Renee Zellweger becoming one of Hollywood’s busiest stars

Louis B. Parks

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

NEW YORK -- The last time we talked to Renee Zellweger, when she starred with Meryl Streep in "One True Thing," she had no new films planned, no real home to call her own, a director boyfriend (Josh Pate) and an adored 10-year-old dog named Dylan.

In two years Zellweger's world has turned considerably. She's completed four pictures, the third of which, "Nurse Betty," opens Friday. The fourth, "Bridget Jones' Diary," due next year, made her a favorite target of the British press, which felt a Texas gal should not play the much-sought title role from the English best seller.

She has also found a home -- a Hollywood Hills house the Los Angeles Times reported as costing "about" $1.8 million.

And her new boyfriend -- well, not so new anymore -- is superstar comedian Jim Carrey. In March Zellweger, whose public persona is shy and quiet, was shown in Cosmopolitan sporting a tattoo - a temporary one -- with Carrey's name, on her backside.

But not everything has changed, thank goodness. Dylan - a collie-golden retriever mix, now 12, is still the light of Zellweger's life. With apologies to Carrey.

Recently, in a suite at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, Zellweger was back in the United States after seven months in England filming "Bridget Jones' Diary."

"I'm very excited to be home," she says.

Though she insists she is just beginning to work off the pounds she gained to play Bridget -- a London career woman who thinks of herself as overweight, though that may be all in her mind -- Zellweger looks much like she did when she played Tom Cruise's romantic thrill in "Jerry Maguire."

"It's still a little bit there, a little bit different," she says of the pounds. It doesn't show, despite her snug sweater and tight black slacks. "I'm going for runs again now because I can. I like to. I guess I'm just going back to Renee."

Zellweger wears no shoes, no earrings, no necklace, no rings, not even the expensive friendship ring that Carrey is supposed to have given her, during her interview.

"You know what? I always don't wear jewelry," she says.

Zellweger, 31, a University of Texas graduate, had a good bit of film and TV experience before going from obscurity to overnight fame as the convincingly sweet, infinitely appealing single mother in "Jerry Maguire." Some reviews praised her for stealing the film from Cruise. But movie history is littered with forgotten leading ladies du jour of male superstars.

Zellweger survived by avoiding more roles such as Dorothy in "Jerry Maguire." She surprised everyone, and offended some, by playing a Hasidic Jewish wife going against husband and tradition in "A Price Above Rubies." She was Streep's ungrateful, rather unpleasant daughter in "One True Thing."

Last year she was, briefly, the sweet girlfriend again, this time in the forgettable "The Bachelor." Then she showed a different side in the rude, crude comedy "Me, Myself & Irene" earlier this summer.

Talk about an image change -- was she at all concerned with what folks back in her hometown of Katy would think?

"Yeah," she says. "Of course.

"Not so much concerned about what people might think, but uncomfortable. I'm a pretty private person when it comes to certain subject matter. It's a real challenge for me to be open ... to animating certain scenes."

"But I'm glad that I did it," she says softly, as she scoots to the edge of the sofa and leans forward. "I really wanted to try something new and it made me laugh when I read it. I thought, why not? It would be growth."

The role, of course, also gave her a new love.

Dating Carrey and getting the "Bridget Jones" role pushed Zellweger's public profile higher than ever. She's still not crazy about seeing her private life in the press.

"That kind of stuff is like, uck, yuck.

"It's weird. It's just weird. To have the bus driver know things you haven't even disclosed to a close friend yet. Because somebody wrote an expose about you. It's embarrassing. It's invasive, sometimes.

"That's just part of it, I suppose. Part of the adventure, too."

She got more adventure than she wanted when word broke about her casting in "Bridget Jones' Diary." The British press, never a favorite of celebrities, took lots of jabs. Such as a story that headlined her former work in a topless bar while a college student. Zellweger, who worked in a lot of places in Austin, says she only waitressed -- with her clothes on.

Though she often turns down promotional opportunities on her films -- and admits it may hurt the movies -- she insists she doesn't make any extra effort to maintain privacy.

"I don't do anything," she says. "I just live. Every day."

Her celebrity doesn't affect her work, she says.

"One only has something to do with the other if you allow it to," she says. "I'm sure it affects other people's perception in some way or another, but I don't concern myself with that, so it's not part of my reality."

Zellweger's persona being quiet, and Carrey's being, well, Jim Carrey, there was some surprise when they were first linked romantically.

It didn't surprise Greg Kinnear, who had already made "Nurse Betty" with Zellweger before she made "Me, Myself & Irene."

"They're both pretty grounded people," Kinnear says. "I've met Jim a few times. He's a funny guy, and she's funny. She's such a warm person."

In "Nurse Betty," the sweetness shows on screen more than at any time since "Jerry Maguire." But "Nurse Betty" is not exactly the whimsical little romantic comedy that TV spots make it out to be.

Zellweger stars as Betty, a waitress who hides in her home while two hit men (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) gruesomely kill her low-life cheating husband (Aaron Eckhart of "Erin Brockovich").

The shock causes Betty to lose touch with reality. She believes she is the nurse ex-girlfriend of a TV soap opera doctor (Kinnear). She heads for California to find his hospital, unaware that the doctor is an actor or that the killers are also trying to find her.

In the hands of director Neil LaBute, "Nurse Betty" has dark, offbeat dimensions, and sometimes plays as much like a drama as a comedy. LaBute did the terrifically ironic independent movie "In the Company of Men," in which two male office workers cruelly use a naive, blind female co-worker.

A couple of scenes in "Nurse Betty" may jolt viewers expecting romantic comedy.

"That's one of the wonderful things that Neil LaBute does in his films," Zellweger says. "He plays those contrasts, and it really elicits a strong response from an audience member.

"It is unpredictable. It's exciting as an actor to read a script that deviates from what we've seen so many times."

When Zellweger saw "In the Company of Men," she says, "I was livid that somebody would make a film about this -- that these characters were as hateful as they were and so cruel.

"And halfway home I understood, 'That's what the point was.' That he was telling a story with a lot of irony and honesty and the intention was to make you feel like that."

The film's comedy and pathos come when Betty finds the doctor/actor she is seeking and fails to understand he is just playing a part. She continues to regard him as a real doctor, which causes some funny moments and, eventually, some uncomfortable ones.

We worry what will happen when reality comes crashing down on Betty.

"It's a little like Jack (Nicholson) in 'As Good As It Gets,' " Kinnear, who also co-starred in that film, says. "He had to pull off an illness through the entire movie and make it interesting and fresh. Renee has a similar task in 'Nurse Betty.' To keep surprising our expectations is an enormous feat she pulled off."

Now that "Bridget Jones' Diary" is completed, Zellweger is without a new film on the horizon. And that, she says, makes her very happy.

"I'm so excited. I'm going to work on my home."

Will there be a trip to visit family and friends in Texas?

"Well, yeah," she says, sassily, the "duh" in her tone. "I'd be there right now if I didn't need to be here."

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