A star is reborn

After a deliberate break from the screen, RENÉE ZELLWEGER is back. Here, she revisits her iconic characters (hello, Bridget Jones) and discusses her greatest role to date

- LAURA BROWN

We all know the obvious things about Renée Zellweger: that she’s been one of the world’s most vibrant actors for 26 years; that she is, famously, from Texas; that she loves a baseball hat and a fitted strapless evening gown in equal measure. But what you really need to know is that Zellweger doesn’t waste time with prattle, channelling her distinct energies onto the screen. By now we’ve read the rave reviews of her performance as Judy Garland during her later years in the biopic Judy, but you must see it to believe it. Zellweger physicalises Garland in such an extraordinary way she almost vibrates. Her work speaks for itself. That said, she’ll eat some fries and explain it.

LAURA BROWN: You are a performer in your bones, and we can feel it. In one of the scenes in Judy, you were walking down a hall visibly hunched over. How did you go about that?

RENÉE ZELLWEGER: I describe it as a shared series of experiments with different film departments. We were just trying things, and so walking down that hall was just an ongoing conversation about the varying degrees of severity. How she gets from the bathroom to the stage, and making decisions about what to show when, and making sure there is continuity. There were multiple collaborations happening within my body at once. [Laughs]

How much does a performance like the one in Judy take out of you?

I was tired and skinny when we finished this. The schedule is pretty punishing, but it’s finite. You know that after this series of months, you can catch up a little. But, yeah, this one was big. It was big because I was greedy. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep digging.

Is there another role or person you’re greedy for?

Yes, but it may take a little bit of audacity to get it moving. We’ll see.