Happy 50th to Renée Zellweger
Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 11:51PM by Eric Blume
It seems crazy, but today marks the 50th birthday of Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger. Zellweger is a bit of a divisive actor (even within this site!), but I loved her the second I first saw her onscreen, loved her through her big decade of success, and will proudly love her forever.
I fell for Zellweger for the first time the way most of America did: as assistant Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire in 1996. Even though that film features Cruise’s best performance (he should have beat Geoffrey Rush for the Oscar), I walked away from Jerry Maguire thinking, who the hell is Renée Zellweger? It takes major presence and considerable skill to not be blown off the screen by a star like Cruise at his most commanding. Not only did Zellweger hold her own, she brought out new things in him: a comic warmth, a quality of genuineness, something softer and more open. He listened to her and didn’t anticipate everything, because she was off-center...
Zellweger took the role of “The Girl” and made her complete: she was a young mother who didn’t know what she was doing, someone desperately looking for inspiration who makes a gut, “foolish” decision because she was defining who she was. Zellweger wrung truth out of Cameron Crowe’s idealized girl and made her a living, breathing human, something complex and interesting in a very commercial movie not actually centered on her character.
Two years later, she went up against another heavy-hitter, Meryl Streep herself in Carl Franklin’s 1998 film One True Thing. This film is a seriously underrated gem, in which Zellweger once again more than holds her own against Streep and one of cinema’s other great actors, William Hurt. Meryl got the Oscar nomination, but Zellweger is in control and never lets the film stray from her character’s arc: the beauty in the film is in watching her character lose respect for her revered father while she gains respect for her marginalized mother, and the actress calibrates it very wisely. We watch her go through a series of realizations, then rationalizations, then crystallizations on her parents’ character. Then we watch her pull it all together through a change that feels honest and earned.
I maintain that Zellweger’s performance in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary is sheer perfection. Zellweger finds comic bits within beats. She walks funny. She wears clothes funny. She burrows into Bridget’s messy, thoughtless, brazen heart and is so deep in character that we feel we’ve never seen her before. There isn’t an ounce of comedy in that script that Zellweger doesn’t find, and she doesn’t shy away from the uglier aspects of the character either. It’s because Zellweger makes Bridget so very, very specific that she turns out to be every single person who has ever put themselves out there to love another person.
The next two years brought the one-two punch of Chicago and Cold Mountain, which finally won her the Oscar. In Chicago, Zellweger gives a humdinger of a performance for someone who cannot really sing or dance yet is starring in a musical. Zellweger tears into Roxie Hart the same way Roxie Hart tears into the world: by sheer ugly force. Her Roxie has a limited talent, and the strident singing and just-getting-by dancing serve the character well. It’s a nice contrast (and superior to, in my opinion) Catherine Zeta-Jones’ military-like showmanship as Velma, and Zellweger keys herself into a stylized musical theater notch from beginning to end that helps the movie stay comic and self-aware, two ingredients key to that particular musical’s success.
Boy am I going to hear about it in the comments section, but I even think she’s wonderful in Cold Mountain. Yeah yeah yeah, it’s cornpone. Sure, it’s shockingly unsubtle and crude. But I’d argue it’s exactly what Cold Mountain needs: force and energy. When Renée trudges into the movie about 45 minutes in, the entire picture lifts. It breaks out of its romantic spell and gets a new jolt of... something. That something is not something to many peoples’ liking, but the movie would have died without her, drowning in self-seriousness. I could feel Zellweger’s love for that character, and she made me laugh. As with so many performers, she didn’t win the Oscar for one of her best performances, but I’m glad she has one.
In addition to these big films, she’s also been dry and offbeat in Neil LaBute’s Nurse Betty; juicy as part of the dynamic blond troika of White Oleander; tender opposite Vincent D’Onofrio in The Whole Wide World; and sexy and stylish in Down with Love. This all adds up to a lot of great onscreen work.
And so we wait to see how her big “comeback” will be when she plays Judy Garland later this year. It’s a performance that could be remarkably inspired or go down as a colossal mistake. I'm guessing even if the movie doesn’t deliver, Zellweger will try something interesting.
Zellweger is one of those special movie creatures who have the intangible: magic. There are actors like Jodie Foster and Emma Stone and Zellweger who are so truly unique, so completely special, that they feel born for the camera. They don’t come from traditional acting backgrounds and arrive with little training, yet the camera takes to them, and them to it. There’s no explanation for it, and that’s the beauty of it.
Zellweger has genuine moxie, not a trait highly valued in our contemporary cinema, but one that is essential to it. I’m so grateful to her for her enormous talent, and all of us here at TFE wish her a very happy half-century.
