In her first interview as a filmmaker, Renée Zellweger is as gracious as ever.
“I don’t assume that directing was a private ambition in and of itself,” the Oscar-winning actress tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I all the time thought that if there was some natural calling to inform a narrative and I felt that it was the correct match, then I’d in all probability like to do it and provides it a shot.” Provided that it felt crucial, she provides: “Not only for the sake of getting the expertise, you understand?”
Texas-born Zellweger has, after all, been a star of the display screen for years. She has captivated us within the likes of Jerry Maguire (1996), Chicago (2002) and extra not too long ago, the movie that gave her a hard-earned second Academy Award: the Judy Garland biopic Judy, in 2021. For a lot of audiences, nonetheless, she’ll be finest often known as the charmingly imperfect Bridget Jones, a personality she returned to earlier this 12 months within the world field workplace hit Mad Concerning the Boy.
What she hasn’t but publicly spoken about is the venture she labored on in between these films. In her trailer on the Bridget Jones set, she says, and in between press excursions, Zellweger and her manufacturing firm Massive Image Co. have been working with a bunch of gifted animators to create a nine-minute brief — Zellweger’s directorial debut — titled They.
Within the hand-drawn 2D line animation They, which had its world premiere at Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Pageant on Aug. 16, a city is overrun by grumbling residents caught in clouds of criticism. That’s, till a hopeful hero and his trusty canine hatch a plan to encourage a return to higher days. When issues seem to catastrophically backfire, a shocking twist unites the lots in solidarity.
They is a response to the wealth of toxicity polluting the world. Zellweger pokes enjoyable at on-line conspiracy theories, a sea of hate on social media, and all-round horrible crew morale amongst us people in the meanwhile. “It’s simply so unhappy,” Zellweger tells THR, “the decline of social discourse, how it appears that evidently all of us have these opinions about each other. Dialog appears to have left the constructing.”
The brief can be a surprisingly intimate venture, sprinkled with anecdotes and delicate nods to Zellweger’s private life and the broader crew’s, too. A dedication on the finish to Dylan, Ellie, Chester, Betty and Grady refers back to the late pets of Zellweger and her producer Tora Younger. In truth, animation director Paul Smith drew everybody’s pets subsequent to their names for the brilliantly crafted finish credit. He labored below his manufacturing firm banner Ubik with artwork administrators Nick Unfastened and Ste Dalton, whereas Adam Minkoff served as composer and Michael Bayliss as animation guide.
Zellweger’s animated brief ‘They’ had its world premiere at EIFF.
Courtesy of EIFF
The ultimate product is one brimming with pleasure. “Folks say ‘ardour venture,’ and that’s genuinely what that is reached in,” says Zellweger. Beneath, she talks for the primary time about They. She reveals when the thought for the movie first got here to her, her long-running love of animation as an artwork kind, and what’s in retailer subsequent now she’s had a spin within the director’s chair: “There are all the time concepts brewing. It’s only a matter of timing and issues coming collectively.”
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I’ve so many questions for you, and solely somewhat little bit of your time — so when you’re blissful, I’ll dive proper in.
After all, after all. It’s the primary time I’ve talked about it with anyone outdoors the venture… So be affected person with me!
Don’t fear when you want a while to consider your solutions! However let’s begin firstly. How did this journey begin and the way lengthy had you needed to direct?
Nicely, it was form of a fluke. I don’t assume that directing was a private ambition in and of itself. I all the time thought that if there was some natural calling to inform a narrative and I felt that it was the correct match then I’d in all probability like to do it and provides it a shot. [Only] if it felt crucial — not only for the sake of getting the expertise, you understand? This was only a dialog with a pal. She was unwell, and we have been sat on her mattress watching the afternoon information as a result of she had a crush on the native newscaster, and we knew that she needed to look at that each afternoon. We turned it on and it was so miserable. Her carer Jerome and I began speaking about toxicity and the divisiveness and the way polarized we’ve develop into as a society. That is 2018, 2019. We have been considering it’s simply so unhappy, the decline of social discourse, how it appears that evidently all of us have these opinions about each other. Dialog appears to have left the constructing. He mentioned, “Yeah, it’d be nice if we felt like we have been being attacked from area or one thing, then we’d want one another, wouldn’t we?” And I laughed, and I assumed, “Oh yeah, Armageddon or Independence Day!”
I began to riff on it, the thought of it. I assumed, “Oh gosh, yeah.” May you think about the bodily manifestation of this air pollution that we’re creating every single day? These unfavorable messages which are bombarded [at us], that appear to be deliberately focused, designed to make us indignant. Wouldn’t that be one thing? I instructed Jerome, “I’m gonna go dwelling and write that.” I simply needed to for an train. So I went and I wrote it. After which I linked with an artist pal of mine, an animator, and we began speaking about it from my kitchen. I despatched him just a few tough sketches of what I imagined this little non-human individual would seem like, and it went from there. A few years later — it will have been simply after Judy — I used to be talking with my pal Tora Younger. She’s a producer. She was early days on the primary Bridget Jones. I’ve recognized her for a very very long time, and I’d forgotten that she was one of many first on the crew at [U.K. studio] The Imaginarium when it was based. And I forgot about her love of animation. We began speaking about it. I’d been tinkering from my kitchen throughout COVID and simply seeing the place this might go.
