64 Time September 30, 20197 Questions‘
THERE WILL BE
AN AUDIENCE
FOR STORIES
ABOUT WOMEN
OF EVERY AGE
IF SOMEONE
CREATES THEM
’
Your break coincided with an age
when many women find that juicy
roles start to dry up. Do you feel like
you skipped that period? Maybe.
Or maybe the industry changed and
there are more outlets for material.
There will be an audience for stories
about women of every age if someone
creates them. There’s always been an
audience for different kinds of material,
it’s just limited in terms of what the
business model seemed to allow. So as
that’s changing, the range of stories is
expanding. Escape at Dannemora and
Patricia Arquette out there doing her
thing, Patricia Clarkson doing her thing,
Julia Roberts doing her thing, the list
goes on.I rewatched Bridget Jones’s Diary
recently. It’s different watching
Bridget’s flirtations with her boss,
Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), in the
#MeToo era. Is it fair to judge past
movies through the lens of today?
I can’t remember how much of it they
were trying to conceal, because it was
taboo. It wasn’t something they were
trying to advertise. Maybe there are just
different consequences hanging in the
balance in 2019.In 2016 you wrote an op-ed criticizing
tabloid scrutiny of women’s bodies,
including your own. Has anything
changed since then? That’s a big ques-
tion. I think there’s a consciousness
about it that might be a little bit dif-
ferent. What do you think?We have a long way to go. Maybe.
But these are institutionalized,
social behaviors that are reinforced
through generations. So inevitably
it’s going to change if you have women
raise their children with an expectation
that they be treated differently. As
we go forward and we make certain
realizations about the way we conduct
ourselves in society, then the change
comes. But I expect that it will take a
minute. —eliza BermanY
ou spent two years preparing
for the film Judy. What stood
out as the most important
thing to capture about Judy Garland?
What struck me was, despite the tragic
circumstances and how they were
portrayed on the public record, she
never stopped hoping. She was a joyful
person. She didn’t strike me as a tragic
figure at all. She seemed heroic in her
determination to carry on and her belief
that things would get better.In the film, her fans feel they know
her, but she doesn’t appear to feel
known by them. Is there a certain
loneliness that comes with fame?
I’m sure it’s different for everybody. I
suppose it depends on how much of
your public persona and professional
responsibilities consume your time vs.
how much time you spend focusing on
the person behind the public persona.Is it different preparing to play a real
person? Absolutely, because there are
parameters that are the historical re-
cord. But having an experience with
that myself, and being the subject of
certain reporting, I try to be judicious
in looking at it and consider the source
and remember that whatever is out
there is always through [the lens of]
someone’s personal agenda or their
own damage.She once called herself “the
queen of the comeback”—
[Paraphrasing Garland]
She can’t go to the
bathroom without them
calling it a comeback!There’s a narrative around
the movie that it’s a comeback
for you, just a few years after
you returned from a six-year hiatus
from acting. How does that word
sit with you? I don’t think about that
kind of stuff. However people interpret
things, it’s none of my business. I don’t
read things. I’m not on social media.Renée Zellweger The Oscar-winning actor on
playing Judy Garland, how Bridget Jones holds up
and the public scrutiny of women