Reader Comments (41)
It's startling to think about just how long she's been away. Well, not entirely away, but films like Chicago and Cold Mountain - that was 15-20 years ago.
While I liked her in earlier movies like Jerry Maguire and Empire Records, for me it was Nurse Betty where she announced herself as an actress you just couldn't take your eyes off of. I completely agree about her "magic" - especially in Bridget Jones and Down With Love.
And oof, while I think I like Cold Mountain more than most, I've never spent a second of my life defending that performance or that Oscar. I kind of wonder if her career would've been better off with her losing, given how derided that was. I'm curious about Judy. But given how much I loved Judy Davis playing Garland, well, I'm a bit nervous about it too.
I love Renee too, and have followed her activity in the past decade or so, as she's been away from the public eye, with great interest. I think she's absolute perfection as Bridget, just as she is (in the first film... can't go there with the others). I'll hold my judgement on Judy, which seems from what I've heard to be a project that doesn't need to happen (even Liza came out against it). If there will be a Reneesaince, I will be happy to watch it unfold.
I absolutely adore her in Cold Mountain. The comic beats are perfect. The tragic beats are perfect. The characterization (accent, physicality) is totally consistent. She is to that movie what Maureen Stapleton is to Reds—OTT, yes, but such a necessary punch to pack in an epic.
Plus, I love her chemistry with Kidman. You watch Ruby shoving Ada out of her comfort zone as a woman. It also feels like you're watching Zellweger shove Kidman out of the perfume ad she thinks she's starring in. (And I love Nicole in that movie too).
That performance (that entire film, honestly) deserves a re-evaluation.
she was fucking DYNAMITE in WHITE OLEANDER!!!
This was lovely to read. Love Renée, always have, always will.
I've never understood the Zellweger backlash. She's been in some bad movies, sure, but I think she's a tremendously appealing and unique performer.
Did you see the trailer for her new Netflix series? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQcPqm3EqY8 It looks absurd but I think the whole thing is an immediate letter grade higher if it turns out that Zellweger is just playing herself. If she's going to be the mysterious, wealthy grand dame of some trashy soap, go all in with some meta self-parody.
I enjoyed the hell out of her in Cold Mountain, I don't care what anyone says. If I have to mark it down as a guilty pleasure than so be it.
She has such a unique charisma, she's dynamite in Jerry Maguire and absolutely perfect as Bridget,Nurse Betty and Barbara Novak.
What a great write-up of one of my favorite performers!
Totally robbed of a nomination in Jerry Maguire & White Oleander....looking forward to her Judy!
I'm a Zellweger voter in 2001.
I think she is very talented,her natural warmth and fluster in JM was magic at the time,wished she'd made the 96 line up.
I have to say her Oscar win is a terrible one but that's an old record.
She was probably at her best in BJD but not the follow ups.
She was overshadowed by Pfeiffer in White Oleander but on repeats she emerges as the life of that film.
Chicago was miscast in most areas but she got the goofy/funny right just not the hoofing.
After the Oscar win she made poor choices,it happens to lots of Oscar winners but where someone like Charlize Theron managed to turn it around and thus her career Renee never did.
The facial surgery a few years ago and the internet ganging up on her didn't help but she should have been more honest,no ones eyes change like that through healthy living.
She has a lovely part in Sarah Jessica Parker's new film,full of emotion and back story with a total false facade.
Happy 50th.
I have never been a huge fan of hers for extremely subjective/superficial reasons, though I found her performance in Chicago dazzling. In any case Eric, your article really makes me want to revisit some of her movies (Cold Mountain, Down with Love, Bridget Jones's Diary) and give a chance to her most iconic performances (I can't believe I have the Nurse Betty DVD somewhere and never watched it!).
I was looking at her IMDb page and it's quite mind-boggling to see how quickly she went from A-lister with three consecutive Oscar nominations (and yes, one undeserved win) to an actress no one was interested in hiring anymore.
I'm sorry to say that the teaser for her Netflix series looks awful but I hope that her Judy project allows her to get more interesting offers.
@Hayden
Stapleton doesn't disrupt the movie she's in.
Portman, Hoffman and Law were the only bright acting spots in Cold Mountain.
Charming and funny blondes with natural talent for comedy have always been an important commodity in Hollywood movies. Already in silents with Marion Davies, in the 1930s with Arthur-Harlow-Lombard & Cia, in other decades Betty Hutton, Judy Holliday, Doris Day, Goldie Hawn... And Renee Zellweger, being one of the few actresses nominated for an Oscar in a comedy. For me, her biggest breakthrough as an actress is Nurse Betty, a delicate interpretation in an unconventional comedy with an unpredictable story in which all cast is astounding, including Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear. In movies she is always a sunny presence even when the character is not - like in Chicago. Welcome back, Renee.
