Rose McGowan Said a Critic Should Go to Jail After Their ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ Review
Being an actor in the entertainment industry naturally puts you in the limelight. It puts you in front of people and presents you as a recipient of their opinions. As an actor, you will likely hear plenty of options directly or through the grapevine regarding your acting, personal life, and even appearance. Renee Zellweger has recently been one such recipient of another person’s views regarding her showing in Bridget Jones’s Baby.
One film critic had a lot to say about Zellweger in ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’
It was back in 2014 when Renee Zellweger made her fans gasp. She had been keeping a low profile and then stepped on stage at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards looking like a completely different version of herself. She instantly became the new headline story because of her appearance. Did she have plastic surgery or not?
Zellweger went on the defensive and claimed she didn’t have plastic surgery. She told People, “I’m glad folks think I look different…I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows.”
The criticism didn’t stop. The film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote an opinion piece in Variety about Zellweger after he saw a trailer for her movie, Bridget Jones’s Baby.
Gleiberman said, “Watching the trailer, I didn’t stare at the actor and think: She doesn’t look like Renee Zellweger. I thought: She doesn’t look like Bridget Jones!” Oddly, that made it matter more.” He continued, “Celebrities, like anyone else, have the right to look however they want, but the characters they play become part of us. I suddenly felt like something had been taken away.”
Gleiberman caused such a stir with his article that Rose McGowan wrote a response in The Hollywood Reporter. She said, “Renee Zellweger is a human being, with feelings, a life, love and triumphs and struggles, just like the rest of us. How dare you use her as a punching bag in your mistaken attempt to make a mark at your new job…Her crime, according to you, is growing older in a way you don’t approve of. Who are you to approve of anything? What you are doing is vile, damaging, stupid, and cruel.”
She continued, “Here’s some truth: Men like you and the women who sit idly by and say nothing should know that aiding and abetting is a moral crime, and if it were punished in Hollywood, most of you would be in some form of jail.”
Zellweger is known for gaining weight for movie roles
While Renee Zellweger began her acting career in 1992, it wasn’t until she appeared in Jerry Maguire in 1996 that audiences started to take note of her, according to IMDb. She really soared to stardom when she starred in Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001. From there, she has appeared in movies like Cold Mountain, Cinderella Man (2005), Miss Potter (2006) Chicago (2002), Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), and Same Kind of Different As Me (2017).
Zellweger is well-known for how she gained weight for her part in Bridget Jones’s Diary. She gained 30 pounds for her role in the romantic comedy. Once the movie was done filming, Zellweger lost the weight. The film did so well that Zellweger returned to reprise her role in a sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). Again, she gained the weight right back so she looked the part.
Reprising Bridget Jones a third time was different
Twelve years after the second Bridget Jones movie, Zellweger returned to reprise her role in Bridget Jones’s Baby. This time was no different in that she needed to gain weight for the part, but it was not the same. She was no longer obsessing about her weight.
Zellweger told The Daily Telegraph about how Sharon Maguire, the director, handled the appearance of her character.
She said, “Sharon was hoping we could show that Bridget had achieved her ideal weight, but at the same time it didn’t mean her life was perfect….I wasn’t sure about that one though because we all have something we think is wrong, that needs fixing, that in our own minds represents the ideal that we are meant to obtain.”
She also told Vogue about actually gaining weight. She explained, “I put on a few pounds. 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. No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role.”
