Renée Zellweger?? Says She Left Hollywood Because It Was Time To ‘Grow Up A Bit’

Renée Zellweger was once on the fast track to Hollywood superstardom, when both her mind and body cautioned her that it was time to take a break and reassess just what she wanted out of her career and from her life. The Bridget Jones’s Baby actress had just won an Oscar for her third Academy Award nomination and might have gone on to even bigger projects, but Zellweger admits to feeling as though she might buckle under the pressure, so she took a much needed sabbatical. Now, Renée returns to Hollywood and finds out she’s just as beloved as she was when she left.

Bridget Jones’s Baby Star Renée Zellweger Opens Up About Her Disappearance

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Ms. Zellweger built up a prolific career as an actress taking on such compelling films as Jerry Maguire, One True Thing, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Chicago, and Cinderella Man and proving that she had as much endurance as talent by tackling up to four films a year, but, eventually, Renée learned that her stamina does have its limits. The pressures of keeping so busy ultimately drove her to seek a way out.

“I was fatigued and wasn’t taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me,” Zellweger confesses. “I got sick of the sound of my own voice: it was time to go away and grow up a bit.”

It was difficult to let go, says Renée. The actress reveals that she was often tempted by offers to return to the rat race for some creatively challenging roles, but, in the end, she did resist the temptation for nearly six years. The time away from Hollywood helped Zellweger to recharge her batteries and learn how to appreciate life more fully.

“I found anonymity, so I could have exchanges with people on a human level and be seen and heard, not be defined by this image that precedes me when I walk into a room,” says Ms. Zellweger. “You cannot be a good storyteller if you don’t have life experiences, and you can’t relate to people.”

Renée Zellweger Returns And Finds The Limelight Harsher Than She Remembered

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For the most part, Renée did stay away from Hollywood with its film projects and red carpet events, but she did make one public appearance, which spawned plastic surgery rumors, and she says she lived to regret it. The online criticism of her appearance was so harsh and unflattering that Zellweger ended up penning an essay to respond to those who had felt it necessary to pick apart her new look.

Even that response, written a couple of years ago, leaves just a hint of the pressure and stress, which compelled her to make a clean break from acting. Renée reveals as much in what she doesn’t say just as much as she does in insisting that she’s healthy and happy. They seem to be statements made to allay Zellweger’s own peace of mind, as well as to assure her haters that she hasn’t permanently gone away.

“My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy,” Zellweger wrote in the essay. “For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.”

Renée points out that she’s her own woman and that only those closest to her really know her struggles and her successes. Those who have been so critical of Ms. Zellweger do so from a position of observing the Bridget Jones’s Baby actress through the media.

“People don’t know me in my 40s,” Zellweger added. “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.”

Bridget Jones’s Baby, starring Renée Zellweger, Emma Thompson, and Patrick Dempsey, will be delivered to theaters on September 16.

[Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]