Renée Zellweger is a remarkable talent, since breakout roles in Hollywood during the mid-1990s. Roles from Jerry Maguire to Me, Myself and Irene secured her A-list status even before her Bridget Jones’ fame.
However, since a red carpet event in 2014, Renée has been receiving an awful amount of attention and speculation over her appearance – with critics arguing her looks have changed significantly in the last few years.
The most notable was a recent open letter by Variety's critic Owen Gleiberman, which was titled 'Renee Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?' He was referring to her portrayal as Bridget Jones in the trailer for 'Bridget Jone's Baby' (out in cinema's on the 15th September 2016){
Gleiberman wrote: ‘Watching the trailer, I didn't stare at the actress and think: She doesn't look like Renée Zellweger. I thought: She doesn't look like Bridget Jones! Oddly, that made it matter more.'
'Celebrities, like anyone else, have the right to look however they want, but the characters they play become part of us. I suddenly felt like something had been taken away.’
But the bigger questions today remain: A) Why does it matter? B) Why do you care? C) What is it with talented women in the industry having the focus shoved away from their hard work and achievements?
People naturally rose to fight Renée's defence, including actress and Songwriter Rose McGowanwho blasted Gleiberman in an open letter for The Hollywood Reporter
'Renée Zellweger is a human being, with feelings, with a life, with love and with triumphs and struggles, just like the rest of us. How dare you use her as a punching bag in your mistaken attempt to make a mark at your new job.'
'How dare you bully a woman who has done nothing but tries to entertain people like you. Her crime, according to you, is growing older in a way you don’t approve of. Who are you to approve of anything?'.
But now Renée, 47, has finally broken her silence on the matter and has responded in an open letter to the Huffington Post:
'I am not writing today because I have been publicly bullied or because the value of my work has been questioned by a critic whose ideal physical representation of a fictional character originated 16 years ago, over which he feels ownership, I no longer meet.'
The actress then addressed the rumours that she had an eye-lift in October, 2014...
'Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I did not make a decision to alter my face and have surgery on my eyes. 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.'
Read the Bridget Jone's actress's full letter here, which criticises the tabloids fixation with criticising women's appearances.
This comes just a few weeks after Jennifer Anniston's powerful letter, 'For the record' which spoke about warped beauty standards and the 'shaming' of childless women.
It seems we still have a long way to go in achieving gender-equality in the media (and society as a whole, for that matter). As Renée very poignantly named her essay 'We CAN do better.'
**READ MORE: Jennifer Aniston Shares Heartbreak With A Fan **
READ MORE: Jennifer Aniston Blasts 'Warped Standards Of Beauty' In Powerful Essay