Renee Zellweger opened up in a rare new interview about her career beginnings, especially with the project that gave her the push she needed, 1996's Jerry Maguire.
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In an interview with Sirius XM's The Jess Cagle Podcast, the host talked to the actress about first seeing her make the press rounds when she was cast in the Tom Cruise-starrer.
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"They brought this young woman in, this is Renee, she's from Texas," he said. "And they said that she's going to be in this new movie with Tom Cruise."
"You weren't a deer in the headlights, but I was like 'wow, this is a very different kind of person to be put into this big media machine'," he continued.
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"What was that time like for you, because it was suddenly going from not famous to being in the biggest movie with the biggest star and all of this attention?"
Renee eventually paused before answering: "Yeah, that was weird," which elicited a chuckle from the hosts. "That was weird."
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"I guess…I wasn't naive, but I wasn't really paying attention to certain things. Which was probably helpful. I was just living on the inside of these experiences and not worrying about perception or what people would say, or I wasn't privy to those things."
She further elaborated on having people in the industry who supported her in the way she needed and helped her establish an identity of her own as a rising star.
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While promoting the second season of her new show The Thing About Pam, Jess also quizzed Renee about the prospect of her returning to her iconic role of Bridget Jones.
"I hope so. I hope so. I mean, it's fun, you know, she's so much fun," she said. "I love being in her shoes. I mean, it makes me giggle, you know, every day on set the choices that we get to make about just how awkward we can make her circumstances. It's just so much fun."
The actress opened up about the possibility of another Bridget Jones movie
"I mean, Helen did write another book, so there's that," the two-time Oscar winner added.
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