Obviously The Academy would give the Oscar to Renee any time, they've always had a crush on her and that's understandable. She's their type since the institution was founded. But Renee has always demonstrated talent and charisma, since the beginning in Jerry Maguire - Tom Cruise had to stay with her and that incredible son of her!
I agree with all the praise given to Cold Mountain. I love and hate this movie as much as I love and hate The Age of Innocence. Whenever I watch these two films I hope the couples get together and happy in the end and I always lose!
As for Renee's Oscar, it was inevitable, it was the moment - now or never.
Happy Birthday, Renée! One needed to look only at Empire Records, particularly her "freak out" scene (in contrast with Liv Tyler's, which...yikes!), to know that she had the goods.
Thank you, Eric, for not forgetting to reference Down With Love and One True Thing, both of which gifted us two of her best, brightest performances. I, too, think that Bridget Jones' Diary is her high-water mark (Oscar-worthy for sure), although Jerry Maguire and Nurse Betty are certainly no small shakes either. And while Cold Mountain was a crash-and-burn scenario, when she burst into the movie opposite a somnambulant Kidman, my eyes were glued to the screen. (I actually think her initial comedic moments work well, but Ruby's later, more serious "it's raining!" scenes are where it goes off the rails.) She—we—deserve better than this pish-posh.
P.S. No mention of her impeccable style and fashion sense? As Nathaniel has said (at least once) before, Renée sure can dress.
Well-said on her work opposite Cruise. Super accurate notation.
Congrats to a really lovely and deeply felt article. I kinda hope Renée herself reads it.
A genuine talent, painfully battered by the media and the industry itself, Such a shame.
Her Bridget Jones is, in ones humble opinion, among the top 5 best comedic performances in film history, an absolute wonder... and the ACCENT!!!
I am with markgordonuk. on this one. For me, she was too "hammy" in Cold Mountain.
Hi, I came back just to say that the beauty of this writing is that the author likes its theme, incidentally is admittedly a fan. Besides being very well written, of course. Look, if you have to write about something, at least like the subject or at least have some interest or knowledge. Especially a celebratory text as is the case. The fans of the theme say thank you.
P.S .: I read the title and the comments and typed my first comment and then I read the text. 😉
I’ve always loved her. Most of the criticism she received on the IMDb message boards back during her peak centered around her looks.
Though at the time I was devastated Nicole Kidman lost, I’m now both Halle Berry won the Oscar but believe, of the actual nominees, Zellweger deserved it most. She is absolutely perfect as Bridget Jones. It seems like a miracle she was nominated, because I don’t think that could likely happen today.
I’m glad she does have an Oscar. (Aghdashloo, Clarkson, and Hunter were obviously more deserving). Her performance in COLD MOUNTAIN is ridiculous, but I don’t exactly hate it. In conjunction with the French & Saunders spoof “Cold Turkey,” I actually quote it regularly.
Huge fan of DOWN WITH LOVE, too. Everyone’s brilliant, but that 3+ minute monologue... wow.
All that said, most biopics are bad. Few people are interesting enough to have a movie made about them. Not everyone can be Marie Antoinette or Aileen Wuornos! I love Judy, but I always dread reading about another biopics being made that I’ll most likely have to see to stay in the Oscar conversations.
I thought Zellweger was so bad in Cold Mountain that I could never quite regain any interest in her career afterwards. The Oscar she got for that Ham on Rye performance naturally didn't help matters any.
The win didn't help her and by rights it should have,she did not manage to turn a negative back to her favour and a lot of her 2005 - 2010 projects were simply awful.
The internet was very cruel about her looks in this period especially and I think if it happened now other actresses would rally round in defence of her unique beauty,she certainly had her own look while not runway beautiful her look helped her.
To change that look so drastically in the last few years didn't help because the internet turned on her again,she couldn't win.
I was thinking about her today- specially in "Down With Love" which is a delight for movie lovers
Nurse Betty is her masterpiece.
She was heartbreaking in White Oleander.
Better than Zeta-Jones in Chicago.
Delicious in Down With Love.
I'm not a fan of the Bridget Jones series.
Between 1998 and 2002, she basically could do no wrong—-and didn’t. But oh dear me, she is godawful in Cold Mountain. And sadly the spell was broken. I hope she can get it back, because her performances in One True Thing and Nurse Betty are so damn lovely. Happy Birthday.
