Renee Zellweger won the Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role as plucky Ruby Thewes in the 2003 Civil War drama Cold Mountain. Zellweger is an athletic Texas native whose early roles were in youth-oriented movies like Dazed and Confused (1993) and Reality Bites (1994). Her career took a great leap forward when she co-starred with Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, one of the top-grossing films of 1996. In the year 2000 she was romantically linked with Jim Carrey, her co-star in the film Me, Myself and Irene, but the two ended their much-discussed romance that December. In 2001 Zellweger had the title role in Bridget Jones' Diary, the film of the popular Helen Fielding novel, and she received rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for her performance as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago (2002, with Richard Gere). Her other films include Nurse Betty (2000, with Greg Kinnear), Down With Love (2003, co-starring Ewan McGregor), and Cinderella Man (2005, with Russell Crowe).
The role of Roxie Hart was originated on Broadway by Gwen Verdon... Zellweger married country music star Kenny Chesney in May of 2005, but four months later announced that the marriage would be annulled... According to a 2005 story in The Times of London, "Her father Emil is a Swiss engineer who worked for the Houston Light and Power company, her mother is a Norwegian nurse called Kjellfrid."
Until she headlined Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise in late 1996, Renée Zellweger claimed extremely limited public recognition. Though Zellweger essayed several key roles before Maguire, the vulnerability and versatility that the actress exhibited as Cruise's (long undeclared) love interest in Cameron Crowe's seriocomedy netted much-deserved praise from critics and audiences alike. Though the Academy passed her over when that year's Oscar nominations rolled around, she received several other laurels for her work in Maguire, including the title of Best Breakthrough Performer by the National Board of Review.
Of Swiss and Norwegian parentage, the willowy, strawberry blonde Zellweger began life in Katy, TX, a small town on the outskirts of Houston. The town was so small that it possessed neither cable television nor a movie theater. As a result, Zellweger reportedly did not see her first art film until she was a student at the University of Texas in Austin. Her career at U.T. was an exceptional one; a regular on the Dean's List, she graduated a year early with a B.A. in Radio, Film, and Television. While in college, Zellweger took an acting class and discovered a knack for performing; following graduation, she made her feature-film debut with a bit part in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). She then landed a role playing a whacked-out waitress in Love and a .45 (1994), for which she won her first Independent Spirit Award nomination; she won a second nomination for The Whole Wide World (1996), earning additional acclaim at various film festivals.
Following the tremendous success of Jerry Maguire, Zellweger went on to prove herself as a versatile actress able to play roles ranging from an ambitious journalist (who temporarily shelves her career to care for her mother) in One True Thing (1998) to a rebellious Hassidic Jew in Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies (1998). She then exhibited a capacity for romantic comedy in The Bachelor (1999), starring as the long-suffering girlfriend of a commitment-phobic Chris O'Donnell. Zellweger's second role as a deeply confused soap opera fanatic in Neil LaBute's offbeat crime comedy Nurse Betty won her the Best Actress in a Comedy Award at the 2000 Golden Globes. Nominated for yet another Golden Globe the following year for her memorable performance in Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), that same role also earned Zellweger her maiden Oscar nod. The following few years found Zellweger's leading lady status growing and numerous lucrative film offers flowing in, and the release of White Oleander (2002) the starlet received numerous positive reviews despite the film's lackluster performance. Later that same year, Zellweger was on top of the world when she received rave reviews for her role in Chicago. Based on the popular Broadway musical of the same name, director Rob Marshall's flashy cinematic extravaganza received nearly unanimous praise accompanied by multiple Academy Award nominations, including a second Best Actress in a Leading Role nod to Ms. Zellweger for her lively performance.
Zellweger lost the award bid to Nicole Kidman, and then teamed up with that actress for
Anthony Minghella's epic Cold Mountain. The performance netted Zellweger her third Oscar nomination, and on February 29, 2004, her losing streak ended as she took home the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Attempting to keep up the momentum, Zellweger then returned to the character that earned her her first Oscar nod, starring in the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). Unfortunately, that outing (directed by To Wong Foo helmer Beeban Kidron) failed to draw the critical acclaim of its predecessor and was widely greeted with public apathy in the States, but in the final analysis, it grossed nearly as much as the premier outing (with a massive overseas take).
