Renee Zellweger is “glad” folks think she looks different.
The 45-year-old “Bridget Jones” actress stunned audiences with a dramatic new look at Monday’s Elle Women in Hollywood Awards in Beverly Hills.
“I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows,” Zellweger told People on Tuesday.
“My friends say that I look peaceful,” she added. “I am healthy. For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.”
Having turned over a new leaf in her life with boyfriend Doyle Bramhall, Zellweger says she’s now doing more rewarding work. “I did work that allows for being still, making a home, loving someone, learning new things, growing as a creative person and finally growing into myself.”
Zellweger, whose last film was 2010’s “My Own Love Song,” says folks don’t know her in her 40s. “People don’t know me [as] healthy for a while,” she added. “Perhaps I look different. Who doesn’t as they get older?! Ha. But I am different. I am happy.”
When asked why she’s even addressing the “silly” chatter about her appearance, she said, “It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth which doesn’t exist won’t get off my porch until I answer the door.”