3 Bridget Jones, 3 Furious
Renee Zellweger may end up in a fat suit for Bridget Jones 3, if there is one. She doesn’t want to gain that weight again.
“Can I just tell you my body is whacked by the time we finish one of those,” the actress confessed. “It doesn’t know what has happened because it thinks there’s supposed to be a baby and there’s no christening.”
Yet it was another film that put the scare in her — the documentary “Super Size Me.” “I had a panic attack with all the specialists talking about how bad this is for you, long term, putting on that much weight in short periods of time and they’re all saying, ‘You must stop this now or you’re going to die.’”
I have to say, although the headline had me raising my eyebrows, I’m actually sympathetic to her on this one. She’s gaining and losing a significant percentage of her body weight very rapidly. Although she maybe could calm down and not lose so much so quickly that she turns into a skeleton, the fact remains that her set point/comfort level/natural body shape/whatever you want to call it is thin. And also, if she’s gaining the weight (as she reports) on junk food, that’s not going to feel good to anybody. If you went on an all-junk-food-diet, I bet your body would react badly too. I don’t know, I don’t even like Squintyface, but I’m kind of understanding where she’s coming from. What do you guys think?
Thanks to Underpaid Princess for the link!
Oh, and by the way, for those of you who noticed that posting was lighter than usual, I’ll try to make it up to you by posting extra this week. My two day jobs got crazy for a while there.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Meta, Renee Zelwegger
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I actually did a post a few months ago about thin actresess being cast as larger characters and donning fat suits or gaining weight instead of casting plus sizzed actresses (http://devi42.livejournal.com/35735.html).
From the post: There are the actresses who gain the requisite twenty pounds and play the hell out of a part – making me love them even while wishing there was a bit more to love. How could anyone else play Kaylee from Firefly or Rose from In Her Shoes? How could anyone other than Renée Zellweger play Bridget Jones?
If it’s a choice between fat suit Renée and no Renée at all, sadly, I’m going to go with the fat suit. Of course, after the mess that was BJ2 (compared to the book), I’m hoping they just leave well enough alone.
I think they could have gotten a chubby woman to play her in the first place… although she is very good in the role. Definately the rapid weight gain followed by the rapid weight loss is unhealthy, so I do understand that. But I don’t think you can say for sure whether her natural body weight is thin, or whether she consistently diets herself below her natural body weight. I think her size in the first Bridget Jones movie looked more natural on her than her current very thin weight, although it’s really impossible to say for sure.
It’s just not a good thing to yo-yo like that definitely. It’s too bad they can’t come up with a different Bridget, though. Like, perhaps, an actual British actress.
What’s really too bad about this is that they expect a thin actress to either gain weight or wear a fat suit to play a fat woman instead of using a naturally fat actress. THAT is what sucks big time about Hollyweird. It’s okay to ask an actress to chance compromising her health because they are all fat-phobic asshats who refuse to give talented fat actresses a chance to shine.
(This is only marginally on-topic, but can someone tell me why they made the Bridget Jones character “fat” in the movie? Because in the book, she stays within 6 pounds of 125 throughout – slender for an average-height woman.
In the book she’s *neurotic* about weight, not heavy – it’s a running joke that she panics literally every time she gains a pound. I could say some fraught things about the meaning of transforming that neurotic mindset into “overweight” for the screen, I could… but does anyone know why they did this?)
Jaed – I’ve wondered about that myself, actually. Because you’re right, even in the second book, when I guess she weighs a little more than in the first, it’s like what? 5-10 more pounds? Why did Renee Zellweger have to gain 40 pounds to represent the 5-10 pounds her character was supposed to have gained?
I have to say, as a slight tangent – over and over lately I find myself thinking about how the Bridget Jones novels are more on-target about what the cultural attitude toward weight really is than I think the author intended or maybe even realized.
jaed–
When playing “fat” Bridget Jones, Zellweger was at about 130 in the movie–just what Bridget was in the book.
All part of the manipulation of public perception re: what constitutes “fat” or “thin”.
okay, I’m curious about the Kaylee from firefly thing-she isn’t that fat, is she? but maybe that’s more distortion. I do have to say I can’t get too mad at anyone for not wanting to yoyo their weight. as people have previously said, it’s not healthy, regardless of where they’re starting and stopping.
