Renee Zellweger

THE UNKNOWN WHO ONCE HAD MOVIEGOERS SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS SAYING "WHO?" IS NOW HEARING HERSELF COMPARED TO THE LIKES OF DE NIRO AND MONROE. BUT ZELLWEGER'S NOTHING IF NOT HER OWN WOMAN. SINGER-SONGWRITER PETE YORN FINDS OUT MORE

As the relatively unknown actress anointed to star opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire [1996], Renee Zellweger had audiences stumbling over her name. But in the ensuing seven years, Zellweger hasn't become one of the biggest actresses in Hollywood--earning multiple Best Actress Oscar nominations and starring in a string of critical and commercial successes--on luck alone. With her unerring sense of self and high premium on maintaining her identity, not to mention her superb talents and fondness for risky business (a Texan playing Bridget Jones? an untrained singer and dancer in a movie musical?), she's become a great big movie star by staying true to that unknown girl from Katy, Texas. Here, she talks with one of her favorite rock stars, Pete Yorn.

PETE YORN: Say your name for the record.

RENEE ZELLWEGER: No! [both laugh]

PY: State your name! [both laugh]

RZ: That's mean!

PY: All right. Now, I'm going to be bouncing all over the place here. Ready? This is something I've been wondering about: In order to get into a character, do you draw more inspiration from internal sources or external cues?

RZ: It's both. It always changes. It's what's happening on that day and trying to understand the scenario and where that person might be coming from; what the truth in the situation is.

PY: Say you're going to go into a room and feel sad. Do you think about the character, or do you think of something that made you sad years ago, like your great-uncle passing away?

RZ: The Method thing?

PY: Yeah.

RZ: I don't know.

PY: You don't know? So it's just kind of whatever's going to help you at the time?

RZ: Yeah. Just trying to be present.

PY: What do you like to do when you get a break on set?

RZ: There are no breaks-that's a misconception. It's funny because [when you're shooting] the DP [Director of Photography] will say, "Okay, you guys can go relax," and I'm thinking, I don't know where you work but here there is no downtime. There's keeping your concentration, there's preparing for the next scene, and there are people constantly knocking on your door: "Can we fit this for tomorrow?" or "I wanted to ask you about this." There's a lot of mental work that goes on even if you're not actually standing on set. For example, if you've had a morning in which you had to do a lot emotionally and then you break for lunch, it's easier to just stay in that frame of mind than it is to go throw the football and then try to get back to where you were before.

PY: Okay. Do you sleep well?

RZ: Sometimes.

PY: More often than not?

RZ: No, I'd say the other way around. I don't sleep well because I'm busy. And I travel so much that my body clock gets askew. I don't fight it anymore-I just sleep when I can. And when I was in Romania [filming Cold Mountain] I was watching the news-the German news, Romanian news

and the BBC-and it would keep me up. It was disconcerting to watch what was going on in Europe and have there be no reports of it in the United States. Or, on the flip side, things were happening in the U.S. that Americans weren't hearing about. For example, the largest peace protest in United States history since Vietnam took place in October in San Francisco, and I called home to Los Angeles and said, "Isn't that unbelievable?" and my friends had no idea what I was talking about. Or I would lie in bed reading Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, which got my blood pressure soaring-not a good idea. That's a breakfast read. [laughs]

PY: Do you watch TV before you go to sleep?

RZ: I don't watch TV at all right now, because it's either reality shows or it's the real reality, which makes me wonder: What is the truth in politics and the world today? I've sort of had to wash my hands of it, but I'm torn, actually. Because it's your duty, really, in a democracy to be active and participate, ask questions, read, but it's so frustrating. It's like being the kid in math class who's looking at the problem and feels that there are a couple of variables missing, and ultimately walks away because no matter how he tries to put it together, it doesn't make sense.

PY: What else do you do before sleeping?

RZ: It depends....I like to walk around a lot. I went through a phase where I had to rearrange my furniture. That ended when I dropped the piano bench on my toe before filming Chicago. [laughs Then I decided the furniture was just fine where it was. Sometimes I'll sit by the fire and play the guitar. Now it's about the piano.

PY: Do you play?

RZ: I'm teaching myself. So I'll do that. And then I'll take a book upstairs and turn on NPR and read. Kiss the cat. Kiss the dog.

PY: Who are some of your favorite writers?

RZ: I love Langston Hughes. I love Alain de Botton, A. Scott Berg. I like African-American literature because there's a musicality to it and a history behind it. There's depth to it. There's nothing frivolous about it. And there's a beautiful melancholy, but it's always musical. I love that, especially with Langston Hughes. I like Southern writers, like Charles Frazier [Cold Mountain] because I recognize the geography.