For better or worse, she’ll always be the Christmas jumper-wearing, blue soup-making Bridget Jones in our minds, but there’s much more to Renée Zellweger’s screen career than her three outings as Helen Fielding’s hapless rom-com heroine – as her recent awards success proves.
The actress, 50, made her first foray into film back in 1993 with an uncredited appearance in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, but it was her role opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Macguire in 1996 that inducted her into Hollywood’s upper echelons.
Bridget Jones’s Diary came five years later, making Zellweger a household name – and earning her a first Oscar nomination (no mean feat, given the Academy’s entrenched distrust of anything that resembles a romantic comedy).
She built on Bridget’s success with a string of critically acclaimed roles (though the less said about the sequel, the better), earning another Oscar nod for Chicago then eventually winning the Best Supporting Actress trophy for Cold Mountain. But then things took an abrupt turn – Zellweger made a dramatic retreat from the spotlight at the height of her fame, taking a six year Hollywood hiatus between 2010 and 2016.
“I was fatigued and wasn’t taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me,” she later told British Vogue. “I got sick of the sound of my own voice: it was time to go away and grow up a bit.”
The perfect comeback project came in the inauspicious form of Bridget Jones’s Baby, a third instalment charting the now forty-something Bridget’s first pregnancy, and Zellweger now appears to have hit her stride once again. After making her Netflix debut in WHAT/IF last summer, the star received widespread acclaim for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic of the Hollywood icon.
She’s since managed to parlay that critical buzz into major awards success, pulling off a clean sweep of the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and the Baftas. It’s almost a given that she’ll pull off the same feat at the Academy Awards on February 9.
As Zellweger’s triumphant awards season looks set to reach its apex, we’ve looked back at some of the star’s most memorable screen roles from Bridget and beyond.
Bridget Jones’s Diary
It’s now hard to see anyone else as the chain-smoking heroine of Helen Fielding’s 90s novels, but the initial reception to Zellweger’s casting wasn’t exactly warm (you can only imagine the Twitter ire it would provoke now). But after nailing the British accent (reportedly with the help of Gwyneth Paltrow’s voice coach) and famously gaining 17 pounds to play everywoman Bridget, she charmed audiences and critics alike.
Cinderella Man
Based on a true story, Cinderella Man is a classic underdog story of the Great Depression, following boxer James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe) as he attempts a sporting comeback following an injury in order to support his family, including wife Mae (played by Zellweger), who is torn between the promise of riches and the very real possibility that he might not make it through the fight.
Cold Mountain
After a hat trick of three consecutive nominations, Zellweger eventually took home her first and only Oscar statuette for Cold Mountain, the sweeping adaptation of Charles Frazier’s American Civil War epic. Trying out a Deep South drawl for size, she plays straight-talking farm girl Ruby Thewes, who provides some spirited comic relief as she assists Nicole Kidman’s more refined Ada, who’s busy pining for her lost love (played by Jude Law).
Chicago
Zellweger shimmied and high-kicked her way through the glittering screen adaptation of Chicago, starring as Roxy Hart, the seemingly naïve housewife who is befriended by showgirl Velma Kelly (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) when she ends up behind bars for her lover’s murder. The star had no formal singing or dance training before taking on the role, which earned her a second Oscar nomination.
Jerry Maguire
“You had me at hello!” Zellweger’s most famous film utterance is arguably not one of Bridget’s quips but this line from Jerry Maguire’s schmaltzy reunion scene. Starring opposite Tom Cruise as Dorothy, long-suffering partner to sports agent Jerry, her role in the Cameron Crowe movie helped inaugurate the star as one of Hollywood’s go-to leading ladies.
Nurse Betty
A marked departure from her usual fare, Nurse Betty sees Zellweger bring her comic timing to a darker role. She plays the title character, a waitress who suffers a nervous breakdown after witnessing her husband’s murder. Convinced that she is now a nurse in her favourite daytime hospital drama, she decides to pursue one of the show’s stars.
Judy
Zellweger’s portrayal of Garland in the late stages of her life was branded a career-best performance by many critics. Throw in the fact that a Hollywood biopic is sure-fire Oscar bait and you have a guaranteed shot at awards success. The star trained also extensively with a vocal coach ahead of filming to capture Garland’s distinctive voice.
