|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an Academy Award-, BAFTA-, SAG Award-, and Golden Globe-winning American actress, singer, dancer, and performer who has established herself as one of the highest-paid female Hollywood actors in recent years. She is also known as the former wife of country musician Kenny Chesney. The couple were briefly married in 2005 before an annulment seven months later. The rare versatility and down-to-earth appeal of Renee Zellweger earned the actress Oscar and Golden Globe Awards for her comedy, musical and dramatic work, as well made her one of the highest paid screen actresses in Hollywood. Zellweger was a virtual unknown when director Cameron Crowe cast her opposite box office megastar Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire,” (1996) where she made cinematic history with the line, “You had me at hello.” She went on to define the chick lit generation with her title role in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001) before intense, impressive turns in “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2004) proved that she was as capable of drama as the romantic comedies that started her career. Off-screen, Texas-bred Zellweger was known for her bouts of “imposter syndrome” and seemingly endless disbelief over her movie star status, as well as being one of the most genuinely nice, down-to-earth stars in the business. Zellweger was born in Baytown, Texas, an eastern suburb of Houston. Between junior school and high school her family moved to Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business. Zellweger's mother, Kjellfried Irene (née Andreassen), is Norwegian-born and of Sami origin. She is a nurse and midwife, and moved to the United States in order to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians". She has an older brother, Andrew, who is a marketing manager working in the wine industry and has his nickname for her - Zelly. Growing up, Zellweger idolized her older brother Drew and took after him as an avid soccer and baseball player. Her father encouraged self-reliance in the young tomboy, teaching her auto repair and recruiting her to help in the building of a new family home when she was just nine years old. In high school, Zellweger became a cheerleader, appeared in several school plays, and was voted “Best Looking” before graduating in 1987 and heading to the University of Texas in Austin. While working towards an English degree, Zellweger took a drama class to fulfill an arts requirement and truly fell in love with the stage. She was relatively untrained, but she was a natural. While still in school, she landed her first job in a commercial. When graduation rolled around, the honors student decided to fully devote herself to acting, no matter the financial outcome. In junior high school, Zellweger actively took part in several sports, including soccer, basketball, baseball and football. She attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader, a gymnast, and a drama club member. Zellweger acted in several school plays and was voted the "Best Looking" of her class before graduating from high school in 1987. After high school, she went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in English language. Zellweger was a good student, and made the Dean's List several times. At the beginning she took a drama class only because she needed a fine arts credit to complete her degree, but the experience made her appreciate how much she loved acting.During this time, she supported herself by taking jobs as a waitress in Austin, Texas. In 1991, Zellweger graduated from university with a BA degree in English. She considered moving to Hollywood but decided to stay in her home state, Texas to seek more experience. Her first job after graduation was working in a beef commercial, at the same time she started to audition for roles around Houston. While still in Texas, Zellweger appeared in several films. She appearend in the Bachelor as Anne.In 1993, she made a brief appearance in the comedy-drama film Dazed and Confused, then had a minor role in ABC TV mini series named Murder in the Heartland. The following year, she appeared in Reality Bites, the directorial debut of Ben Stiller and the biopic film 8 Seconds, directed by John G. Avildsen. Zellweger's first main part in a movie came with the 1994 horror movie Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which she acted 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. In her next movie was Love and a .45, 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 to pursue a career in acting, winning roles in the films Empire Records, The Whole Wide World. At the time, Austin was experiencing a boom in film production and Zellweger had plenty of opportunities to test the waters. Her first roles were of the “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” variety, including the ABC miniseries "Murder in the Heartland" (ABC, 1993); Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" (1993); and Ben Stiller’s directorial debut, “Reality Bites” (1994). Her first significant role was opposite fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey in the low-budget sequel "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1994), which quickly disappeared from view until 1997 (under the title "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation") when it was re-released to capitalize on both stars' rising profiles. Her final film in Texas was her biggest, playing the trailer trash gun moll Starlene in "Love and a .45" (1994), a low rent if clever variation of "Bonnie and Clyde" and a satire on the slew of crime spree couple films around at the time. Zellweger first became widely known to audiences around the world with her role in 1996's Jerry Maguire, where she played the romantic interest of Tom Cruise's character. She won the role over Mira Sorvino and Marisa Tomei. Since then, Zellweger has won acclaim in roles such as One True Thing opposite William Hurt and Meryl Streep, and in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty opposite Morgan Freeman. The role garnered the actress her first of three Golden Globe Awards, but she was in the bathroom when future co-star Hugh Grant announced her name. Zellweger later protested: "I had lipstick on my teeth!", Having finally scored a hit film in which she truly sparkled, Zellweger found she had her pick of Hollywood projects. Instead of playing variations on her nice girl screen persona or filling in any number of vacancies for leading man “girlfriend” roles, the actress remained true to her calling by playing substantial, three-dimensional, characters. If some of the results were questionable, she nonetheless consistently delivered strong, fascinating performances, as in her starring role as an unhappily married Hasidic wife in Boaz Yakin's "A Price Above Rubies" (1998), which drew controversy from some religious groups which objected to the casting of the non-Jewish actress. This would not be the last time her casting was called into question. She more than held her own against her real-life idol Meryl Streep (as her terminally ill mother) and William Hurt (as her remote but adored father) by playing a strong-willed journalist forced to cope with familial duties in the tearjerker "One True Thing" (1998). Although she was more or less reduced to window dressing in "The Bachelor" (1999) and was overshadowed by Jim Carrey's manic antics in "Me, Myself & Irene" (2000), Zellweger truly came into her own as a star in the title role of "Nurse Betty" (2000). First screened at Cannes – where it picked up the award for best screenplay – "Nurse Betty" cast the actress as a sweet-natured Kansas waitress who enters a fugue state after witnessing a crime and taking off to California to be with the man of her dreams — a soap opera character. Zellweger ably captured the character's naiveté without condescending to her and also steered clear of making the character cloying or off-putting. 