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6 hours ago
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Renée Zellweger Unveils Her Directorial Debut in First Interview About Hand-Drawn Animation ‘They': 'A Passion Project — That's What This Is'
In her first interview as a filmmaker, Renée Zellweger is as gracious as ever. 'I don't think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself,' the Oscar-winning actress tells The Hollywood Reporter. 'I always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit, then I'd probably love to do it and give it a shot.' Only if it felt necessary, she adds: 'Not just for the sake of having the experience, you know?' More from The Hollywood Reporter Edgar Wright, Guy Pearce, Gale Anne Hurd, Stephen Elliott Pay Tribute to "Truly Iconic" Terence Stamp: "The Most Mesmerizing Eyes" Thelma Schoonmaker on Martin Scorsese's "Remarkable" Bond With Michael Powell and Using AI to Help Publish Her Late Husband's Diaries Director Kevin Macdonald Recalls Working in "Wasteful" Era of Hollywood, Sending 'State of Play' Script to Brad Pitt: "He Said, 'I Hate It'" Texas-born Zellweger has, of course, been a star of the screen for years. She has captivated us in the likes of Jerry Maguire (1996), Chicago (2002) and more recently, the film that gave her a hard-earned second Academy Award: the Judy Garland biopic Judy, in 2021. For many audiences, however, she'll be best known as the charmingly imperfect Bridget Jones, a character she returned to earlier this year in the global box office hit Mad About the Boy. What she hasn't yet publicly spoken about is the project she worked on in between those movies. In her trailer on the Bridget Jones set, she says, and in between press tours, Zellweger and her production company Big Picture Co. were working with a group of talented animators to create a nine-minute short — Zellweger's directorial debut — titled They. In the hand-drawn 2D line animation They, which had its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on Aug. 16, a town is overrun by grumbling citizens caught in clouds of complaint. That is, until a hopeful hero and his trusty dog hatch a plan to encourage a return to better days. When things appear to catastrophically backfire, a surprising twist unites the masses in solidarity. They is a reaction to the wealth of toxicity polluting the world. Zellweger pokes fun at online conspiracy theories, a sea of hate on social media, and all-round terrible team morale among us humans at the moment. 'It's just so sad,' Zellweger tells THR, 'the decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building.' The short is also a surprisingly intimate project, sprinkled with anecdotes and gentle nods to Zellweger's personal life and the wider team's, too. A dedication at the end to Dylan, Ellie, Chester, Betty and Grady refers to the late pets of Zellweger and her producer Tora Young. In fact, animation director Paul Smith drew everyone's pets next to their names for the brilliantly crafted end credits. He worked under his production company banner Ubik with art directors Nick Loose and Ste Dalton, while Adam Minkoff served as composer and Michael Bayliss as animation consultant. The final product is one brimming with joy. 'People say 'passion project,' and that's genuinely what this is reached in,' says Zellweger. Below, she talks for the first time about They. She reveals when the idea for the film first came to her, her long-running love of animation as an art form, and what's in store next now she's had a spin in the director's chair: 'There are always ideas brewing. It's just a matter of timing and things coming together.' *** I have so many questions for you, and only a little bit of your time — so if you're happy, I'll dive right in. Of course, of course. It's the first time I've talked about it with anybody outside the project… So be patient with me! Don't worry if you need some time to think about your answers! But let's start at the beginning. How did this journey start and how long had you wanted to direct? Well, it was kind of a fluke. I don't think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself. I always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit then I'd probably love to do it and give it a shot. [Only] if it felt necessary — not just for the sake of having the experience, you know? This was just a conversation with a friend. She was unwell, and we were sat on her bed watching the afternoon news because she had a crush on the local newscaster, and we knew that she wanted to watch that every afternoon. We turned it on and it was so depressing. Her carer Jerome and I started talking about toxicity and the divisiveness and how polarized we've become as a society. This is 2018, 2019. We were thinking it's just so sad, the decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building. He said, 'Yeah, it'd be great if we felt like we were being attacked from space or something, then we'd need each other, wouldn't we?' And I laughed, and I thought, 'Oh yeah, Armageddon or Independence Day!' I started to riff on it, the idea of it. I thought, 'Oh gosh, yeah.' Could you imagine the physical manifestation of this pollution that we're creating every day? These