\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn her first interview as a filmmaker, Ren\u00e9e Zellweger is as gracious as ever.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself,\u201d the Oscar-winning actress tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. \u201cI always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit, then I\u2019d probably love to do it and give it a shot.\u201d Only if it felt necessary, she adds: \u201cNot just for the sake of having the experience, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTexas-born Zellweger has, of course, been a star of the screen for years. She has captivated us in the likes of Jerry Maguire<\/em> (1996), Chicago <\/em>(2002) and more recently, the film that gave her a hard-earned second Academy Award: the Judy Garland biopic Judy<\/em>, in 2021. For many audiences, however, she\u2019ll be best known as the charmingly imperfect Bridget Jones, a character she returned to earlier this year in the global box office hit Mad About the Boy<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat she hasn\u2019t yet publicly spoken about is the project she worked on in between those movies. In her trailer on the Bridget Jones <\/em>set, she says, and in between press tours, Zellweger and her production company Big Picture Co. were working with a group of talented animators to create a nine-minute short \u2014\u00a0Zellweger\u2019s directorial debut \u2014\u00a0titled They<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the hand-drawn 2D line animation They<\/em>, which had its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on Aug. 16, a town is overrun by grumbling citizens caught in clouds of complaint. That is, until a hopeful hero and his trusty dog hatch a plan to encourage a return to better days. When things appear to catastrophically backfire, a surprising twist unites the masses in solidarity.<\/p>\n \n\tThey <\/em>is a reaction to the wealth of toxicity polluting the world. Zellweger pokes fun at online conspiracy theories, a sea of hate on social media, and all-round terrible team morale among us humans at the moment. \u201cIt\u2019s just so sad,\u201d Zellweger tells THR<\/em>, \u201cthe decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe short is also a surprisingly intimate project, sprinkled with anecdotes and gentle nods to Zellweger\u2019s personal life and the wider team\u2019s, too. A dedication at the end to Dylan, Ellie, Chester, Betty and Grady refers to the late pets of Zellweger and her producer Tora Young. In fact, animation director Paul Smith drew everyone\u2019s pets next to their names for the brilliantly crafted end credits. He worked under his production company banner Ubik with art directors Nick Loose and Ste Dalton, while Adam Minkoff served as composer and Michael Bayliss as animation consultant.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tZellweger\u2019s animated short \u2018They\u2019 had its world premiere at EIFF.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of EIFF<\/p>\n \n\tThe final product is one brimming with joy. \u201cPeople say \u2018passion project,\u2019 and that\u2019s genuinely what this is reached in,\u201d says Zellweger. Below, she talks for the first time about They<\/em>. She reveals when the idea for the film first came to her, her long-running love of animation as an art form, and what\u2019s in store next now she\u2019s had a spin in the director\u2019s chair: \u201cThere are always ideas brewing. It\u2019s just a matter of timing and things coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t***<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI have so many questions for you, and only a little bit of your time \u2014\u00a0so if you\u2019re happy, I\u2019ll dive right in.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tOf course, of course. It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve talked about it with anybody outside the project\u2026 So be patient with me!<\/p>\n \n\tDon\u2019t worry if you need some time to think about your answers! But let\u2019s start at the beginning. How did this journey start and how long had you wanted<\/strong> to direct?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWell, it was kind of a fluke. I don\u2019t think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself. I always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit then I\u2019d probably love to do it and give it a shot. [Only] if it felt necessary \u2014\u00a0not just for the sake of having the experience, you know? This was just a conversation with a friend. She was unwell, and we were sat on her bed watching the afternoon news because she had a crush on the local newscaster, and we knew that she wanted to watch that every afternoon. We turned it on and it was so depressing. Her carer Jerome and I started talking about toxicity and the divisiveness and how polarized we\u2019ve become as a society. This is 2018, 2019. We were thinking it\u2019s just so sad, the decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building. He said, \u201cYeah, it\u2019d be great if we felt like we were being attacked from space or something, then we\u2019d need each other, wouldn\u2019t we?\u201d And I laughed, and I thought, \u201cOh yeah, Armageddon<\/em> or Independence Day<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tI started to riff on it, the idea of it. I thought, \u201cOh gosh, yeah.\u201d Could you imagine the physical manifestation of this pollution that we\u2019re creating every day? These negative messages that are bombarded [at us], that seem to be intentionally targeted, designed to make us angry. Wouldn\u2019t that be something? I told Jerome, \u201cI\u2019m gonna go home and write that.\u201d I just wanted to for an exercise. So I went and I wrote it. And then I connected with an artist friend of mine, an animator, and we started talking about it from my kitchen. I sent him a few rough sketches of what I imagined this little non-human person would look like, and it went from there. A couple of years later \u2014 it would have been just after Judy<\/em> \u2014 I was speaking with my friend Tora Young. She\u2019s a producer. She was early days on the first Bridget Jones<\/em>. I\u2019ve known her for a really long time, and I\u2019d forgotten that she was one of the first on the team at [U.K. studio] The Imaginarium when it was founded. And I forgot about her love of animation. We started talking about it. I\u2019d been tinkering from my kitchen during COVID and just seeing where this would go.<\/p>\n \n\tInitially, I was thinking it was going to be a minute or two and that it would be a muted black and white [film]. She introduced me to Paul Smith, who\u2019s better known as Erwin Saunders on his YouTube channel. [Laughs.<\/em>] And it went from there. It just started to grow and the story evolved as we worked on it, because there were certain things that\u2026 I don\u2019t know how to describe it, but there were certain things that we knew were highly unlikely. So we wanted to make references to that.