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, a film that is based on the 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, amid much controversy since she was neither British nor overweight. During casting Zellweger was told she was too skinny to play the chubby Bridget, so she very quickly embarked on gaining the required weight. She gained 20 pounds in order to complete her transformation to Bridget Jones. 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." 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. 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 received her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination. she won the coveted role of Bridget Jones, a character who was seen as representative of a segment of British society, in the film adaptation of "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001). Although there was an initial brouhaha from the Brits for landing the role of a beloved English heroine, her impeccable accent and strong interpretation of the role silenced the opposition and brought home a SAG award for Best Actress and an Oscar nomination for the same. In fact, “Bridget Jones” would become the film by which all others would be measured by her fans. Faced with topping the career high of “Jones,” Zellweger first opted for a supporting role as a foster mother in the film adaptation of "White Oleander," in which her performance was singled out as a positive amid an overall lackluster film. To the surprise of audiences, she was next seen singing and dancing in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical "Chicago" (2002). Cast as Roxie Hart, a woman who murders her lover and then dreams of a career as a vaudeville headliner, the actress again proved her detractors wrong, offering a surprising, razor-sharp performance and demonstrating a breathy but pleasant singing voice. Once again she snared a wealth of awards buzz, including Oscar and BAFTA nominations and a Golden Globe win. In 2002, she starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander and in Rob Marshall's Academy Award for Best Picture winning film Chicago opposite Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly. Zellweger earned her second Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, as well as the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award. In 2004, Zellweger finally received an Academy Award, this time as Best Supporting Actress in Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain opposite Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Zellweger has since starred in the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, lent her voice to the DreamWorks animated features Shark Tale and Bee Movie, and starred in the 2005 Ron Howard film Cinderella Man opposite Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti. On May 24, 2005, Zellweger received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also appeared in Miss Potter, based on the life story of acclaimed author Beatrix Potter, with Emily Watson and Ewan McGregor, released in December 2006. This became the first and only film to date that Zellweger has produced herself. Not one to let the hard times derail her, she jumped right into her next project, director Ron Howard's Depression-era boxing drama "Cinderella Man" (2005). The film, while not a financial success, received generally good notices, but Zellweger's mannered performance as Mae Braddock, the devoted wife of unlikely prizefighting champ Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) was perhaps the most criticized element. The misstep did not affect the top screen actress from receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the same year, after which she dusted off her British accent to play the title role in "Miss Potter" (2006), a biopic exploring the life of beloved children’s writer Beatrix Potter. Again, she was honored with a Golden Globe nomination for best actress. In 2007, Zellweger was not seen at all onscreen; only heard, as the voice of florist Vanessa Bloome in the animated feature “Bee Movie,” starring Jerry Seinfeld as a disgruntled worker bee who breaks free from the hive and develops a crush on a cute honey of a human. In 2008, Zellweger’s appearance schedule was set to include a starring role in her first thriller, “Case 39” (2008), as well as supporting role opposite George Clooney (a rumored off-screen paramour) in the period sports film, “Leatherheads” (2008). In 2008, she starred in the period comedy Leatherheads with fellow Oscar-winner George Clooney and John Krasinski from The Office. Zellweger and Marc Forster, took part in the 2005 HIV prevention campaign of the Swiss federal health department. Zellweger dated Josh Pate, whom she began seeing in November 1996 after the filming of Deceiver. She also was rumored to have dated George Clooney. Her first high-profile romance was with actor/comedian Jim Carrey. The relationship ended in a broken engagement in December 2000. Zellweger notably poked fun at the prior relationship when she ended her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live by reading an entry from her own "diary", marked "Dear Diary, I can't believe I am dating Jim Carrey." For two years, Zellweger dated The White Stripes singer Jack White, who is six years her junior. The pair became involved while filming Cold Mountain. They broke up two years later, after schedule demands kept them apart. Friends said the split was amicable. On May 9, 2005, Zellweger married singer Kenny Chesney in a ceremony at the island of St. John. They had met in January at a tsunami relief benefit concert. Zellweger missed out on the engagement ring since the wedding was planned over a short span of time. On September 15, 2005, after only four months of marriage, they announced their plans for an annulment. Zellweger cited fraud as the reason in the related papers. 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. I would personally be very grateful for your support in refraining from drawing derogatory, hurtful, sensationalized or untrue conclusions. We hope to experience this transition as privately as possible." The annulment was finalized in late December 2005. Since the annulment, she has been linked to various personalities, including actor Luke Perry of Beverly Hills, 90210 fame. After selling her home in the Hollywood Hills, Zellweger bought a home in Bel Air. In January 2007, she admitted that she gets scared at home alone due to security problems and fans who send or leave mail at her homes. She said that she considered buying a gun for reasons of personal security. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |