Renee Zellweger Defended By Christina Applegate, Rose McGowan After Film Critic Slams Her Look For ‘Bridget Jones’
Can Renee Zellweger authentically play Bridget Jones with her drastically different look? A film critic claimed in a scathing column that since Zellweger no longer looks like herself, she’s become a different actress as well.
Variety published an opinion piece written by chief film critic, Owen Gleiberman. It’s titled, “Renee Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?”
Gossip Cop reports that Christina Applegate and Rose McGowan are weighing in on what Gleiberman wrote, opposing the harsh views of aging actresses in Hollywood.
“I was caught off guard the other day when I saw the trailer for Bridget Jones’s Baby,” Gleiberman wrote. “The movie’s star, Renee Zellweger, already had her ‘Did she or didn’t she?’ moment back in 2014, and I had followed the round-the-world scrutinizing of her image that went along with it, but this was different. Watching the trailer, I didn’t stare at the actress and think: She doesn’t look like Renee Zellweger. I thought: She doesn’t look like Bridget Jones! Oddly, that made it matter more. Celebrities, like anyone else, have the right to look however they want, but the characters they play become part of us. I suddenly felt like something had been taken away.”
Renee Zellweger Defended By Christina Applegate, Rose McGowan After Face Criticism https://t.co/lN0IU6DX9j pic.twitter.com/sJDURI2Owo
— Gossip Cop (@GossipCop) July 2, 2016
Gleiberman’s view on Zellweger’s ability to capture the essence of her famous film character had many churning, especially Christina Applegate, who expressed her utter disgust on Twitter at the Variety column.
“I’m sorry. But this is highly offensive,” she wrote.
Applegate went on to write, “Our faces change. My eyes are smaller. My nose is bigger. I have jowls. But if I decided to play Kelly bundy again, I would be her. Just different. Older, and wiser. Well, maybe not that. I have lines all over my face. You know what from? Years of laughing. And sun damage. That is a bitch.”
I’m sorry. But this is highly offensive. Our faces change. My eyes are smaller. My nose is bigger. I have jowls.tbc https://t.co/eqAKrYxQqk
— christina applegate (@1capplegate) July 1, 2016
The column had Rose McGowan seething. She tweeted, “You are a f*****g idiot, Owen Gleiberman. Good hire @variety,” adding, “Way to contribute to the pervasive f****d up-ness that is Hollywood @owengleiberman. And I fully hope and expect every movie I direct to get a terrible review from your archaic out of date white male dominated rag #variety.”
Gleiberman made a brief response by tweeting back, “I have indeed written about this issue regarding actors.”
Zellweger hasn’t reacted to the film critic’s column.
The actress’ new film will be out in a few months, 12 years after the last one in the Bridget Jones franchise — Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Her last film was My Own Love Song. The actress gave an interview to British Vogue about why she took some time to leave the entertainment industry.
“I was fatigued and wasn’t taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me,” she said. “I got sick of the sound of my own voice. It was time to go away and grow up a bit.”
The 47-year-old star said she “found anonymity” and shares that it was enriching to 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.”
Renee Zellweger said part of being a good storyteller is having personal experiences and the ability to relate to others.
Besides Bridget Jones Baby due out this fall, the actress has two other films hitting theaters in 2017.
[Photo by KGC-296/STAR MAX/IPx/AP Images]
