Renee Zellweger has called on Liza Minelli to give her Judy Garland biopic a chance, insisting that the film is a ‘celebration of Judy and her humanity and courage and legacy’.
In 2018 Liza insisted she did ‘not approve nor sanction the upcoming film about Judy Garland in any way’ with sources recently claiming she feared the film may ‘tarnish her memories of her mother’.
But speaking to Metro.co.uk, Renee – who stars as Judy in the film about the months she spent performing in London before her untimely death in 1969 age 47 – has revealed that she would still ‘love to speak to’ Liza and hopes that the Cabaret star ‘would see it was an effort to express affection and to declare, again, how important she is’.
‘I understand it would be very emotional and complicated wanting to go and watch a representation of your mother at a time… a period that has been blanketed in the press as challenging or would seem from the outside from tragic,’ she said.
‘But our hopes in making this was to contextualise the circumstances of her life and that final chapter, to subvert the notion she was tragic, to recognise how heroic she was, and she was able to overcome so much to continue performing at that level and connect with the audience who had come to expect so much from her.’
Renee continued: ‘This was an act of celebration of her and her humanity and courage and legacy.
‘Every day there were different departments and we were all just mining for treasure to conjure her essence and find things that we could celebrate, and I would hope she would see it was an effort to express affection and to declare, again, how important she is.’
The 72-year-old icon comes from a legacy of powerful women in the industry, and was not one to bite her tongue as she shut down rumours in 2018 that she was happy for the film to go ahead, and had even helped Renee get into character.
Writing on her Facebook page, the Caberet actress wrote: ‘I have never met nor spoken to Renee Zellweger.
‘I don’t know how these stories get started, but I do not approve nor sanction the upcoming film about Judy Garland in any way.’
‘Any reports to the contrary are 100% fiction,’ she added.
The film, however, has won universal acclaim and Renee is considered a frontrunner for the best actress Oscar at the 2020 ceremony.
Judy is out in the UK on 2 October 2019.
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