Hollywood (United States) (AFP)
Winning return to Hollywood for Renée Zellweger: the Texan won the Oscar for best actress on Sunday for her interpretation of the legendary Judy Garland in "Judy", a rebirth after a long period out of the spotlight and studios.
After her first successes in the late 1990s, Renée Zellweger quickly conquered the world of cinema, earning three Oscar nominations for "The Diary of Bridget Jones" (2002), "Chicago" (2003) and "Back at Cold Mountain ", which won him in 2004 the statuette for" best supporting role ".
Her career had gradually and inexplicably slowed down and Renée Zellweger had finally withdrawn from filming in 2010.
"The sound of my voice had become unbearable to me: it was time to go and grow a little," she said afterwards, saying that she had needed too long to return to normal relationships with her contemporaries, "in anonymity".
"You can't be a good storyteller if you haven't lived, and you can't identify with people," said the actress.
Transformed, she was back in the saddle in 2016 by participating in various projects of modest scale, starting after the famous "Journal of Bridget Jones" which had revealed it to the general public.
However, it was not until "Judy" and her performance in the role of the child prodigy who had grown up to seal her return, at 50, to the big leagues.
"Judy Garland did not get the accolades she deserved in her day," said Renée Zellweger on the Oscar stage. "Mrs. Garland, you are certainly among the heroines who unite and define us, and (this award) is undoubtedly for you," she said, golden statuette in hand.
- Difficult roles -
The film depicts the arrival of Judy Garland in the hectic city of London in 1968, for a series of sold-out performances. The star was only 46 years old at the time but she was world famous for three decades thanks to the "Wizard of Oz".
The unrestrained life and excesses of Hollywood, punctuated by four successive marital failures, had deeply marked the artist, as underlined the poignant performance of Renée Zellweger.
The American has often taken on difficult, even painful, roles for which she has put herself in danger. This was the case for Bridget Jones, who forced the petite actress to gain ten pounds and a most convincing British accent, which had silenced her detractors and skeptics.
Renée Zellweger also had to learn song and dance to embody in "Chicago" the disorder Roxie Hart, murderer converted into showbiz.
"I like to do things that I don't think I can do. Otherwise, what good is it?" Launched the actress at the time.
It was a very different role which brought her her first Oscar for "Return to Cold Mountain": that of a rough and pragmatic farmer during the American Civil War, who became friends with a delicate and beautiful city girl embodied by Nicole Kidman.
Renée Zellweger was born in April 1969 to a father of Swiss origin (hence her first name with acute accent, unusual in the United States) and of a Norwegian mother, in agricultural Texas.
She made her debut in small independent films that went unnoticed, until she appeared in "Generation 90", the first film directed by Ben Stiller in 1994.
Notoriety arrived for her via Tom Cruise, who had chosen her to give her the answer in "Jerry Maguire" in 1996.
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