Renée Zellweger may be back in the spotlight
after her acclaimed performance as Judy Garland
in Judy, but from 2010 to 2016, she went on
hiatus from Hollywood.
Her successful turns in classics like Bridget
Jones's Diary and Cold Mountain launched her
to A-list status, but the effects of stardom
ultimately inspired the Oscar winner to take
some time off to take care of her health,
both mentally and physically.
In September 2019, she told Vulture,
"I wasn't healthy.
I wasn't taking care of myself.
I was the last thing on my list of priorities...I
spent 99% of my life as the public persona
and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction
in my real life.
I needed to not have something to do all the
time."
However, when Zellweger reemerged briefly
for Elle magazine's annual Women In Hollywood
event in 2014, she became the talk of the
town because, to many observers, she didn't
look quite like herself.
Plastic surgery rumors immediately dominated
the celebrity news cycle, as both reporters
and doctors speculated about the exact procedures
Zellweger had done to alter her face so drastically.
But while spectators were quick to criticize
her face, they refused to face Zellweger's
truth.
After the initial buzz, Zellweger offered
People an exclusive statement, in which she
boasted about her happier, healthier lifestyle,
saying,
"I'm glad folks think I look different!
I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling
life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows."
She subsequently called the rumors "silly,"
adding,
"It seems the folks who come digging around
for some nefarious truth which doesn't exist
won't get off my porch until I answer the
door...My friends say that I look peaceful.
I am healthy.
For a long time I wasn't doing such a good
job with that.
I took on a schedule that is not realistically
sustainable and didn't allow for taking care
of myself...People don't know me [as] healthy
for a while.
Perhaps I look different.
Who doesn't as they get older?!...But I am
different.
I'm happy."
Unfortunately, because of the unyielding media
frenzy, Zellweger ultimately wrote an op-ed
for The Huffington Post, in which she stated,
"Not that it's anyone's business, but I did
not make a decision to alter my face and have
surgery on my eyes."
Though she didn't refer to the plastic-surgery
drama outright during her interview with Vulture,
Zellweger addressed the overwhelming scrutiny
that inspired her to set her priorities straight,
explaining,
"Nothing like international humiliation to
set your perspective right!
It clarifies what's important to you.
And it shakes off any sort of clingy superficiality...When
it gets to be too much, when you learn that
your skin is not quite as thick as you need
it to be, what is that gonna feel like?
Well, now I know.
I got the hardest kick.
And it ain't the end."
Once the reporter broached the topic specifically,
however, Zellweger responded in kind, saying,
"It probably gives you a stomachache, asking
me about that, doesn't it?...The implication
that I somehow needed to change what was going
on because it wasn't working.
That makes me sad.
I don't look at beauty in that way.
And I don't think of myself in that way.
I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter
mix of things.
It enables me to do what I do.
I don't want to be something else."
In a radio interview with Sirius XM, Zellweger
revealed that she once heard random strangers
discussing her face on the subway.
According to her, they were talking about
"silly" Hollywood women, and allegedly mentioned
her specifically, saying,
"'How could she do that?
Why would she go and have surgery on her face
like we wouldn't know?"
The strangers were shocked when they ended
up recognizing Zellweger on the train, and
they told her:
"Oh my god, but you look just like yourself."
As she told Vulture, the entire experience
has only helped her lead a much happier, more
private life.
She revealed,
"I had a good five-year period when I was
joyful and in a new chapter that no one was
even aware of."
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