For Zellweger, starring in “Judy” went beyond the complexities of portraying Garland in the last six months of her melodramatic life, a performance that has affirmed the actress' place on the Oscar front-runner list. She also did her own singing in the film.
The album features songs performed by Zellweger in character as Judy Garland from the film along with duets with Sam Smith and Rufus Wainwright. The album received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, with Zellweger as the recipient.
Through a process that reportedly took two hours a day, Renée Zellweger was transformed into the silver screen icon using prosthetics, contact lenses and wigs. The make-up is incredible, but it's Zellweger skill as an actress that's garnering Judy so much awards show love.
The 50-year-old Zellweger plays Garland at 46, holding up a magnifying glass to the tumultuous months before Garland's death in 1969. The movie was adapted from Peter Quilter's musical play End of the Rainbow, which, in the playwright's own words, has more “elements of fantasy” compared with the movie.
Renée Zellweger on Learning to Sing As Judy Garland
What did Renée Zellweger do to play Judy Garland?
Through makeup, wigs, fake teeth and on-the-nose recreations of Garland's wardrobe, Zellweger is Judy Garland. She was so committed to recreating Garland's hunched posture that she ended up at a chiropractor “a few times” while shooting the movie in London.
What Made Renée Zellweger's Face Look Different? Renée Zellweger doesn't seem to have had plastic surgery. Ageing and weight loss can explain all the physical changes that she has gone through over the years.
Working with director Rupert Goold, a veteran from the UK theatre world, Zellweger immersed herself in preparation. One year before rehearsals she engaged a vocal coach in the US and then practised for four months with the film's musical director Matt Dunkley.
Renée Zellweger really didn't want to actually sing while playing an older Judy Garland in “Judy,” but director Rupert Goold told her it was essential to show how performing “Over the Rainbow” wasn't as effortless as it once was.
For Zellweger, back from a lengthy showbiz hiatus, stepping into the legendary Garland persona required a stretch of epic dimensions, according to her director. “Renée's not at all like Judy,” Goold tells Fortune. “She's blonde, blue-eyed, clean-living, she shows up on time, she's quite shy.
The True Story Behind the Movie Judy. In 1968, Judy Garland took on a five-week run of performances at London's Talk of the Town cabaret club. This run of shows would turn out to be among the renowned performer's last; she died of an accidental overdose the following year, at 47.
Throughout her adulthood she abused drugs and alcohol. She had financial troubles, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Her lifelong substance use disorder ultimately led to her death from an accidental barbiturate overdose in 1969, at age 47.
For this period Western crime drama co-starring Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris, Zellweger took piano lessons so she could authentically play four songs. "It's so funny, because the way it was shot, I could have been knitting behind those keys and you wouldn't have known the difference!" she recalled to Newsday.
Same with Zellweger. She sounded just like a Brit throughout the Bridget Jones series, but once again, Twitterites, she is from Texas, giving her every right to speak in her Katy accent.
Judy Garland's life before Talk of the Town is only told in flashbacks to Judy's childhood, as a teen at the mercy of Louis B Mayer. But most of what the movie details is true.
But it was perhaps even more surprising when the two decided to have the marriage annulled just four months later — with the Judy actress citing "fraud" as the reason. Renée and Kenny's shocking split and their decision to mark "fraud" on the documents sparked false tabloid rumors about Kenny's sexual orientation.
LOS ANGELES, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Renee Zellweger was crowned best actress at the Oscars on Sunday for her portrait of Hollywood legend Judy Garland in "Judy," a biographical drama exploring the singer's personal and professional turmoil at the end of her life.
Renée Zellweger famously gained 30 pounds to play the titular role in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, repeating the process again for the 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. By the time she filmed Bridget Jones's Baby, however, the Oscar winner was tired of talking about her weight. “I put on a few pounds.
Are Ant Anstead and Renée Zellweger still together?
Renée Zellweger and Ant Anstead might have seemed like an unlikely match when they were first linked, but the two are still going strong more than two years later. The couple first met while filming Anstead's Discovery+ show Celebrity IOU Joyride.
Personal life. From 1999 to 2000, Zellweger was engaged to Jim Carrey. In 2003, she had a brief relationship with musician Jack White. In May 2005, Zellweger married singer Kenny Chesney.
Zellweger previously shared that she gained 30 pounds for her role in 2001's Bridget Jones Diary, in which her character is concerned about her weight. Although she went on to lose the weight, she later regained it for the film's 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Ant shares Hudson with his ex-wife, Flip or Flip star, Christina Haack, whom he divorced from in 2021. While Renee does not have any children of her own, it is clear that she has a natural maternal instinct.
Then in 2016, Zellweger penned a brutally honest open letter in The Huffington Post discussing the intense media speculation about her new look. "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.
The two powerhouse performers became off-set friends, too. “They went out pub-crawling in Montana when she was there on a short vacation,” says Johnson, who adds that Judy became a frequent guest at the Beverly Hills home Gene shared with his first wife, Betsy.
