Renée Zellweger is back again as Bridget Jones and in a new cover story she's getting honest about the character's weight, which, as it turned out, was a big deal to everyone but her.
In the July issue of British Vogue, the star of Bridget Jones' Baby talked about gaining weight for the role back in 2001. "I put on a few pounds," she said nonchalantly. Zellweger then added, "I also put on some breasts and a baby bump. Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much."
To her the hoopla over her gaining weight for the movie seemed like a double standard. "No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role," she said. Another thing that Zellweger doesn't think is much of a big deal was her six-year Hollywood hiatus. After her 2010 movie My Own Love Song, Zellweger says she wanted to "live a normal life" so she stepped away from the spotlight to try and do just that. Not that it was easy though.
"As a creative person, saying no to that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime project is hard," she told the magazine. "But I was fatigued and wasn't taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me." Understandable, being that Zellweger starred in nearly 20 films between 2000 and 2010. "I got sick of the sound of my own voice," she said. "It was time to go away and grow up a bit." Going away gave Zellweger a chance to find anonymity, something she hadn't had in over a decade.
" I could have exchanges with people on a human level and be seen and heard, not be defined by this image that precedes me when I walk into a room," she said. "You cannot be a good storyteller if you don't have life experiences, and you can't relate to people."
The July issue of British Vogue with Zellweger on the cover hits stands June 9.
Bridget Jones' Baby is in theaters September 16.
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