And although, Zellweger was eager to note that she hadn't shaken her alter ego off completely. "I'd be out in the cab and asking the guy in an English accent," she sighs, shaking her head. "[I say] 'brilliant, lovely,' all those things. 'Quite,' I say 'quite' a lot now... " she was also eager to find a film to show off her return to slenderness. Her thin sculpted frame in her next release in "Chicago" assured the world that Zellweger was still capable of high glamour. Her weighty photos for one fashion magazine never made it to print, but newly slender, she graced the cover of Vogue.
When an actress such as Kristie Alley, a former beauty queen, gains weight not for a role but because of age and childbearing, the world grows uncomfortable. Zellweger's ease at weight loss suggests that transformation and reinvention are always possible -- that is what an actress is supposed to do, correct -- to suggest that human beings do not have to be one self? But actors like Robert DeNiro have also gained weight for roles and after DeNiro packed on the pounds for "Raging Bull," interviewers did not ooh and ah about how slight he looked on the red carpet accepting his awards for that film, as did the interviewer of Zellweger's appearance at the Golden Globes after losing weight after the first Jones film.
Women in Hollywood can only get heavy 'in quotes,' in a way that reinforces rather than detracts from their glamour. For the sequel to "Bridget Jones' Diary," Zellweger's weight gain became...
"Renee Zellweger is reportedly being paid a $3.2 million bonus to pack on the pounds for her reprised role as Bridget Jones. With almost sadistic glee at seeing the "petite 'Chicago' star" have to pork up again, the Australian newspaper the Age noted "Renee's getting nearly $15 million for the sequel and the bonus is on top of that," quoting an unnamed a source. "She hates gaining weight to play Bridget and knows she's going to have a hard time losing it again." Even if one doubts the reliability of the actual source quoted by the Age, the fact that the actress is quoted saying, "I'm eating so much I sometimes feel sick," leaves the reader in no doubt Zellweger is being forced to stuff and suffer for her art -- to attain the size of a normal woman, rather than the ethereal creature she 'really is.' For this stress upon sickness and enforced weight gain to be 'like a common woman' ultimately suggests that actresses are anything but common -- they live on air, clearly, and only with artistic and financial duress will they deign to appear to be frumpy like one of us.
Works Cited
Kim, Ellen. "Interview: Rene Zellweger." 18 Mar 2001. Hollywood.com. Retrieved 28 Apr 2005. http://www.hollywood.com/features/t1/nav/5/id/386215
Zellweger Paid by the Pound." The Age. 18 Aug 2003. Retrieved 28 Apr 2005. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059753479.html?oneclick=true