negative messages that are bombarded [at us], that seem to be intentionally targeted, designed to make us angry. Wouldn't that be something? I told Jerome, 'I'm gonna go home and write that.' I just wanted to for an exercise. So I went and I wrote it. And then I connected with an artist friend of mine, an animator, and we started talking about it from my kitchen. I sent him a few rough sketches of what I imagined this little non-human person would look like, and it went from there. A couple of years later — it would have been just after Judy — I was speaking with my friend Tora Young. She's a producer. She was early days on the first Bridget Jones. I've known her for a really long time, and I'd forgotten that she was one of the first on the team at [U.K. studio] The Imaginarium when it was founded. And I forgot about her love of animation. We started talking about it. I'd been tinkering from my kitchen during COVID and just seeing where this would go. Initially, I was thinking it was going to be a minute or two and that it would be a muted black and white [film]. She introduced me to Paul Smith, who's better known as Erwin Saunders on his YouTube channel. [Laughs.] And it went from there. It just started to grow and the story evolved as we worked on it, because there were certain things that… I don't know how to describe it, but there were certain things that we knew were highly unlikely. So we wanted to make references to that. It's amazing how many years this film has been in the making. Well, you know, it was just for fun. I wanted to do it because I told Jerome that I was going to and I wanted to surprise him. It's taken a minute. And then it was COVID, so it was a little project that could from the living room. People say 'passion project,' and that's genuinely what this is reached in. It's just a love of the art form and how you can use it to engage in a conversation without being offensive. It really is so good. The music, the end credits poking fun at what comes up on our screens these days. And there is optimism in your story — is that something you wanted to convey? Oh, yeah, absolutely. But without being twee. [Laughs.] Because you always hope, right? You hope. What I found really interesting yesterday was that I guess another couple of projects [premiering at Edinburgh] began during COVID and it's just because animation takes a while. Obviously, it's really involved in terms of the hours it takes to create [and] the work that you put into it. They is hand-drawn. It's hand-painted, hand-drawn 2D line animation, which I've been a fan of forever. I used to seek out animation festivals when I was at university. I lived in a dormitory that was on top of an independent movie theater, and they would host these festivals and these shorts would come through town, and I'd go back again and again. I just love it. I love the messaging. I love the capacity to elicit such an emotional response from something so tiny and quick, and that seems so simple, but it's actually really profound. It takes so much work and skill… and now I'm going off on my love for this art form, and I've forgotten your question. [Laughs.] You're absolutely right, it is profound. Edinburgh Film Festival director Paul Ridd said this was so confident and so different from what they were expecting of you. Do you think people wouldn't assume Renée Zellweger would have this passion for animation? I really don't know. I guess I don't spend a lot of time wondering what people would think. [Laughs.] Why is it titled ? It's that clichéd reference when you want to end a conversation, or in substantiating your perspective: 'You know how they are,' 'You know what they say,' 'You know what they do,' 'If only they didn't…' That's the reference. But obviously, in the messaging, we're all they. We're all contributing to this, this feeling, this experience and this moment that we're in right now, intentionally or not, just with our engagement on our phones and our responses to those messages. Did it feel natural to sit in the director's chair? Would you want to do it again? Oh, of course. I loved it. I felt really lucky working with extraordinarily talented people. I didn't even think about it really, in terms of whether or not it felt comfortable. We were just doing it. And there were certain things that, I guess at some points [that] surprised me from the experience of being on set. [I've been] a storyteller for 30 years, so there was an instinct to know that a shot was missing or what was necessary or how it should be set up. But there were also things that I couldn't know because I haven't studied the visual medium and the art form. [I didn't know] why a particular angle would be more effective, and I learned so much from Paul and Nick and Ste, who were the lead animators on this and Michael Bayliss, who was an advisor. Do you already have a nugget of what you'd like to do next? Yeah, I do. Yeah. There are always ideas brewing. It's just a matter of timing, things coming together. Is that in the animation world, or is that live-action? Or both? Both. That's very exciting. That's a nice thing to say. Thank you. How was getting to watch your film as a director instead of an actor? It was really special. I don't think