Renee Zellweger is one of Hollywood’s most successful and hardest-working actresses, but despite her critical and commercial acclaim, the 50-year-old still finds herself having to explain her “whole plastic-surgery kerfuffle”.
In case you forgot, in 2014 when Zellweger stepped out on the red carpet at ELLE magazine’s Women in Hollywood event, the internet lit up with commentary about the then 47-year-old’s VERY different look.
It was clear the star had undergone some surgical procedures, but Zellweger was criticised for her perhaps slightly overdoing it.
At the time, she came out defending herself, explaining she was “glad” that people thought she looked different.
“I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows,” she added, referencing the six-year acting hiatus she took from, to focus more on her health and wellbeing,” she told PEOPLE magazine.
“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. People don’t know me in my 40s. People don’t know me [as] healthy for a while. Perhaps I look different. Who doesn’t as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I’m happy.”
Renee on the red carpet at the Elle event in 2014.
(Image: Getty Images)
The Hollywood star explained she was “glad” that people thought she looked different.
(Image: Getty Images)Now the star, who is about to transform into Judy Garland in the upcoming film Judy, has again opened up about how she felt about being criticised for her looks.
“Nothing like international humiliation to set your perspective right!” she told Vulture magazine.
Speaking about her decision to go under the knife, she said: “There’s a value judgment that’s placed on us. As if it somehow is a reflection of your character — whether you’re a good person or a weak person or an authentic person.”
When some criticised her for not looking like herself, she said there was “the implication that I somehow needed to change what was going on because it wasn’t working.”
“That makes me sad,” she told the publication.
“I don’t look at beauty in that way. And I don’t think of myself in that way. I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter mix of things. It enables me to do what I do. I don’t want to be something else. I got hired in my blue jeans and cowboy boots with my messy hair. I started working like that. I didn’t have to change to work. So why was I suddenly trying to fit into some mold that didn’t belong to me?”
She also looked incredibly fresh-faced on the cover of the print edition of the interview, in New York magazine.
Zellweger also revealed that she saw a therapist during her hiatus from acting.
“He recognized that I spent 99 percent of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life,” she told the mag.
“I needed to not have something to do all the time, to not know what I’m going to be doing for the next two years in advance. I wanted to allow for some accidents. There had to be some quiet for the ideas to slip in.”
And her fellow actress Salma Hayek gave her some incredible advice: “The rose doesn’t bloom all year … unless it’s plastic.”
“I got it. Because what does that mean? It means that you have to fake that you’re okay to go and do this next thing,” Zellweger said.
“And you probably need to stop right now, but this creative opportunity is so exciting and it’s once-in-a-lifetime and you will regret not doing it. But actually, no, you should collect yourself and, you know … rest.”
Renee Zellweger at the Vanity Fair after party at the Oscars this year.
(Image: Getty Images)This is not the first time Zellweger has opened up about the criticism she has received over her looks.
In 2016, she penned a brutally honest open letter in The Huffington Post, discussing the intense media speculation.
“Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes. This fact is of no true import to anyone at all,” she wrote.
“It’s no secret a woman’s worth has historically been measured by her appearance,” she continued.
“Although we have evolved to acknowledge the importance of female participation in determining the success of society, and take for granted that women are standard bearers in all realms of high profile position and influence, the double standard used to diminish our contributions remains, and is perpetuated by the negative conversation which enters our consciousness every day as snark entertainment.”
WATCH BELOW: See these Married At First Sight stars’ plastic surgery transformations. Story continues after video.
She continued: “Too skinny, too fat, showing age, better as a brunette, cellulite thighs, facelift scandal, going bald, fat belly or bump?
“Ugly shoes, ugly feet, ugly smile, ugly hands, ugly dress, ugly laugh; headline material which emphasizes the implied variables meant to determine a person’s worth, and serve as parameters around a very narrow suggested margin within which every one of us must exist in order to be considered socially acceptable and professionally valuable, and to avoid painful ridicule.
“The resulting message is problematic for younger generations and impressionable minds, and undoubtably triggers myriad subsequent issues regarding conformity, prejudice, equality, self acceptance, bullying and health.”