I wasn't particularly fond of Cold Mountain, but at least everyone involved was in agreement on what kind of movie they were making -- a Respectably Ponderous costume drama. Except for Zellweger, who clomps in as though she's starring in "Granny Clampett: The Early Years;" she's in an entirely different movie from everyone else, which is (if you ask me) one of the greatest sins an actor can commit.
Also a huge Renée fan. She’s fantastic in Jerry Maguire, One True Thing, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and Chicago.
Still haven’t seen Frida, but otherwise she’d have my vote in 2002. Utterly fabulous. She moves and sings in ways that 100% suit the character. And it’s so different from her other work.
Hoping for the best for her this year but even if it doesn’t pan out she’s made movie history with classic films and classic performances. Bravo Renée!
Rush did deserve the Oscar.
Besides the shocking initial photos, Renee’s face has settled back to recognisability. If we can give a pass to the long period Kidman had caterpillar lips and immovable forehead, we can forgive Renée for a few photo opportunities when her ‘work’ was less subtle.
Cold Mountain for Renee and Nicole was like The House of the Spirits for Meryl and Glenn. Just the worst in every way possible.
But I like her a lot. Happy Birthday, Renee!
Cruise is outstanding in all three of his nominated performances but was win worthy for his non-movie star turns Born on the Fourth of July and Magnolia.
She was the first actress that i love for that holy trinity performances in Nurse Betty, Bridget Jones's Diary and Chicago, that last one watch it three times in theatre and many others in DVD because i was obsessed for her ... but she broke my heart after her plastic surgery.
I just dont understand why some people wants to look "better" and follow and idealized image of beauty instead of celebreating the beauty of diversity that anyone already have, specially the actors who work based in the expresions and not how beautiful they look.
The actors that makes superficial changes with theirselves because of vanity or complex lost some credibility to me. I know can sound rude and even superficial but is just what i think.
Michelle Williams reminds me of Renée. Would love to see what Renée would do with Gwen Verdon.
I do appreciate her in Me, Myself & Irene.
The Cold Mountain win feels like a Davis/Dangerous consolation prize. If people are gonna gripe about her singing/dancing in Chicago-she was better than the similar, gripe-worthy Emma Stone in LLLand. But the CM win was more a triumph for the Weinstein Oscar hustle-turning dirt into diamonds. I hope she’s good in Judy because the public needs a great insight of Garland at the
I'm all for casting legitimate singers and dancers in singing and dancing roles, no question, but why do so many seem prone to knock Zellweger and Stone while not critiquing the similarly lacking Gere and Gosling? The men don't get excoriated for their lack-of nearly as much as the women, which I guess is par for the course. We all can agree that Zeta-Jones was the true movie-musical star in this scenario, so thank God she got her reward.
For me Zellweger's casting in Chicago was spot-on.
Roxie Hart is a character that desperately wants to be a star-which doesn't mean she has to be perfect. She captures it really great and would have been a worthy winner of 2002.
I think she’ll be nominated for her performance in ‘Judy’.
What a wonderful love letter !
I'm divided -
LOVED her in "One True Thing"
BRILLIANCE in "Chicago" - and YES better then Zeta Jones !
MOVIE HISTORY Magic in the 1st "Bridget Jones" - epic!
CANDY Doris well done in "Down With Love"
But some of her acting choices are dreadful & some movie performances very repetitive. Thats when I started to wonder... I didn't find her real... unfortunately the face change gave me the rest. I seriously can't watch a movie with her as she looks so so different - and still you know it's her inside... sorry :-( of course you can be still a great artist - but I think its sad.
Nevertheless hoping she kicks back with Judy !
(Personally I think Anne Hathaway would have been a much better choice - was she ever in the run for Judy?)
Happy BDAY crazy Zee - you're big movie star in my eyes anyway
Tom—Davis’ win for Dangerous is often called a makeup for her miss in 34, but I think she’s really good in Dangerous. I actually love that win.
Mareko—I agree part of it might be sexism, but part of it is that Renée was nommed and Emma won—many people are still holding a grudge. Ryan was never considered a serious contender for the Oscar. And Gere was famously snubbed. I thought he was unfairly looked over, despite the pretty bad singing. Otherwise, that performance really works.
Although her face change now I look at very recent photos is about Kidman level, which is a little bit off putting at times with Nicole as well I must admit.
Thank you so much for this! I couldn't agree more that she is often a very inspired actress, and is usually a stand-out in her films. I'm totally with you on loving her performance in Chicago - Roxie absolutely does NOT have to be a great singer or dancer, and Zellweger proves that with a performance of almost 100% pure moxie that works like gangbusters. And I also think she stands out amind the overwhelming self-seriousness of Cold Mountain - whether or not you like that performance, it demands your attention and livens up the film.
Can't wait to see her Judy!