Renee Zellweger

Emmanuel Itier: Is it more fun to talk about the movie when it´s with George because he seems to know how to make everything better?

Renee Zellweger: Sure. It´s not a bad day at work with Mr. Clooney. He kind of sets the tone for things with his little jokes. He has a nice time. Can´t you tell? He enjoys himself. He is very good at this. I wish I had as much grace. I´m learning.

EI: We hear how he pulls pranks on you. Do you ever get him back?

RZ: You know what? I´m a very patient woman. When the opportunity arises, I´ll be ready. I know what he might have done. It doesn´t mean I´m off scot-free. He can wait. It could be coming any day now–a big punch-line of what he was up to of when we were making that film. I don´t know, and I´m not so eager to find out!

EI: Are you sometimes the woman who wants to have the last word with a man?

RZ: Never.

EI: These roles are the kind that Katherine Hepburn liked to play. Did you take any inspiration from her?

RZ: All the time. We watched a lot of films–that was rehearsals. A nice day at the office–we sat and screened some films. Lexi is a nice amalgamation of all of those cinema heroines–the ones you wanted to be and the ones you respected because they were tenacious and confident and sexy and brave. But yeah, I thought about her a lot. I had a thing about the way that she speaks. I liked that she stood up straight all the time and that she was really direct. I really thought about that a lot before I would go in and do these takes.

EI: How was it playing with your ex-boyfriend?

RZ: I´m sorry?

EI: You and George were dating earlier…

RZ: Oh–I thought you were about to say they told you about me and Jonathan Pryce. I will deny that until I die. Don´t try connecting me with that hack! Just quit it. That was misconstrued. I think they asked [Clooney] if he liked me and he said, “A little bit,” so I owe him for that one and he will be repaid.

EI: Was it different kissing him this time around?

RZ: Look at you! Don´t forget I just played you [a journalist]. I know your game, buddy–you piece of work over there. I don´t remember kissing him in this film, and that´s the truth. Was there a kissing scene? It´s kind of hilarious when everyone is standing around you. You´ve got the boom guy, he´s holding the mic and he´s yawning. He´s checking his watch. Everybody is checking their watches. It´s like, “Are we done? Can we go to lunch?” There´s the truth of it. [Laughs]

EI: Can you compare George to the early actor you worked with? Has he changed? Is he different from the other guys you´ve worked with?

RZ: There are some guys. I´ve got a nice rotten list of actors I´ve worked with. I´ve been doing this a while too, so the list is kind of long. It was hard. It was really, really difficult. Not for any other reasons than personal reasons. His opinion really matters to me. It always has. He´s been my sounding board for so long. I care what he thinks about my work a lot, because I really respect his understanding and his appreciation and what he likes in films. He´s a cinophile. There´s not much he doesn´t know. So when he says something, it holds a lot of credence with me. So his opinion has always mattered. Every time I make a film, I wonder what he´s going to think. I get scared around opening weekend if I don´t hear from him! [Laughs] I start to think, “Oh he hates it!” So bring that in, because you usually don´t want to be the weak link at work and you don´t want to be the one who sucks on the film. You want your collaborators to be happy with your contribution. It’s team work. It´s a shared cooperative effort. But on this one, I had an emotional attachment to wanting my work to be good enough and I didn´t want to disappoint him.

EI: Do you know why George Clooney chose you?

RZ: Yeah, I think everybody else passed! No, that´s not true. He knew he could get me on the cheap, that´s why, because we are old friends. We share the same agent.

EI: How long did it take for him to convince you?

RZ: I still haven´t signed my contracts. I´m not convinced, but we´re doing that today if he´s nice. It´s been like three years ago or something. When did he make his first film? He made Confessions of a Dangerous Mind when I went off to do something else. I can´t remember now because early old age is setting in. But he had the script then before he directed his first film, and he just really liked it and he was talking about the improvements that it could use in terms of the dialogue, so the pace and things like that. And then he went off and won some Oscars and directed some Oscar-winning pictures and all that stuff, and some humanitarian efforts, you know. Then he came back with this about last year.

EI: It´s interesting how you two are very different. You are very hesitant to talk about your personal life, and George is the opposite and yet he is your mentor.

RZ: Yes, that´s true. Well, he is just so much older than me that he has so much more experience with things.

EI: Are you afraid of making a mistake? What is it?

RZ: I´m sure all of it. It´s all of those things. You get in front of a bus enough, you know it´s going to hit you and it´s not going to feel very good. And there´s a little recovery period and then you might have a little scar tissue that makes you a little bit stronger next time when the bus hits you. But it´s perpetually getting out in front of the bus. Now I haven´t quite learned how to dodge the buses as well, but I´m getting there. The thing about this guy is that he meets the ridiculous–matches the ridiculous with intelligence, and it kind of makes it what it ought to be–real easy. And I´m learning. I´m not born with the faculties to deal with this, but I´m getting there.

