Happy 50th to Renée Zellweger
Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 11:51PM by Eric Blume
It seems crazy, but today marks the 50th birthday of Oscar-winning actress Renée Zellweger. Zellweger is a bit of a divisive actor (even within this site!), but I loved her the second I first saw her onscreen, loved her through her big decade of success, and will proudly love her forever.
I fell for Zellweger for the first time the way most of America did: as assistant Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire in 1996. Even though that film features Cruise’s best performance (he should have beat Geoffrey Rush for the Oscar), I walked away from Jerry Maguire thinking, who the hell is Renée Zellweger? It takes major presence and considerable skill to not be blown off the screen by a star like Cruise at his most commanding. Not only did Zellweger hold her own, she brought out new things in him: a comic warmth, a quality of genuineness, something softer and more open. He listened to her and didn’t anticipate everything, because she was off-center...