoking Bridget. Her answer was to put on 20 pounds. She also learned an English accent while smoking herbal cigarettes. Dialect coaching helped, and she spent three weeks working undercover in a work experience placement at the British publishing firm Picador in Victoria, London.

  Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that she accomplished "the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real." The role brought her second Golden Globe nomination in the musical or comedy category. It also brought her first Academy Award and BAFTA nominations for Best Leading Actress. The film earned US$281 million worldwide.

  The 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, made US$262 million around the globe. It earned her a fourth Golden Globe nomination in that same category. Twelve years later she returned in Bridget Jones's Baby, with Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey. This time Jones is single, in her forties, and pregnant, with no certainty about who the father is.

  The third film grossed US$211.9 million worldwide. The Village Voice called it "the warmest and most satisfying of the series" and praised a "wise, light-hearted performance" at its center. Zellweger would play Jones a fourth time in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, released in 2025.

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• 5. Chicago and Cold Mountain

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  White Oleander, released in 2002, put Zellweger opposite Michelle Pfeiffer as a former actress serving as a foster mother. It earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a drama. That same year came Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall, in which she played Roxie Hart. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly filled out the cast.

  Chicago won Best Picture at the 75th Academy Awards. Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph called it the best screen musical since Cabaret in 1972. The San Francisco Chronicle noted her comic timing and commanding presence in the stage numbers. For Roxie she earned her second Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Leading Actress. She also took her second Golden Globe in the musical or comedy category and the Screen Actors Guild Award for a leading role.

  In 2003 she starred with Ewan McGregor in Down with Love, a little-seen romantic comedy about a woman championing female independence in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her other 2003 film was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. She played a talkative farmer who helps Kidman's character after her father's death. For it she won Best Supporting Actress at the 76th Academy Awards, the 61st Golden Globes, the 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards and the 57th British Academy Film Awards.

  She lent her voice to DreamWorks' Shark Tale in 2004. In 2005 she played the wife of heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock in Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, with Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti. David Ansen of Newsweek wrote that she "has an uncanny ability to make us swallow even the most movie-ish moments". On the 24th of May 2005 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

  Miss Potter cast her as the author Beatrix Potter, alongside Emily Watson and Ewan McGregor. She also served as an executive producer because she wanted more involvement in the production. It brought her sixth Golden Globe nomination. In 2007 she voiced a character in the animated Bee Movie and received the Women in Film Crystal award.

  The next year brought two films that would not land the same way.

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• 6. Stepping Away

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  Leatherheads, in 2008, reunited her with George Clooney as director. She played a Chicago Tribune reporter in his comedy about the early years of professional American football. Reviews were largely mixed. The film opened to US$13.5 million, which Box Office Mojo called disappointing. MTV.com praised her drawling sarcasm, while Kevin Williamson of the website Jam! thought she was miscast.

  That same year she appeared in the western Appaloosa with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, which grossed US$20 million in North America. She also produced Living Proof, a Lifetime television film starring Harry Connick Jr. about the true story of Denny Slamon. It premiered in October 2008.

  In 2009 New in Town made only US$16 million domestically. She played a Miami consultant adjusting to a small Minnesota town. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian mocked her "rabbity, dimply pout". She also voiced a character in DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens and played the mother of actor George Hamilton in My One and Only, which had a limited release.

  Case 39, a supernatural thriller she had filmed in 2006, finally reached United States theaters in 2010. Critics panned it and it earned US$5.3 million in its opening weekend. Indiewire used the moment to describe an "unforgiving industry that doles out few juicy roles for women over 40." My Own Love Song, in which she played a former singer with paralysis, screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and went to DVD.

  After that came a four-year break from screen acting. She told British Vogue in July 2016 that she was fatigued, had not rested enough between projects, and was tired of the sound of her own voice. She had wanted time to "go away and grow up a bit".

  In 2013 she co-created and executive produced Cinnamon Girl, a drama set in the Hollywood movie and music scenes of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lifetime passed on the pilot. She was also considered that year for a supporting role in August: Osage County, but it went to Juliette Lewis.