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s amazing how many years this film has been in the making.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWell, you know, it was just for fun. I wanted to do it because I told Jerome that I was going to and I wanted to surprise him. It\u2019s taken a minute. And then it was COVID, so it was a little project that could from the living room. People say \u201cpassion project,\u201d and that\u2019s genuinely what this is reached in. It\u2019s just a love of the art form and how you can use it to engage in a conversation without being offensive.<\/p>\n \n\tIt really is so good. The music, the end credits poking fun at what comes up on our screens these days. And there is optimism in your story \u2014\u00a0is that something you wanted to convey?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tOh, yeah, absolutely. But without being twee. [Laughs<\/em>.] Because you always hope, right? You hope. What I found really interesting yesterday was that I guess another couple of projects [premiering at Edinburgh] began during COVID and it\u2019s just because animation takes a while. Obviously, it\u2019s really involved in terms of the hours it takes to create [and] the work that you put into it. They <\/em>is hand-drawn. It\u2019s hand-painted, hand-drawn 2D line animation, which I\u2019ve been a fan of forever.<\/p>\n \n\tI used to seek out animation festivals when I was at university. I lived in a dormitory that was on top of an independent movie theater, and they would host these festivals and these shorts would come through town, and I\u2019d go back again and again. I just love it. I love the messaging. I love the capacity to elicit such an emotional response from something so tiny and quick, and that seems so simple, but it\u2019s actually really profound. It takes so much work and skill\u2026 and now I\u2019m going off on my love for this art form, and I\u2019ve forgotten your question. [Laughs<\/em>.]<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\u2018They\u2019 dir. Ren\u00e9e Zellweger (2025).<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of EIFF<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019re absolutely right, it is profound. Edinburgh Film Festival director Paul Ridd said this was so confident and so different from what they were expecting of you. Do you think people wouldn\u2019t assume Ren\u00e9e Zellweger would have this passion for animation?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI really don\u2019t know. I guess I don\u2019t spend a lot of time wondering what people would think. [Laughs<\/em>.]<\/p>\n \n\tWhy is it titled They<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s that clich\u00e9d reference when you want to end a conversation, or in substantiating your perspective: \u201cYou know how they<\/em> are,\u201d \u201cYou know what they<\/em> say,\u201d \u201cYou know what they<\/em> do,\u201d \u201cIf only they<\/em> didn\u2019t\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s the reference. But obviously, in the messaging, we\u2019re all they. We\u2019re all contributing to this, this feeling, this experience and this moment that we\u2019re in right now, intentionally or not, just with our engagement on our phones and our responses to those messages.<\/p>\n \n\tDid it feel natural to sit in the director\u2019s chair? Would you want to do it again?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tOh, of course. I loved it. I felt really lucky working with extraordinarily talented people. I didn\u2019t even think about it really, in terms of whether or not it felt comfortable. We were just doing it. And there were certain things that, I guess at some points [that] surprised me from the experience of being on set. [I\u2019ve been] a storyteller for 30 years, so there was an instinct to know that a shot was missing or what was necessary or how it should be set up. But there were also things that I couldn\u2019t know because I haven\u2019t studied the visual medium and the art form. [I didn\u2019t know] why a particular angle would be more effective, and I learned so much from Paul and Nick and Ste, who were the lead animators on this and Michael Bayliss, who was an advisor.<\/p>\n \n\tDo you already have a nugget of what you\u2019d like to do next?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYeah, I do. Yeah. There are always ideas brewing. It\u2019s just a matter of timing, things coming together.<\/p>\n \n\tIs that in the animation world, or is that live-action? Or both?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tBoth.<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s very exciting.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s a nice thing to say. Thank you.<\/p>\n \n\tHow was getting to watch your film as a director instead of an actor?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt was really special. I don\u2019t think that I really took any time to consider it outside of the co-operative effort that it was. It\u2019s very similar in that respect, because every film feels like it\u2019s this family collab, you know? This was probably more intimate, because it was over Zooms and it was independently done. We did it because we loved it, and it was just joy. It was just this little side thing, the little project that could.<\/p>\n \n\tWe were just seeing if we could, basically. If it would work and what it would ultimately amount to in the end. It\u2019s just a shared love of the art form and wanting to dive in and explore an opportunity to play with those influences. The reference to things that we all grew up loving \u2014\u00a0those sequences for the [Pink Panther <\/em>creator] Blake Edwards films and Saul Bass\u2019s graphics. The music of the era, all of that was joyful, to go back to an increasingly rare art form with the digitization of everything now. To have something that\u2019s sort of homegrown.<\/p>\n \n\tIs the plan to take it to more festivals?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYeah, we\u2019ll see. Again, it was that thing where we sort of [made this] from the set of Bridget Jones<\/em>, in the trailer of Mad About the Boy <\/em>and in between press tours, all of that. [Laughs<\/em>.] And it felt really lovely to be in Edinburgh because it\u2019s a U.K.-based production. So it felt like the right place to debut it.<\/p>\n \n\tEdinburgh International Film Festival 2025 runs Aug. 14-20.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In her first interview as a filmmaker, Ren\u00e9e Zellweger is as gracious as ever. \u201cI don\u2019t think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself,\u201d the Oscar-winning actress tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cI always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3269,9708,2742,370,7731,9707],"class_list":{"0":"post-16342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-debut","9":"tag-directorial","10":"tag-passion","11":"tag-project","12":"tag-renee","13":"tag-zellweger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}