Renée Zellweger Reveals What it Was Like to Transform Herself Into Movie Icon Judy Garland for ‘Judy’

Choosing Renée

For both producer David Livingston and director Rupert Goold, Renée was the obvious choice to play Judy. Says David, “There was no one else who had the ability to sing, act and be comedic in that way. And by good fortune, Renée was the same age as Judy at the time she gave these London shows.”

Adds Rupert, “We needed somebody who has a bit of the comedienne about them, because Judy was hilarious and known for it. I think because Renée has done a lot of hugely high-profile comedies, people may forget about films like Cold Mountain, for which she won an Oscar, and some of the other dramatic films she’s made. She has something that, despite the fact that she is extraordinarily beautiful and talented, reached out and connects to real people at some level.”

Personal Motivation

As Renée explains it, she had her own reasons for wanting to take on this part: “As a creative person, there’s nothing more exciting than to be taken out of your comfort zone. I also wanted to look at those in-between moments that seem to get left out when you’re telling the story of a person you think you know.”

The Music

Once Renée was committed to the part, everyone involved turned their focus to capturing the proper look of Judy Garland. A year before the official rehearsal process began, Renée started training with a vocal coach in the United States before finally rehearsing for four months with the film’s musical director, Matt Dunkley, who says, “What appealed to me about this film project was that it’s such a unique opportunity to revisit these classic songs and the wonderful American song book, with some really wonderful arrangements.”

Despite having previous singing experience in such films as Chicago, training to become Judy Garland was a huge step into the unknown for the actress. Immersion in all things Garland was the key. Renée adds, “I had many moments in the car when for that whole year Judy was riding shotgun. I listened to her music and her speaking, I researched the stories — the whole thing.”

Capturing Judy’s On-Stage Performance

Encapsulating such a singular figure wasn’t just down to the singing — the distinctive accent, tone of voice and movements during the on-stage performance all had to be mastered. Matt always had confidence in Renée’s ability on that front: “She’s an actress who can sing rather than a singer who can act. So, I always knew that the acting side of it was going to be fantastic. She trained with a speaking voice coach to get the sound of Judy’s voice and her pronunciation and she worked with a choreographer to get her mannerisms. Judy was quite twitchy in her body movements and Renée’s capturing of that was amazing.”

Rupert was equally impressed by her physical transformation: “One of my favorite parts of her performance is how she holds her shoulders. Judy had this curvature of the spine and it made her look much older and frailer than she really was in the later part of her life. On the first day I thought ‘Oh wow, this is a proper actor; this is somebody who is playing a role, not just putting on an outfit.’”

Hair and Makeup

Jeremy Woodhead, the film’s hair and makeup designer, relished the challenge he was faced with, made all the more pleasant by his subject. “Working closely with actors as we do, we usually get a good relationship fairly quickly, but it was instant with Renée,” he explains. “I fell in love with her; she’s so easy going, but so professional. Her humor is there; her love of life, her energy and her excitement about all things is tangible, and very similar to what Garland seemed to have. The good thing about Garland is that she is very well documented; her looks are very well photographed. It’s a matter of collating all the research and working out what hairstyles and what makeup would transfer well onto Renée, discarding some and pushing others to compensate for the fact that their face shapes are quite different. We then honed the different hairstyles that Judy Garland had at that time and decided which ones would work best on Renée.”

For her part, Renée says, “Someone who makes extraordinary wigs in L.A. did this beautiful piece and Jeremy played with it every day and chopped it up with fearless abandon.”

The Costumes

Of equal importance was making sure that the costumes felt as authentic as possible to that period of Judy’s life. “All those costumes are entirely down to Jany Temime, and all are influenced by what Judy Garland wore at certain points, whilst also informing the progression of her character,” says David Livingstone.

Enthuses Renée, “Jany is fantastic, because she gets an idea and she’s uncompromising; she won’t settle for anything less than extraordinary. These costumes were on another level and to be able to pull out one after the next and with such immaculate construction was amazing. She also fitted and built the dresses around Judy’s posture which is a little bit different to mine, the way she carried herself and so if I stand like I stand, the dresses don’t fit.”

“I asked to do the film because I was a fan, a superfan, of Judy Garland,” says Jany. “We also had the chance to recreate the very beautiful looks of 1968 London and iconic 1930s Hollywood. That was a box of dreams and I styled all of the costumes in 1938 in that spirit; like a Hollywood film in the biggest period of Hollywood.”

Contrasting Looks

The onstage and offstage looks for Judy were distinctly different, comments Jany: “The way she is in her stage costume was inspired by what Judy Garland herself wore; shiny, gold, expensive. She wears a show costume because she is a woman who can give a show. Then for Judy in real life, I thought to dress her as if with leftovers from the films she did, because I think lots of actresses were taking home what they wore in film. Renée is actually wearing my mom’s Chanel bag and Hermes scarf! Even in normal life she looked ready for any paparazzi. But when she is in the hotel on her own, everything comes down.” Her favorite outfit to design was the powder blue outfit for her wedding to Mickey Deans: “There is something so tender about it. I was told she designed it herself. She is marrying a man much too young for her and she is really trying too hard; what she designed for herself is light blue, full of feathers — she looked like a chicken! But it is beautiful and we made a dress inspired by that original, and Renée wears it with so much panache.”

Final Thought

In terms of the overall experience of capturing the essence of Judy Garland — emotionally, musically and physically — Renée closes, “It was such a process, getting as close as we could to creating a believable likeness without stepping over into something that felt like it was inauthentic.”

Audiences will be the judge when Judy open September 27.