In the book, when she does get down to her dream weight, everyone thinks she’s too thin (I know! A woman whose ideal weight is both unrealistic and unhealthy! Remember, this is fiction.)
I think Renee looked better when she was “fat” in the first movie (haven’t seen the second). I can understand not wanting to yo-yo. I guess it just bothers me that she was considered “fat” at that weight, and that after weighing 130 the first thing expected of her is to lose it all ASAP. But I am sure she wants to continue working, so what do you do?
And I have to say…”Squintyface” had me rolling!
She’s really not. When Joss Wheadon gave Jewel Staite the roll of Kaylee for Firefly on the condition that she gained 20 pounds (I’m not sure the exact reasoning behind this though she did look healthier and sexier, imo).
By the time the movie had been greenlighted, she had lost the weight and was told that it was alright if she didn’t gain it back.
Karna> In one of the Firefly DVD extras, the actor who plays Kaylee said that Joss Whedon asked her to gain ten pounds so she’d look more girl-next-door than Hollywood starlet.
I can actually answer that, because my sister worked on Firefly and she gave me the pilot script. Kaylee was envisioned/described as a sensuous and “voluptuous” character. I was excited when I read the script, and a little disappointed that they didn’t actually cast what, in my head, as I was reading the script, I was expecting. A little trivia for you there!
I wonder if they didn’t want to cast someone who would overshadow Inara? I loved Kaylee’s character, the fact that she was so healthy and happy, and a genuine love interest even though she was “Hollywood fat” It does remind me of the Wizard of Oz, where they had Judy Garland gain quite a bit of weight between the first shootings and the final product so that she would look more “girl next door”. I wonder if that’s just a euphemism for looking like a normal human being instead of an artificial fantasy creation? I adore Firefly, you’re so lucky to have gotten the pilot! :-)
Personally I love Bridget’s “wobbly bits”. I do wish that they’d actually given the initial role to someone a little heavier, but hey, I really think that these two movies are some of my favorite of Renee Z’s work. Normally I really don’t care for her, something about her overly squinty eyes makes me uneasy when I see her. I’m so pleased that other people have noticed and marked her as squinty… THANKS, MO!! (“Squintyface”, indeed. HA!)
Why did Renee Zellweger have to gain 40 pounds to represent the 5-10 pounds her character was supposed to have gained?
Well, she started out at 30 pounds below an average weight woman like Bridget, gained the 30 pounds for the first movie, and then went back down to her below average weight. So to be 10 pounds heavier than in the first movie, she had to gain the 30 pounds back, plus 10 more.
The really insane thing? Bridget Jones is not even fat. The character weighs 136 at her highest in the films, IIRC. NOT FAT.
Oh, and a Texan playing the British Bridget is just payback for Vivien Leigh playing the ultimate Southern belle, Scarlett O’Hara ^_^
Didn’t Renee wear a fat suit for some of the BJ2 scenes? I remember watching a particular scene with her in an ugly jumper and thinking that the latex double chins looked really, really fake and offensive.
I pretty much agree with you. I hate the whole weight gain/loss thing people do for parts.. why can’t they cast someone who fits the part better? It’s usually so unhealthy.. but I guess that’s part of being an actor. Still, you wouldn’t find me doing anything drastic just to play a part. Why put your health at risk like that? What, to make money? Please!
thanks for the answers
It does seem unreasonable for her to gain the weight and then lose it again repeatedly.
I don’t want her to wear a fat suit but yes, I see what she is saying. It’s just not healthy to gain and lose that much weight in a short period of time. And she is a very petite person so she probably did notice the extra weight. Plus, I read an interview where she said that she didn’t really gain the weight in a healthy way since she didn’t have much time. A bunch of Hershey bars is not a great way to put on pounds.
I do have to say though…I thought she looked really cute and healthy as Bridget Jones. I know it probably didn’t feel normal to her but she looked great!
Please don’t call her Squintyface. Renee’s mother is of Sami origin (indigenous people of Norway), which means that Renee has the narrow eyes and prominent cheekbones that go along with it.
To actually be on topic – Renee was slender but not bony in Empire Records, and I think that’s what she probably looks like normally. Seeing her go from Bridget Jones to Chicago, when you could see her sternum? That was scary.