Renée Zellweger has spoken candidly about the "scrutiny" she faces when preparing for roles, especially when it came to her weight. The 47-year-old actress admitted that she has "never understood" the attention she has received, particularly when she gained weight to reprise her role as Bridget Jones in upcoming comedy Bridget Jones's Baby.
© Photo: Getty ImagesRenee Zellweger has spoken candidly about the "scrutiny" she faces
"I put on a few pounds. I also put on some breasts and a baby bump," she told Vogue, for whom she is the July cover star. "Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much."
She added: "No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role."
Renée has kept a relatively low profile in recent years, and admitted that she chose to take a short break from the spotlight after she found herself "fatigued" due to the hectic schedule, and began turning down projects.
© Photo: RexThe actress is reprising her role as Bridget Jones
"As a creative person, saying no to that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime project is hard," she admitted. "But I was fatigued and wasn't taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me. I got sick of the sound of my own voice: it was time to go away and grow up a bit."
Now, the star is making a triumphant return to the world of Hollywood this year for the highly-anticipated third instalment of the Bridget Jones series, which joins Bridget 12 years after she was last seen in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Now a producer at a news programme, Bridget proclaims she is loving her new single life following her split from Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
Bridget Jones's Baby will be released later this year
However her life becomes somewhat complicated when she meets handsome Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) at Glastonbury Festival. The discovery that she is pregnant just a few weeks later poses the question – who is the father?
Fans won't find out the answer until the film is released later this year, and it appears the cast are being left in the dark about how the film concludes too, as screenwriter Helen Fielding wrote three different endings to avoid any spoilers.
"It's kind of brilliant," Renée told the Sunday Express. "None of the cast know who fathered Bridget's baby or who she'll choose as her beau. The plan is to keep us all in the dark, right up to the premiere."
