Renée Zellweger stopped acting for years because she was 'sick' of her own voice
Renée Zellweger took a step back from acting for a six-year stretch in the 2010s, and she's opening up about the reason for her hiatus.
The Oscar-winning "Bridget Jones's Diary" actress, 55, spoke with her co-star Hugh Grant in an interview published by British Vogue about why she stopped acting from 2010 to 2016.
"Because I needed to," she said. "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."
That's not to say Zellweger did nothing with the time off.
"I wrote music and studied international law," she told Grant. "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."
After starring in 2010's "My Own Love Song," Zellweger did not appear in any films all the way up until 2016. She returned that year with "Bridget Jones's Baby," the third film in the "Bridget Jones" series, and "The Whole Truth."
Just three years after resuming her acting career, Zellweger starred as Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic "Judy," which won her the Oscar for best actress. It was her second Academy Award win after she was awarded best supporting actress for "Cold Mountain" in 2004.
Zellweger has not appeared in a movie since "Judy," but she's returning this year, once again with a "Bridget Jones" film. The fourth installment in the romantic comedy franchise, "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy," hits Peacock on Feb. 13. It also marks Grant's return to the series after he skipped "Bridget Jones's Baby."
Though Zellweger last appeared in a movie in 2019, she broke up her most recent hiatus by turning to television and starring in the true crime drama show "The Thing About Pam."
The "Jerry Maguire" star previously shared in an interview with New York Magazine that she took a step back from acting in the 2010s because she "wasn't healthy" and "wasn't taking care of myself." She also said she began seeing a therapist during this time.
"He recognized that I spent 99 percent of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life," she shared. "I needed to not have something to do all the time, to not know what I'm going to be doing for the next two years in advance. I wanted to allow for some accidents. There had to be some quiet for the ideas to slip in."
Contributing: Charles Trepany