that I really took any time to consider it outside of the co-operative effort that it was. It's very similar in that respect, because every film feels like it's this family collab, you know? This was probably more intimate, because it was over Zooms and it was independently done. We did it because we loved it, and it was just joy. It was just this little side thing, the little project that could. We were just seeing if we could, basically. If it would work and what it would ultimately amount to in the end. It's just a shared love of the art form and wanting to dive in and explore an opportunity to play with those influences. The reference to things that we all grew up loving — those sequences for the [Pink Panther creator] Blake Edwards films and Saul Bass's graphics. The music of the era, all of that was joyful, to go back to an increasingly rare art form with the digitization of everything now. To have something that's sort of homegrown. Is the plan to take it to more festivals? Yeah, we'll see. Again, it was that thing where we sort of [made this] from the set of Bridget Jones, in the trailer of Mad About the Boy and in between press tours, all of that. [Laughs.] And it felt really lovely to be in Edinburgh because it's a U.K.-based production. So it felt like the right place to debut it. Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 runs Aug. 14-20. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 25 Best U.S. Film Schools in 2025 The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Solve the daily Crossword
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6 hours ago
- Entertainment
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‘Adolescence' Star Owen Cooper Reveals the Scene So Difficult He Couldn't Bear to Do It
July 15, the day Owen Cooper became the youngest-ever Emmy nominee for outstanding supporting actor in a limited series/movie, was just a regular school day for the Adolescence star, who had a grueling 90-minute wait after the final bell rang for the nominations to be announced at 8:30 a.m. on the West Coast in the U.S. 'I was just in my living room and then everyone rung me and said that I'd been nominated,' the 15-year-old British actor told The Hollywood Reporter that morning, having not yet had a chance to watch the news for himself. 'It got spoiled for me…which is a bit annoying.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Edgar Wright, Guy Pearce, Gale Anne Hurd, Stephen Elliott Pay Tribute to "Truly Iconic" Terence Stamp: "The Most Mesmerizing Eyes" Kaitlyn Dever "Couldn't Watch" Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey's Final Moment in 'The Last of Us': "I Don't Know How You Guys Did That" Thelma Schoonmaker on Martin Scorsese's "Remarkable" Bond With Michael Powell and Using AI to Help Publish Her Late Husband's Diaries Cooper's Emmy nomination came for his portrayal of 13-year-old Jamie Miller, a schoolboy who develops an extreme aggression toward women that leads to heartbreaking consequences for him and his family, in the Jack Thorne- and Stephen Graham-created Netflix series. Jamie, viewers later learn in episode three's tense standoff between the teen and child psychologist Briony Ariston (portrayed by Erin Doherty), was rejected by the young girl, and because of that interaction and the influence of red-pill podcasts and other misogynistic digital media, develops a strong aggression toward women. Cooper chatted with THR about his schoolmates' reaction to the series, its takeaways for parents — particularly in the final scene of episode four — and the A-listers he's looking forward to meeting on the Emmys campaign trail. What's it been like going back to school while promoting the series? Well, my friends haven't changed, but the first day back [after it premiered] was just madness, really. It's perfectly fine now, but there's still a few idiots in year eight…the kids who are like three years below me, they're just annoying. What have you heard from your peers about the series and its commentary on young boys and how they're influenced by online culture? I obviously knew about young lads going out and stabbing people, but I didn't know it to that extent — and the bullying online. I'm very lucky to never have been bullied online and I don't bully anyone online. I've never come across that at my school, not in my year group.… Everyone is aware of knife crime in the U.K., and when Adolescence came out, it hit a lot of homes. What did preparation look like with this being your first big role? When [Philip Barantini, the director] said that it was all shot in one shot, I thought he was just talking about one scene or one episode, but he meant all four episodes would be shot in one shot, and I just felt really weird about it. I was so excited about doing [the series], and then when he said that, I was so nervous. As soon as I got the script, I went up in my room, highlighted it all, and then stayed up until about 1 in the morning [rehearsing] it. I didn't want to be that person that messed it up and made us start over from the beginning, which I'm so very lucky never happened. I didn't prepare mentally for the role; I prepared the script. I was nervous about not being able to pull it off because we filmed