EI: This is not the first time you´ve played a journalist. You played one in Bridget Jones before, but in this film she is a little nasty.

RZ: And in One True Thing I played a journalist who was a little nasty.

EI: Did you prepare in any way to play this journalist different from the other times?

RZ: Not so much because you can´t really go back to that kind of a newsroom. You can look at footage, and I watched His Girl Friday to see what it was like in the office in those days. You know, little bits of research materials that are available. But no. What I had to keep doing was that I had to keep reminding myself that the things that she was involved in were sort of unprecedented at the time. There is no girl in the press box at a sports function, and it´s something that we take for granted all the time that we might compete with men for jobs. That was kind of new. I had to keep reminding myself that that´s an element that I had to play in when you´re developing her, because of her tenacity and her determination, and that she had to be uncompromising in her job–all those things. That plays into it.

EI: Are you thinking about doing Bridget Jones III?

RZ: I don´t know. People ask me about that all the time. I have no idea. Has Helen Fielding written a book? If she has, I want to read it, first of all. I don´t know anything about that, and people think that I´m lying and being coy, but I really don´t know anything about that. If you hear about it, please, will you call me? [Laughs]

EI: Can you talk about Chilled in Miami?

RZ: We wrapped up about five days ago. It´s a romantic comedy and it´s funny–a little bit of slapstick and a bit of physical comedy, which I haven´t done in a long time.

EI: Where do you live now, Renee?

RZ: I don´t know! I was in Canada shooting last week, and a little bit in Miami. I was in Santé Fe before that, and before that I lived in the Carolinas with all these guys. Now I´m going to go and live in Maryland for the next one.

EI: But is there a place that you call home where you have your possessions?

RZ: Storage. I have my storage in New York. Home is where my niece and nephew are. Home is where my mum and dad are. Home is where my best friend and where my godchildren are. Then there´s Norway.

EI: Are you not sick of that traveling life?

RZ: I like to move along! [Laughs] I had that before. I had really nice house in Bel Air and I was paying this huge mortgage for my cat. She was living large.

EI: What happened to your cat?

RZ: She passed.

EI: Do you want to have that world again in your life?

RZ: Of course. I will, but today I´m happy. Today I´m happy rolling with the circus. I don´t mind.

EI: Are you a gypsy at heart?

RZ: A little bit, yeah. I´m never bored. The whole world is home. It´s my playground. I can go and play anywhere and I love it. I have my favorite places in London and my favorite places in Paris. Norway, obviously, and Australia.

EI: What about George´s villa in Italy?

RZ: You´re starting it up! He just says, “She´s never made it there, but she´s never been invited.” Then he´ll go down the list of people who have made it there, you know? Like the dignitaries that he didn´t even know who´ve made it there, just to rub it in,–dig, dig. I just can´t seem to make it down there. If I have a minute, I will go. I would love to go. I´ve seen pictures of it from a motorcycle trip those fellas took together before he bought the thing. I´m happy for him. It makes him so happy.

EI: Is there no doggy in your life now?

RZ: No time. I know that´s a drag. I´m telling you it´s a drag. Every now and then I´ll see one of those guys walking by and get my dog fix.

EI: Do you believe in happily ever after?

RZ: Yes. Oh for sure. You bet. You see it all the time.

EI: You still going for kids?

RZ: I didn´t know I was trying! Don´t you have to meet the dad before you do that part?

EI: You can always adopt…

RZ: Yeah, you have a point. Look, you know what? I would be a negligent dog owner right now. Until I´m ready for a different life, I´m not dragging a kid into this. Are you kidding me? That´s mean. I know myself. When I have children–if I have children–they are going to be the center of my universe, and everything else is going to come second, third, fourth, fifth, and beyond down the line. I´ll be the mum then.

EI: What´s different? A few years ago, when you had your dog, you would say that you´re not even sure you would shoot in England if you couldn´t take your dog there. And now it´s almost going from one experience to the next.

RZ: Yeah, completely.

EI: Why do you enjoy the process of being a gypsy?

RZ: Because I have no reason not to, you know? There´s no reason not to. I´m not attached. I don´t have a family. I haven´t established a place that I long to be when I´m away, so why not? It won´t always be like that, so today is the time for it.

EI: You haven´t made a lot of movies these last few years, but now, in 2008, you´re coming out with quite a few…

RZ: You know why I haven´t had movies out these last few years? Because I´ve been gone doing a lot of movies. Got to go and make them.

EI: Are you searching for freedom?

RZ: No. Oh Lord, no. Who needs more of that? Not me! [Laughs] Maybe… I have a farm that´s in the same town as my best friend. I don´t live there and I can´t get there. It´s a really old house. It´s older than America. You need to live there and listen to the house and what it needs, and when the roof is leaking, it tells you. I was going to sell it, but I don´t have to sell it because a very good friend of mine is going to end up living there, so I´m very excited about that.