  Principal photography on The Whole Truth began in July 2014 in New Orleans. She played Loretta Lassiter, an abused but devious wife whose teenage son is accused of murdering his wealthy father. Keanu Reeves played the defense lawyer, and Courtney Hunt directed. After a long post-production, the courtroom drama reached United States audiences in 2016.

  Same Kind of Different as Me followed in 2017, with Djimon Hounsou, Olivia Holt and Jon Voight. She played the wife of an art dealer whose strained marriage improves because of a homeless man. In 2018 she appeared as the friend of a New York singer in Here and Now, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker. A bigger part was waiting in 2019.

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• 7. Judy Garland

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  Anne Montgomery, a mysterious venture capitalist, was Zellweger's first major television role, in the Netflix thriller miniseries What/If in 2019. Reviews of the show were mixed, but her performance drew praise. Her next part would draw far more.

  Judy, also from 2019, cast her as Judy Garland. It is based on the West End and Broadway play End of the Rainbow and follows the last years of Garland's life, shortly before her death in 1969. Zellweger sang the songs herself, and they had to be performed in front of a live audience.

  The film premiered to positive reviews at the Telluride Film Festival and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on the 10th of September 2019. Zoe Gahan of Vanity Fair wrote that "it is hard to tell where Garland stops and Zellweger starts". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said she sang her heart out and acted with a ferocity that reached grace.

  Her portrayal won the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the BAFTA and the Academy Award. She became just the seventh actress to win an Oscar in both acting categories. She was the fourth to take Best Actress after already winning Best Supporting Actress. The soundtrack also earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.

  In 2022 she starred in the NBC miniseries The Thing About Pam, her first starring role in network television. She played Pam Hupp, who was involved in the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria. Face and body prosthetics took 80 minutes to apply. Reviews were mixed, with Ben Travers of IndieWire calling the performance exaggerated.

  In 2025 she joined Hulu's Only Murders in the Building for its fifth season, playing Camila White.

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• 8. The Public Eye

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  The September 1997 cover of Vanity Fair put Zellweger in front of a mass audience. The magazine had named her part of "Hollywood's Next Wave of Stars" the previous April. Vogue, Detour, Allure and Harper's Bazaar followed with covers and photo shoots of their own.

  Carolina Herrera is the designer behind many of her red carpet dresses. The two met at a Costume Institute gala and have been close friends and collaborators for over fifteen years. Zellweger is also a regular at New York Fashion Week.

  Lists tracked her rise. E! placed her in its Top 20 Entertainers of 2001. People chose her as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 2003. Forbes ranked her number 72 in its Top 100 Celebrities in 2006 and put her 20th among the richest women in entertainment a year later.

  In 2001 the Israeli singer-songwriter Ariel Horowitz wrote and performed a song called "Renee" after watching Jerry Maguire. It imagines him meeting Zellweger, falling in love and moving with her to Israel, where she becomes a local movie star. It was one of the most popular songs in Israel in 2002.

  After she attended the 21st annual Elle Women in Hollywood Awards in October 2014, commentators said she was hardly recognizable. Speculation about cosmetic surgery followed. She replied: "Perhaps I look different. Who doesn't as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I'm happy."

  Her private life drew attention too. She was engaged to Jim Carrey from 1999 to 2000. In May 2005 she married singer Kenny Chesney, and she obtained an annulment four months later. Later relationships included Bradley Cooper from 2009 to 2011, after they met on the set of Case 39.

  In 2005 she took part in a Swiss Federal Office of Public Health campaign on HIV prevention. She is a patron of the gender equality foundation The GREAT Initiative, and in 2011 she visited Liberia with the charity. That April she designed a handbag with Tommy Hilfiger to raise money for the Breast Health Institute.

  She explained her motive by pointing to friends and family who had battled breast cancer, calling herself a passionate supporter of breast health education. In June 2021 she began dating the English television presenter Ant Anstead, whom she met while filming Celebrity IOU: Joyride.

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