Renée Zellweger says she walked a half-mile to the 2020 Oscars to 'be grounded'

The 2020 Academy Awards yielded Renée Zellweger both an Oscar and one heck of a workout.

Appearing on The Tonight Show to promote her new NBC limited series The Thing About Pam, the actress gave host Jimmy Fallon some interesting details about how she got ready for the night she won Best Actress for playing Judy Garland in Judy.

"I want to be grounded when I go in. I just want to get in touch with my family, talk to my mom and dad and my brother and do things that keep you grounded before you go in," she explained. "So I have a couple of rituals and things that I like to do before I go. I like to walk. I don't like to get in the car with the long limo ride."

Surprised, the host had Zellweger clarify that she does in fact walk to the Oscars, which was hard to pull off in 2020 when "the only hotel room that was available was a half a mile away."

The actress joked she was wearing heels taller than the ones she had on for the late-night interview, but cautioned, "I don't recommend it. But it is a good exercise for keeping you grounded." She adds, "It was raining that night so I was extra grounded when I got there."

Zellweger said that part of the reason she likes to walk to the awards show is to avoid the commotion at the entrance. "I don't like getting out and it's all crazy and people screaming and stuff, so I sneak in," she explained.

Laying out the final steps of her sneaky entrance into Oscar night, the actress says, "All the people come out and they stand and they're looking at the red carpet, so I come in behind all the people. Yeah, I sneak in behind all of them."

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