Renee Zellweger | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Renée Zellweger strikes a pose while stepping out for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Presents Career Retrospective with Renee Zellweger at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room on (December 16) in Los Angeles.

That same evening, the 50-year-old actress hit the stage to speak at Hammer Museum Los Angeles presents MoMA Contenders 2019 screening and Q&A of her film Judy.

Renee recently opened up about taking a break from acting for six years: “Well, there were a lot of reasons why I needed to step away. The first was, [it was] pretty obvious to me that I needed to stop,” she said (via Deadline). “The schedule had caught up to me and I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was really exhausted and making choices that weren’t necessarily healthy. I needed to step away from all the things that I felt—I don’t know. I just needed to step away and have a different perspective, so that I could make healthier choices.”

“I needed to try other things, things that didn’t fit into the schedule that I had found myself in service of for such a long time,” Renee continued. “There’s never a good time to step away from unbelievable creative opportunities, but I needed to grow and I needed to challenge myself in a different way to figure out, I don’t know, a purpose, and live a little outside of the movie sets and promotional tours, and dresses and heels, and have authentic exchanges with people. I don’t think you can be a good storyteller if you can’t empathize, and my life experiences were so insular. I needed to be ignored. [laughs] I’m sure that there are actors who are just as skilled at imagining that it doesn’t matter, but I find it more fulfilling when I approach it from a different place.”

READ MORE: Awkwafina, Renee Zellweger, Lizzo & More Named ‘Entertainment Weekly’ Entertainers of the Year 2019!

Lizzo, Awkwafina and Renee Zellweger are on the cover of Entertainment Weekly‘s January 2020 issue, out on newsstands on December 20.

The stars were all named Entertainers of the Year by EW, along with Regina King, Taika Waititi and the cast of HBO’s Succession.

Here’s what they had to say…

Lizzo, on her “overnight success”: “Everybody says that and I’m like, ‘It took 10 years to get to this point!’ Mainstream success happens very fast, and that’s why people think it’s overnight… but it’s cool, y’all are going to discover my discography, dig deeper. You’re gonna see some pictures of me back when I was wearing $20 wigs.”

Awkwafina, on her personas: “People can say that Nora’s the serious one and Awkwafina’s this crazy comedy one, but for me, the older I get and the more I [do], they become one. I can’t leave Awkwafina. Awkwafina is a part of me. I didn’t create Nora; I created Awkwafina. So it makes it powerful when I see her name somewhere.”

Renee Zellweger, on the biggest misconception about her: ““h, gosh. I see things sometimes because [my team will] send it along because they want to know if I would like to correct them. Most of the time, I don’t see the point because I feel like it’s not my business to correct how people think. Most of the time I don’t know who that person is — the ‘Renée Zellweger’ in quotations. That’s fine with me.”

For more from all the Entertainers of the Year, head to EW.com.

Renee Zellweger and Tom Hanks are on the cover of one of Variety‘s actors on actors issues.

Here’s what the Judy actress and A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood actor had to share with the mag…

Tom, on Mister Rogers’ secret morning ritual: “Sometimes you get frustrated because you’ve found this nugget that explains the entire character, and you can’t find any place to put it in the movie. We had one thing that I found out: I asked Joanne Rogers, ‘What did Fred drink in the morning? Did he have coffee?’ She said, ‘No, he drank hot cranberry juice.’ I went to Marielle Heller, who was the director of ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,’ and said, ‘Is there any way we can get it in?’ And she said, ‘The most we’re going to be able to do is have a glass of red liquid sitting on the counter there while you’re talking on the phone.’ I said, ‘Good enough for me.’”

Renee, on Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz: “She was 16, wasn’t she? Her body was just starting to change, and I think that one of the tools they’d use to keep her slim was binding her. Because they didn’t want her to be voluptuous, because they had finally found a way to market her as the girl next door. And God forbid that Dorothy be sexy, you know? So they bound her, and kept her weight down with drugs.”

