Bridget Jones, Jerry Maguire, Chicago & More: A Look Back at Renée Zellweger's Movie & TV Career
From Reality Bites to Judy, Renée Zellweger's made her mark in just about every genre.
When it comes to epic career resumes, actress Renée Zellweger has a list of film and television credits to her name that is so impressive it kind of boggles the mind.
The 55-year-old Zellweger has been entertaining audiences for over three decades, all the while amassing shelves of prestigious honors, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a veritable laundry list of individual critics awards.
After a busy few years headlining streaming series like NBC's limited series The Thing About Pam, this year finds Zellweger returning to one of her most beloved characters, the erstwhile writer/TV producer Bridget Jones.
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Starring again in the franchise's fourth film, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Zellweger gets the opportunity to explore the character as a middle-aged widow facing another big crossroads in her life.
So there's no better time to look back at the roles that led Zellweger to Bridget Jones, and the variety of projects that the actress has elevated over the decades.
Renée Zellweger's early career
Born and raised in Katy, Texas, Renée Kathleen Zellweger is the daughter of a Swiss father, Emil, and a Norwegian mother, Kjellfrid, who relocated to Texas through their work. But young Renée was brought up all-American, cheerleading and playing soccer in high school. She wasn't bit by the acting bug until attending the University of Texas at Austin and soon pursued it as a career despite achieving a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.
Zellweger's first roles were in commercials for lite beer and local indie films until Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater cast her for an uncredited role in his film Dazed and Confused (1993). Director Ben Stiller then cast her as Tami in Reality Bites (1994).
But it wasn't until two of her 1995 films were released that Zellweger gained attention for her screen presence. Cast as a doomed teen in the 1995 horror film The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Zellweger earned her "Scream Queen" cred and then more indie film cred in Empire Records.
The film that changed Renée Zellweger's life: Jerry Maguire
In 1996, director Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire hit theaters starring Tom Cruise and Zellweger as his starry-eyed executive assistant-turned-wife. The film became a sensation, with Zellweger getting plenty of praise for her portrayal of Dorothy Boyd, and selling the now instant-classic line: "You had me at hello."
Three years later, Zellweger hit box office gold again in 1999 with the Jim Carrey comedy Me, Myself & Irene, and in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, in which she was cast as the beloved, titular London-based singleton trying to navigate life and love in her 20s alongside romantic interests Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.
Renée Zellweger in the 2000s: Bridget Jones and beyond
While fans of Helen Fielding's books were initially appalled that an American was cast as the beloved character, Bridget Jones's Diary director Sharon Maguire told Total Film at the time about the Zellweger, “She’s got this inner irreverence, and she’s got this innocence and vulnerable exterior. She also has a very good sense of physical comedy and was so dedicated to getting it right. When I first met her, she said: ‘If you and I get this wrong, we’re so busted.’”
However, the world over was utterly convinced by Zellweger's Brit accent and her natural comedic timing as the often-bumbling Jones. The actress earned her first Academy Award nomination for the role.
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"Obviously I related to the female aspect [of the character], her day-to-day regimen and fight against Mother Nature," Zellweger told The Guardian in 2001. "On a more significant level, I'm about to enter the stage of life that Bridget is experiencing and I, like so many people, understood her quest. I understood her search for self-acceptance and her daily attempt to define what is going to bring her happiness in life, her struggle to differentiate between what it is that she wants for her life and what it is that society expects from her."
Zellweger would pop in and out of the Bridget Jones franchise for two more sequels — Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) — but after the first film, she pivoted toward more unexpected choices, including musicals. This included starring roles in Chicago (2002) and Down With Love (2003), and she even went on to play Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy. Each role saw Zellweger showing off her skills as a singer, dancer, and overall performer, surprising critics and audiences alike.
Zellweger told the BBC that Chicago — for which she won two Screen Actors Guild Awards — was a real leap of faith, but director Rob Marshall believed in her and walked her through the role.
"Rob did my part, Richard's part, all the dancers' parts, and showed us how it was done," she said. "He put it inside of us and made a really safe environment for everybody. Before Chicago, I wouldn't sing for anyone but my dog."
And in 2004, Zellweger held her own (and then some) against Nicole Kidman and Jude Law in Cold Mountain. She won her first Academy Award playing the supporting role of Ruby Thewes.
Renée Zellweger's break from the spotlight
Seemingly at the peak of her career in 2010, Zellweger just left the industry for a self-imposed break from Hollywood and work. In 2016, she returned for Bridget Jones's Baby and told The Hollywood Reporter that in her downtime, she explored screenwriting at UCLA and tried other creative pursuits.
“I wanted to grow,” she said. “If you don’t explore other things, you wake up 20 years later and you’re still that same person who only learns anything when she goes out to research a character. You need to grow!”
In 2019, Zellweger earned her second Academy Award playing Judy Garland in Judy. And in 2022, she embarked upon her first streaming series, The Thing About Pam, which she co-executive produced and starred at Pam Hupp wearing full body prosthetics.
And now, she's come full circle playing Bridget Jones 24 years later in the fourth installment of the franchise.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy arrives just in time for Valentine's Day, premiering exclusively on Peacock on February 13, 2025.
