RENEE Zellweger revealed where she’s been amid a long-term break from Hollywood as she returns with a new limited series. The Thing About Pam star made an amazing transformation for her new true-crime drama on NBC. But Renee, 52, took some time off her acting career over the past several years as she revealed that […]
RENEE Zellweger revealed where she’s been amid a long-term break from Hollywood as she returns with a new limited series.
The Thing About Pam star made an amazing transformation for her new true-crime drama on NBC.
But Renee, 52, took some time off her acting career over the past several years as she revealed that she enrolled at UCLA.
On Monday while appearing on the Today Show, host Savannah Guthrie asked how her break from the limelight “shaped” her return.
“Not that I’ve reflected on it that much but I do know that it’s different. I needed to step away and kind of grow as a person on some things that were not related to work.
“I mean that’s one of my favorite things about the work is that you have the opportunity to learn things that you wouldn’t otherwise have occasion to explore.
“I went to school, took some time out, and decided maybe I wanted to participate in a different way.”
Hoda Kotb then asked “which school” Renee attended to which she replied: “I snuck into UCLA for a little while for public policy. International law.
“It’s one of my favorite things, I’ll bore you to death at a dinner party I really will. Just don’t get me started,” she joked.
However, Renee has finally made her big return to the small screen with her new crime drama The Thing About Pam.
The limited series was inspired by real-life events that were previously documented on Dateline, the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria.
The two-time Oscar winner looked completely unrecognizable in the new show, as she transformed into Pam Hupp, a woman who in 2016 murdered Louis Gumpenberger.
Renee confessed that she wore “two pounds of latex” for the role, as costume and makeup artists added weight around her face.
The movie star also donned a “fat suit” for her new TV series, looking entirely different from her normally thin 5’4 frame.
The true-crime series follows convicted killer Pam Hupp, the 63-year-old suburban mom who is serving a life sentence for murdering a disabled man.
In the new eye-catching trailer, Renee sips a soda in a windbreaker and jeans and goes about her daily routine while police zero in on her cash-grab crime.
“Now you can afford that facelift you’ve been wanting,” a character tells her at one point.
Renee previously gained 30 pounds to portray Bridget Jones in 2001 and is once again barely recognizable as Pam.
She wore drastic facial prosthetics and a “padded” bodysuit for her latest project.
Renee also spoke about The Thing About Pam, and her major character transformation to play the convicted criminal, with Vanity Fair.
“Oh, gosh, if you don’t recognize an actor or an actress in a performance, that’s a great compliment.”
“You’re not trying to tell your own story.”
She added on her new look: “It was pretty much head to toe. It was prosthetics, it was a [padded] suit, it was the choice of clothing, it was the briskness in her step-step-step, her gait.”
Renee co-produced the six-episode series via her production company Big Picture Co.
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