After the second Bridget Jones installment, Zellweger's screen activity decrescendoed somewhat, but she placed a heightened emphasis on more offbeat and unusual roles, including a portrayal of children's author Beatrix Potter in the Weinstein Company outing Miss Potter (2006), and a throwback role to the days of classic Hollywood screwball comedy, as the romantic lead of George Clooney and John Krasinski in the period sports outing Leatherheads (2008). Off-camera, Zellweger has been romantically linked to funnyman Jim Carrey and to rocker Jack White, of The White Stripes. She was married very briefly to Kenny Chesney; the two received an annulment in less than a year. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from Au, St. Gallen,[3] Switzerland, and is a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business.[4] Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian of Sami descent and grew up in Kirkenes and Ekkerøy,[5][6] and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas.[7][8][9] Zellweger has described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians".[9]
While in junior high school Zellweger actively took part in several sports, including soccer, basketball, baseball and football.[9] She attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader, a gymnast, a member of speech team,[10] and a drama club member. Zellweger acted in several school plays and was voted the "Dream Date" of her class before graduating from high school in 1987.[citation needed] After high school, she went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in English language.[5] At the beginning, she took a drama class because she needed a fine arts credit to complete her degree, but the experience made her appreciate how much she loved acting.[7] During this time, she supported herself by taking jobs as a waitress in Austin, Texas.[7][11] She said in 2009 that she earned her Screen Actors Guild card doing a Coors Light beer commercial while in college.[12] Also while in college, she did "a bit part ... as a local hire" in the Austin-filmed horror-comedyMy Boyfriend's Back, playing "the girl in the beauty shop, maybe two lines. But the beauty shop [scene] got cut."[12]
Zellweger graduated from college with a BA degree in English in 1991. Her first job after graduation was working in a beef commercial, while simultaneously starting to audition for roles around Houston.[7]
Zellweger's first main part in a movie came with the 1994 horror story Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, alongside Matthew McConaughey. She played Jenny, a teenager who leaves a prom early with three friends and ended up getting into a car accident, which leads to their meeting a murderous family, led by the iconic Leatherface.[7] Her next movie was Love and a .45 (1994), in which she played the role of Starlene Cheatham, a woman who plans a robbery with her boyfriend. The performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. She subsequently moved to Los Angeles, winning roles in the films Empire Records (1995) and The Whole Wide World (1996).[7] Zellweger first became widely known to audiences around the world with Jerry Maguire (1996), in which she played the romantic interest of Tom Cruise's character.[7]
In 2001 Zellweger gained the prized lead role as Bridget Jones, playing alongside Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, in the British romantic comedy film Bridget Jones's Diary, based on the 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. The choice came amid much controversy since she was neither British nor overweight.[7] During casting Zellweger was told she was too skinny to play the chubby Bridget, so she quickly embarked on gaining the required weight and learning an English accent. She gained 20 pounds to complete her transformation to Bridget Jones.[14] Her dramatic weight fluctuations became the subject of much media interest. Her performance as Bridget received praise from critics with Stephen Holden of The New York Times commenting, "Ms. Zellweger accomplishes the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real."[14] Along with receiving voice coaching to fine-tune her English accent, part of Zellweger's preparations involved spending three weeks working undercover in a "work experience placement" for British publishing firm Picador in Victoria, London.[7][15] As a result of her considerable efforts to effect author Helen Fielding's character, Zellweger caught the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and won her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination.[7]
In 2009 she starred alongside Chris Noth and Kevin Bacon in the feature film My One and Only,[20] as well as in the film New in Town, a comedy about a corporate executive from Miami who is sent to New Ulm, Minnesota, to oversee a small manufacturing company making minimal profits producing and selling pudding. She also had a cameo role in the animated film Monsters vs. Aliens.
Renee has expressed a strong interest in reprising her role as Bridget Jones in the planned third installment of the "Bridget Jones" film series.
Personal life
Starting in 2002 Zellweger dated The White Stripes singer, Jack White, for two years. They broke up after schedule demands kept them apart.[21]
On May 9, 2005, Zellweger married singer, Kenny Chesney, in a ceremony at the island of St. John.[22] On September 15, 2005, they announced their plans for an annulment. Zellweger cited "fraud" as the reason in the related papers.[23] After media scrutiny of her use of the word "fraud", she qualified the use of the term, stating it was "simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character."[23]
In September 2010 it was reported that Zellweger and actor Bradley Cooper had been in a relationship for over a year.[24] On March 18, 2011, People Magazine announced that the two had broken off their relationship.[25]
Activism
Zellweger and Marc Forster took part in the 2005 HIV prevention campaign of the Swiss federal health department.[26]
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