episode three first, and I was going through the script, and I was waiting for my lines to end because they were just going on and on and on. I almost cried that I had that many lines. (Laughs.) Mentally, I struggled with it a lot because, obviously, I'm nowhere near Jamie at all. And the bit where I'm standing over Erin saying, 'What was that, what was that?' in rehearsals, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I hated every second of it. It just wasn't in my comfort zone whatsoever, but I got used to it by the end. When filming ended, did you feel like you were able to let this role go or did Jamie stay with you for a little while? No, Jamie didn't. I'm glad that he didn't stay with me because he's not the best person. Before 'action' and after 'cut,' I was back to myself. Stephen was telling me that it takes him about five minutes to get back to his normal self, but with me, in episode three when I'm banging on the window and then I leave, as soon as I got out that door, my chaperone was standing there with a bottle of water. In episode one, it was a little bit different because when I'm in the cell and the camera's not on me, I stay in the character all the way from action to cut, but after cut, I'm perfectly fine. What do you make of the ending of and how things turn out for Jamie and his family? I was only in a small bit of that, but that's my favorite episode. If I was to watch the show, I would just watch episode four because I love everything about it. The very last scene [when Jamie's dad tucks his teddy bear into his bed], it's so sad, but that's my favorite scene in the whole show. I think Stephen and Christine [Tremarco] and Amélie [Pease] were just amazing. The ending was brilliant and everything that led up to it. I think [the series] was formatted really well, where the first episode was about the arrest, and then the second episode was the impact it had on the school. The third episode was the impact it had on Jamie, and then the fourth episode was the impact it had on the family. I think the fourth episode was most important because it shows parents that they need to talk to their kids; don't make them lonely. What has your team told you to prepare for during the Emmy campaign? Well, we only spoke very shortly before this [interview], so I don't really know what to prepare for. I just know that I go in there, meet loads of people, eat loads of food and have a good night, really. I genuinely can't wait to go meet all those people. Anyone in particular you're hoping to meet? Jake Gyllenhaal — he's my favorite actor of all time — Pedro Pascal, Gary Oldman. There's loads of names. What sorts of roles are you interested in taking on after this? I don't really focus on certain roles that I'd like to do. I just want to work with brilliant actors and directors. People like Tom Holland and the big, famous actors, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Jake Gyllenhaal — obviously — Hugh Jackman, those sorts of people. This story appeared in the Aug. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix Unveils First Look at Louis Partridge, James Norton, Emily Fairn and Anthony Boyle in ‘House of Guinness,' Sets September Launch Date
Netflix has unveiled the key art and first-look images of its cast for House of Guinness. Louis Partridge, Anthony Boyle, Emily Fairn, Fionn O'Shea and James Norton star in the new show from Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight — airing Sept. 25 on the streamer — about one of Europe's most enduring dynasties. More from The Hollywood Reporter Edgar Wright, Guy Pearce, Gale Anne Hurd, Stephen Elliott Pay Tribute to "Truly Iconic" Terence Stamp: "The Most Mesmerizing Eyes" Thelma Schoonmaker on Martin Scorsese's "Remarkable" Bond With Michael Powell and Using AI to Help Publish Her Late Husband's Diaries 'Adolescence' Star Owen Cooper Reveals the Scene So Difficult He Couldn't Bear to Do It Set in 19th-century Dublin and New York, the story begins immediately after the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the man responsible for the extraordinary success of the Guinness brewery, and the far-reaching impact of his will on the fate of his four adult children, Arthur (Boyle), Edward (Partridge), Anne (Fairn) and Ben (O'Shea), as well as on a group of Dublin characters who work and interact with the phenomenon that is Guinness. The star-studded cast also includes Dervla Kirwan (True Detective: Night Country), Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones), Niamh McCormack (Everything Now), Danielle Galligan (Shadow and Bone), Ann Skelly (The Nevers), Seamus O'Hara (Blue Lights), Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones), David Wilmot (Station Eleven), Michael Colgan (Say Nothing), Jessica Reynolds (Kneecap), Hilda Fay (The Woman in the Wall) and Elizabeth Dulau (Andor). From Kudos (part of Banijay U.K.) and Nebulastar, House of Guiness is executive produced by Karen Wilson, Elinor Day, Steven Knight, Martin Haines, Tom Shankland and Ivana Lowell, and produced by Cahal Bannon and Howard Burch. Tom Shankland and Mounia Akl split the directing duties. See below the first images from Netflix for House of Guinness. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
