Years after the whole “plastic-surgery kerfuffle” that plagued Renée Zellweger in 2014, the actress is speaking out about how the whole thing made her feel.
Spoiler: it’s not happy.
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If there’s one emotion Renée Zellweger has felt about all those plastic surgery rumors, it’s sad.
The What/If actress has been accused of going under the knife several times throughout her career, but it was her appearance at the 2014 Elle Women in Hollywood Awards that really got people talking.
At the event, the actress looked unrecognizable.
This led to her face becoming the subject of many ruthless memes and tweets online.
Owen Gleiberman, a film critic, even published a widely-criticized essay, detailing how her face has changed over the years.
“The most toxic thing about “having work done” is the feeling it can create that someone doesn’t look dramatically different from the way they looked before so much as they look…less. Less vivid, less distinctive, less there,” he wrote .
Two years after all of the backlash, Renée penned her feelings out in an essay for The Huffington Post.
The highly speculated essay, titled ” We Can Do Better ” called for less scrutiny on celebs.
She also denied having any plastic surgery done.
“Not that it’s anyone’s business,” she wrote.
“But I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes.”
Given the fact that it’s no one’s business, she went on to criticize the media for putting so much emphasis on celebrities’ appearances.
“This fact is of no true import to anyone at all, but that the possibility alone was discussed among respected journalists and became a public conversation is a disconcerting illustration of news/entertainment confusion and society’s fixation on physicality.”
Now, in 2019, Renée is standing by those statements she made in 2016.
She recently spoke about plastic surgery rumors in an interview with New York Magazine .
She even addressed how plastic surgery is a difficult subject to talk about when the reporter was reluctant to ask her about 2014.
“Because it probably gives you a stomachache, asking me about that, doesn’t it?” she asked the reporter.
When the reporter said that it’s a difficult topic, she said, “Well, because there’s a value judgment that’s placed on us. As if it somehow is a reflection of your character — whether you’re a good person or a weak person or an authentic person.”
The reporter brought up the panic people felt in 2014 when she suddenly didn’t look like herself.
“And the implication that I somehow needed to change what was going on because it wasn’t working,” she said.
“That makes me sad. I don’t look at beauty in that way. And I don’t think of myself in that way. I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter mix of things.”
“It enables me to do what I do. I don’t want to be something else. I got hired in my blue jeans and cowboy boots with my messy hair.”
She continued: “I started working like that. I didn’t have to change to work. So why was I suddenly trying to fit into some mold that didn’t belong to me?”
“Nothing like international humiliation to set your perspective, right?” the Bridget Jones’s Diary actress said.
“It clarifies what’s important to you.”
“And it shakes off any sort of clingy superficiality … that you didn’t have time for anyway.”
Thankfully, the actress has lots to keep her mind off any sadness she feels since her career is making a major comeback.
She’s playing Judy Garland in the upcoming biopic about the actress and she has her show on Netflix called What/If .
Beyond that, there’s so much more over the horizon — or over the rainbow — for this actress.
Judy hits theatres on September 27.
