Renee Zellweger Admits She ‘Wasn’t Healthy’ Before Acting Hiatus: ‘I Needed to Stop’

She’s had an enviable career, but in 2010, after more than a decade on Holly wood’s A-list, Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger needed a break. “I was sick of the sound of my own voice,” she exclusively tells Closer. “When I was working, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?’ It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences.”

This February, Renée, 55, returns to the silver screen in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, her fourth outing as the lovelorn character. The film picks up Bridget’s life after she has become a widow raising a child alone. “I love that she’s hopelessly romantic and optimistic,” says Renée of Bridget, who attracts the romantic attention of a younger man in the new film.

JUST SAY NO

Renée says she took six years out of the spotlight to recover her joy. “One of the things I learned is that I didn’t know how to establish a healthy balance,” she explains. “I felt an obligation to say yes, whenever I was asked to do something on behalf of my work.”

That meant missing a lot of birthday parties, weddings and milestones with her family and friends. “I needed to stop so I could reassess and figure out how to allow for myself in my own life,” she says.

During her hiatus, Renée adopted two senior dogs and traveled with them cross country. She studied screenwriting and helped write a TV pilot. She hung out with her family and godchildren. That time away put her on solid ground today.

“I wasn’t healthy,” she explains. “I needed to not have something to do all the time, to not know what I’m going to be doing for the next two years in advance. I wanted to allow for some accidents. There had to be some quiet for the ideas to slip in.”