Renée Zellweger has opened up on her six-year hiatus from her acting career.

The actress, 55, famously took a step back from the limelight in 2010 following the filming of My Own Love Song and didn’t appear in a film until 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.

An in a new Vogue interview conducted by her pal and co-star Hugh Grant to celebrate the release of the latest installment of the franchise – Mad About The Boy –  Renée reflected on ‘needing’ to take a break from Hollywood and detailed just how exactly she spent her time. 

On why she took her hiatus, Renée shared: ‘Because I needed to. I was sick of the sound of my own voice. When I was working, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?”.

The film star went on to add: ‘It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences.’

When asked if she simply did ‘nothing’ during her time off, the Academy-award winner discussed how she spent her time, noting that she ‘got healthy’ while out of the spotlight.

Renée Zellweger has opened up on her six-year hiatus from her acting career

The actress, 55, famously took a step back from the limelight in 2010 following the filming of My Own Love Song and didn’t appear in a film until 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby [pictured]

She said: ‘I wrote music and studied international law. I built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company, advocated for and fundraised with a sick friend, and spent a lot of time with family and godchildren and driving across the country with the dogs. I got healthy.’

At one point during the mischievous conversation, the actress shocks Hugh when she reveals how she went unrecognised during some secret work experience for the first Bridget movie.

Back in the early noughties, as Hugh points out, there was a lot of ‘hullabaloo’ when American Renee was cast as Helen Fielding’s British heroine, with Renee, who admits that unlike Hugh she doesn’t google herself, revealing she only became aware of the furore when she started prep for the movie.

To get into character as a publicity ᴀssistant at a London publishing company, Renee spent ‘a month or two’ secretly working at Picador, a major UK publishing house.

However, she reveals she soon found it hard to avoid the publicity surrounding her casting as part of her job was to take the newspaper clippings from the papers for author Helen Fielding’s file, with the star then seeing articles about a ‘c**p American actor’.

On how no one knew who she was, ‘Renee insisted that ‘nobody knew’ despite her Hollywood status, as she mused that she was ‘out of context’ or maybe because she had ‘more chubby cheeks’, noting that ‘It was odd.’ 

Elsewhere, Renée discussed her character Bridget Jones’ work affair with Hugh, admitting ‘HR would have something to say about it’. 

Renée and Hugh are back as Bridget and Daniel Cleaver in for the fourth time in the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

On why she took her hiatus, Renée shared: ‘Because I needed to. I was sick of the sound of my own voice. When I was working, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?” [pictured in 2016]

‘I wrote music and studied international law. I built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company… I got healthy’ [pictured in 2023]

Renee and Hugh are back as Bridget and Daniel Cleaver in for the fourth time in the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy 

The most recent film, 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, saw Bridget shocked when she discovered she was pregnant. It ended with her marrying Mark, the high-flying lawyer who she’d had on and off feelings for across the three movies, and revealed that he was the father to her baby. 

However, in Mad About The Boy, Mark tragically later dies while working abroad as a human rights lawyer, leaving Bridget a widow and the book follows her as she battles motherhood alone.

She also quits her job working in television to do the school run, with comical scenes expected as she struggles to keep up with the Yummy Mummies.

Bridget will also find herself in the middle of a three-way battle for her affections, between boytoy Roxster [Leo], PE teacher Mr. Wallaker [Chiwetel] and a returning Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant]. 

The first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, came out in 2001 and grossed £222 million at the box office – more than ten times what it cost to make.

See the full feature in the February issue of British Vogue, available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 21st January.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is released on Peacock in the US on February 13, 2025 and in cinemas in the UK on February 14.