Zellweger Back With "Miss Potter"
Renée Zellweger hasn't been on the big screen for over one-and-a-half years.
"Cinderella Man" was her last effort, but now she's back in "Miss Potter," and has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Beatrix Potter, creator of "Peter Rabbit" and other children's classics.
In the in interim, she told co-anchor Harry Smith on The Early Show Friday: "I've been making some movies. I've been a busy girl!"
Zellweger says she didn't know a thing about Potter beforehand. "I had this image of her as being this Mother Goose-like character," Zellweger admitted. "I knew nothing about the achievements, the massive achievements she had in so many different areas.
"It was quite a struggle for her. There wasn't quite the same market for children's books at the time. And, being a woman, it was very difficult for her to participate in the public arena in that way. She did a good job."
The story, Zellweger says, is "honest. It's an honest story. It is beautiful. I was fascinated by it when I read the script, to find out that it's not fiction. Because it has all the makings of the most magnificent story and yet, you know, it's her life experience."
To see photos from the premiere of "Miss Potter," click here.
Asked if, despite "buckets of nominations" for past work, the Globe nod for "Potter" means much to her, Zellweger responded: "Of course. Of course it does. Especially with something like this. Just finished it. Very recently. And you question it every day. 'What am I doing? Was I blasphemizing this woman's story?' … These are the thoughts that go around, the ruminations every night. So it's wonderful when you finish it and when people embrace what you've done."
Potter's 19th century middle class English accent didn't come easily, Zellweger says, but she got a lot of help from her dialect coach.
"I call her. She shows up — she very cruel. She stands by, ready, with her whip, lest I be lazy. She won't allow it. I depend on her every day. Every day. She's such a wonderful mentor to me."
Zellweger added that she preferred to stay in character with her accent as much as she could, "because I'm lazy and I don't want to do the work to get back to it every single morning. So I just find it easier when it's a habit, so I don't have to think about it, because you use a different part of your face to go back and forth, and I just don't want to do the work every day, thank you. I'd rather it just kind of be in place than start all over again every day."
Zellweger now turns her attention to "Leatherheads," in which she'll be starring opposite George Clooney in a film about the start of pro football in America.
And she revealed an unlikely concern she has as the start of production approaches, kiddingly telling Smith: "I'm terrified. Talk about not sleeping. Terrified. I've heard that this man (Clooney) is relentless with the practical jokes. This is what I hear!"