Tom, on what disappointed him about Renee’s movie Judy: “I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see you recreate moments from ‘The Harvey Girls’ or ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ where — this is from reading that I did — [Garland] had that negative self-image that she wasn’t the prettiest woman in the world on camera. And yet, she’s the only one you look at, you know?”

For more from the stars, visit Variety.com.

Jennifer Lopez joins Scarlett Johansson, Renee Zellweger, Lupita Nyong’o, Laura Dern and Awkwafina on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual Actress Roundtable issue, available now!

Here’s what the stars had to share with the mag…

Jennifer on a director asking her to take her top off: “He wanted to see my boobs. And I was like, ‘We’re not on set.’ And I said no, I stood up for myself. But it was so funny because I remember being so panicked in the moment. And by the way, there was a costume designer in the room with me. So there was another woman in the room and he says this and I said no. Luckily a little bit of the Bronx came out, and I was like, ‘I don’t have to show you my — No. On the set, you see them.’”

Lupita on inclusion in Hollywood: “This is a time where there is a concerted effort to consider diversity and inclusion. What I really want is for it to not be a fad, not be a trend. Right now it’s really dope and cool and on trend to work with women and underrepresented groups, but the moment of maturity in the industry is when it is just the norm, you know?”

Laura on hotel room auditions: “I started auditioning at 10, 11 years old. I listen to the next generation, saying, ‘People used to have auditions in hotel rooms?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, every single time, waiting in the lobby of a hotel and the director is waiting for you in the room to have a chemistry read.’”

For more from the roundtable issue, visit THR.com.

Renee Zellweger is on the cover of InStyle magazine’s December 2019 issue, on newsstands November 22.

Here’s what the Judy star had to share with the mag…

On laughing about life in the tabloids early on: “I was devastated about a breakup, and it was plastered all over the tabloids. None of it true, all of it humiliating. Never mind that living the experience [of the relationship] was plenty. My brother taught me that this is what it is. This is not a proper representation of you and how you live your life. The choices you make, this is not. It is entertainment, and it’s funny if you look at it in the right way.”

On feeling rebooted during her deliberate break from the screen: “Well, I mean, it was nice to have authentic exchanges with people for a while. When you’re not on the radar, people don’t clock who you are; you’re just a person at the coffee shop ordering a coffee. I just knew that there were certain things I needed to prioritize and if I kept going, there would be just no way I could do it.”

On the grueling yet rewarding process of making Judy: “The schedule is pretty punishing, but it’s finite. You know that after this series of months, you can catch up a little. But, yeah, this one was big. It was big because I was greedy. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to keep digging.”

For more from Renee, visit InStyle.com.

Renee Zellweger and Courteney Cox are showing their support for their longtime friend Nanci Ryder.

The two actresses joined “Team Nanci” at the annual LA County Walk to Defeat ALS on Sunday (November 3) at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.

They were also joined at the charity event by Adam Scott.

After being diagnosed with ALS in 2014, Nanci and her friends formed “Team Nanci.” All funds raised at the walk supported The ALS Association Golden West Chapter in care services, public policy and research.

“It’s just about making sure people talk about it, raise awareness, raise funds, and just keep fighting it because there’s just a lot more work to do, although they’re making great strides. You’ve just got to not give up,” Courteney told People.

To help donate to the cause, head to alsagoldenwest.org!

Renee Zellweger is all smiles on stage during the 2019 Hollywood Film Awards on Sunday (November 3) at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The 50-year-old actress was honored with the Hollywood Actress Award for her role in Judy by her co-stars Finn Wittrock and Jessie Buckley.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Renee Zellweger

Also in attendance was Sienna Miller who presented Bong Joon Ho with the Hollywood Filmmaker Award for his movie Parasite.

FYI: Sienna is wearing a Cong Tri dress.

15+ pictures inside of the stars stepping out for the awards show…More Here! »