Actress Renée Zellweger solidified her spot as an A-lister thanks to a successful decades-long career with movies like Jerry Maguire, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Judy and more under her belt. Her transformation over the years has led to plastic surgery speculation.
The Texas native previously denied going under the knife while addressing reports that she had work done on her eyes in an essay for The Huffington Post in 2017.
“Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes,” she wrote at the time. “It’s no secret a woman’s worth has historically been measured by her appearance … The resulting message is problematic for younger generations and impressionable minds, and undoubtedly triggers myriad subsequent issues regarding conformity, prejudice, equality, self-acceptance, bullying and health.”
She had a similar sentiment when asked to reflect on the intense scrutiny she received for her appearance, most notably during a 2014 red carpet appearance.
“It probably gives you a stomachache, asking me about that, doesn’t it? Well, because there’s a value judgment that’s placed on us,” she told Vulture in 2019. “As if it somehow is a reflection of your character — whether you’re a good person or a weak person or an authentic person. And the implication that I somehow needed to change what was going on because it wasn’t working.”
The Dazed and Confused actress continued, “That makes me sad. I don’t look at beauty in that way. And I don’t think of myself in that way. I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter mix of things. It enables me to do what I do. I don’t want to be something else.”
The Oscar winner took a lengthy break from acting from 2010 to 2016 before resurfacing to promote Bridget Jones’s Baby. At the time, she attributed her new look to a lifestyle change and reassessing her priorities.
“I’m glad folks think I look different! I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows. My friends say I look peaceful. I am healthy,” she said in a statement to People. “For a long time, I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion.”
Keep scrolling to see photos of Renée’s transformation over the years!