What Renée Zellweger Says About Being 50
Renée Zellweger is back from her acting hiatus and already getting Oscar buzz for her performance in the biopic Judy. Making a name for herself in blockbusters such as Jerry Maguire and the Bridget Jones franchise, the Oscar-winning actress continues to pick roles that put her at the forefront of show business.
Recently celebrating a milestone birthday, Zellweger recently spoke on aging and how she feels about turning 50.
The physical demands of ‘Judy’
Zellweger’s most recent role as Judy Garland proved to be quite a challenge, requiring a great deal from the actress physically. She described simple tasks such as walking from one room to another as needing to be done purposefully.
“I describe it as a shared series of experiments with the different film departments. We were just trying things, and so walking down that hall was just an ongoing conversation about the varying degrees of severity,” she told InStyle. “How she gets from the bathroom to the stage, and making decisions about what to show when, and making sure there is continuity. There were multiple collaborations happening within my body at once.”
The Oscar winner was motivated to push herself for the film, which eventually took a toll. “I was tired and skinny when we finished this. The schedule is pretty punishing, but it’s finite,” Zellweger shared. “You know that after this series of months, you can catch up a little. But, yeah, this one was big. It was big because I was greedy. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep digging.”
50th birthday
Zellweger celebrated turning 50 with family. “I imported. I had my family here for the birthday, and we danced all night and ate too much. It was good,” she said.
When reflecting on getting older, Zellweger takes it on with appreciation and chooses not to idolize her youth. “It doesn’t consume me because it’s inevitable. It’s a privilege. And, I don’t know, I’d rather celebrate each phase of my life and be present in it than mourn something that’s passed,” she revealed. “I don’t want to miss this moment to be something that I used to be. That’s for someone else now. And good luck to them, because you have to survive a lot to move forward to your next state.”
While she’s enjoying this phase of life, Zellweger is not planning to slack off on personal wellness. “I’m not saying I’m canceling my gym membership anytime soon, because I’m not,” she said with a laugh. “I’d rather be a healthy, productive woman in each stage of my life than apologetic. I also don’t want to perpetuate the notion that somehow moving forward in your life is wrong.”
What makes her feel young
Zellweger recently spoke with other female celebs on the subject of getting older and how society needs to change their mindset on aging, especially when it comes to women.
“I had this really fun conversation with Maria Shriver when we were both on the Today show [in September]. They were doing this segment on older women and were speaking with Rita Wilson about the value of older women… about how you change the misconceptions about the experience of aging,” she shared. “How do we change how people value older women? And I thought, ‘Well, I guess it starts with us. With women determining and expressing what we value in ourselves.’ That means what we champion with our choices and how we present ourselves.”
For the Judy star, she views getting older as gaining invaluable benefits. “It’s not aging. It’s growing!” Zellweger said. “It’s acquisition of the most valuable things: experience and knowledge and grace and insight.”
For Zellweger, hitting 50 has brought out a childlike vivacity for her. When asked what makes her feel like a kid, she replied, “Oh, being 50! I feel energized and full of wonder and excitement about what’s ahead.”
She included one other activity on bringing out her youth. :And, of course, driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with the windows down and the music loud! There’s that!” she added with a laugh.
Judy is now in theaters.
