Why Renée Zellweger “Needed to” Stop Acting For Six Years: “I Got Healthy”

After a string of big-screen hits including Jerry Maguire, Chicago, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and her Oscar-winning turn in Cold Mountain, Renée Zellweger took a six-year break from acting. Her 2016 return to show-biz kicked off with Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third installment in her romantic comedy franchise, and culminated in a second Academy Award for playing Judy Garland in 2019’s Judy.

Now, as Zellweger returns to her beloved film series with the fourth Bridget Jones movie, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, she is reflecting on her time away from the spotlight. Speaking to co-star Hugh Grant, who plays perennial bad-boy bachelor Daniel Cleaver in multiple Bridget Jones films, for British Vogue, Zellweger said she felt she needed to stop acting for a period of time: “I was sick of the sound of my own voice. 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 about how she spent her Hollywood hiatus, Zellweger said, “I wrote music and studied international law. 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. I got healthy.”

Zellweger previously told British Vogue that while “saying no to that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime project is hard,” finding a sense of anonymity is essential to being a valuable performer. “You cannot be a good storyteller if you don’t have life experiences, and you can’t relate to people,” she explained.

The world’s ability to relate with the down-to-Earth Bridget Jones is part of what lured Zellweger back to the character. The new film finds Bridget raising her son after the death of Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy as two new men, played by Chiwitel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall, enter her life. “I think maybe folks recognize themselves in her and relate to her struggles and feelings of self-doubt. Bridget is authentically herself and doesn’t always get it right, but whatever her imperfections, she remains joyful and optimistic, carries on and triumphs in her own way,” said the actor. “She seems to make her quirky individuality and shortcomings charming, lovable and acceptable—and, in turn, she makes us feel lovable and acceptable too.”

Zellweger also returned to her craft with a fresh perspective on the film business. In the story, Grant says he makes “a beeline” for negative feedback: “I read every review on Rotten Tomatoes, skipping through for the green splats.” But Zellweger prefers to focus on the work itself, telling her costar, “I’ve never looked at the box office or Rotten Tomatoes.”

Box office won’t be a metric for the latest Bridget Jones film, anyway. It debuts exclusively on February 13 via Peacock. And it may not be the last we see of Bridget Jones, either. “I love her. And her story is not finished,” said Zellweger. “As long as Savannah Walsh Helen [Fielding] puts pen to paper, she’s alive.”