Initially, I used to be considering it was going to be a minute or two and that it will be a muted black and white [film]. She launched me to Paul Smith, who’s higher often known as Erwin Saunders on his YouTube channel. [Laughs.] And it went from there. It simply began to develop and the story developed as we labored on it, as a result of there have been sure issues that… I don’t know how one can describe it, however there have been sure issues that we knew have been extremely unlikely. So we needed to make references to that.
It’s wonderful what number of years this movie has been within the making.
Nicely, you understand, it was only for enjoyable. I needed to do it as a result of I instructed Jerome that I used to be going to and I needed to shock him. It’s taken a minute. After which it was COVID, so it was somewhat venture that would from the lounge. Folks say “ardour venture,” and that’s genuinely what that is reached in. It’s only a love of the artwork kind and the way you need to use it to have interaction in a dialog with out being offensive.
It truly is so good. The music, the tip credit poking enjoyable at what comes up on our screens lately. And there may be optimism in your story — is that one thing you needed to convey?
Oh, yeah, completely. However with out being twee. [Laughs.] Since you all the time hope, proper? You hope. What I discovered actually attention-grabbing yesterday was that I suppose one other couple of tasks [premiering at Edinburgh] started throughout COVID and it’s simply because animation takes some time. Clearly, it’s actually concerned when it comes to the hours it takes to create [and] the work that you simply put into it. They is hand-drawn. It’s hand-painted, hand-drawn 2D line animation, which I’ve been a fan of perpetually.
I used to hunt out animation festivals after I was at college. I lived in a dormitory that was on prime of an impartial movie show, and they might host these festivals and these shorts would come via city, and I’d return repeatedly. I simply adore it. I really like the messaging. I really like the capability to elicit such an emotional response from one thing so tiny and fast, and that appears so easy, nevertheless it’s really actually profound. It takes a lot work and ability… and now I’m going off on my love for this artwork kind, and I’ve forgotten your query. [Laughs.]
‘They’ dir. Renée Zellweger (2025).
Courtesy of EIFF
You’re completely proper, it’s profound. Edinburgh Movie Pageant director Paul Ridd mentioned this was so assured and so totally different from what they have been anticipating of you. Do you assume individuals wouldn’t assume Renée Zellweger would have this ardour for animation?
I actually don’t know. I suppose I don’t spend a variety of time questioning what individuals would assume. [Laughs.]
Why is it titled They?
It’s that clichéd reference once you need to finish a dialog, or in substantiating your perspective: “You know the way they are,” “ what they say,” “ what they do,” “If solely they didn’t…”
That’s the reference. However clearly, within the messaging, we’re all they. We’re all contributing to this, this sense, this expertise and this second that we’re in proper now, deliberately or not, simply with our engagement on our telephones and our responses to these messages.
Did it really feel pure to sit down within the director’s chair? Would you need to do it once more?
Oh, after all. I beloved it. I felt actually fortunate working with terribly gifted individuals. I didn’t even give it some thought actually, when it comes to whether or not or not it felt comfy. We have been simply doing it. And there have been sure issues that, I suppose at some factors [that] stunned me from the expertise of being on set. [I’ve been] a storyteller for 30 years, so there was an intuition to know {that a} shot was lacking or what was crucial or the way it must be arrange. However there have been additionally issues that I couldn’t know as a result of I haven’t studied the visible medium and the artwork kind. [I didn’t know] why a selected angle can be more practical, and I discovered a lot from Paul and Nick and Ste, who have been the lead animators on this and Michael Bayliss, who was an advisor.
Do you have already got a nugget of what you’d love to do subsequent?
Yeah, I do. Yeah. There are all the time concepts brewing. It’s only a matter of timing, issues coming collectively.
Is that within the animation world, or is that live-action? Or each?
Each.
That’s very thrilling.
That’s a pleasant factor to say. Thanks.
How was getting to look at your movie as a director as an alternative of an actor?
It was actually particular. I don’t assume that I actually took any time to contemplate it outdoors of the co-operative effort that it was. It’s very related in that respect, as a result of each movie feels prefer it’s this household collab, you understand? This was in all probability extra intimate, as a result of it was over Zooms and it was independently finished. We did it as a result of we beloved it, and it was simply pleasure. It was simply this little facet factor, the little venture that would.
We have been simply seeing if we may, mainly. If it will work and what it will finally quantity to in the long run. It’s only a shared love of the artwork kind and desirous to dive in and discover a possibility to play with these influences. The reference to issues that all of us grew up loving — these sequences for the [Pink Panther creator] Blake Edwards movies and Saul Bass’s graphics. The music of the period, all of that was joyful, to return to an more and more uncommon artwork kind with the digitization of every little thing now. To have one thing that’s kind of homegrown.
Is the plan to take it to extra festivals?
Yeah, we’ll see. Once more, it was that factor the place we kind of [made this] from the set of Bridget Jones, within the trailer of Mad Concerning the Boy and in between press excursions, all of that. [Laughs.] And it felt actually beautiful to be in Edinburgh as a result of it’s a U.Ok.-based manufacturing. So it felt like the correct place to debut it.
Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Pageant 2025 runs Aug. 14-20.