Over the past several years, Renee Zellweger has been the target of cruel attacks and criticism over her appearance but now she’s had enough.
The 47-year-old actress has penned a powerful essay for The Huffington Post where she calls out the media over the constant plastic surgery rumours and their vile treatment of not only her but other female celebrities, calling out Hollywood’s ridiculous double standards.
“I am lucky. Choosing a creative life and having the opportunity to do satisfying work that is sometimes meaningful is a blessed existence and worth the price paid in the subsequent challenges of public life,” she writes. “Sometimes it means resigning to humiliation, and other times, understanding when silence perpetuates a bigger problem.”
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Plastic surgery rumours flared up again most recently when the new trailer for her upcoming film Bridget Jones Baby came out. She began the essay by directly referencing an article written in June for Variety by critic Owen Gleiberman titled, “Renee Zellweger: if she no longer looks like herself, has she become a different actress?”
“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,” she says. “I’m writing because to be fair to myself, I must make some claim on the truths of my life, and because witnessing the transmutation of tabloid fodder from speculation to truth is deeply troubling. The ‘eye surgery’ tabloid story itself did not matter, but it became the catalyst for my inclusion in subsequent legitimate news stories about self-acceptance and women succumbing to social pressure to look and age a certain way. In my opinion, that tabloid speculations become the subject of mainstream news reporting does matter.”
In the vicouous Variety article, Gleiberman seemed to take personal offence to the actress’ appearance, writing: “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. I just hope it turns out to be a movie that stars Renée Zellweger rather than a victim of ‘Invasion of the Face Snatchers.'”
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Renee went on to lament the level of media attention such stories receive when there are so many more important things happening around the world.
“Maybe we could talk more about why we seem to collectively share an appetite for witnessing people diminished and humiliated with attacks on appearance and character and how it impacts younger generations and struggles for equality, and about how legitimate news media have become vulnerable to news/entertainment ambiguity, which dangerously paves the way for worse fictions to flood the public consciousness to much greater consequence. Maybe we could talk more about our many true societal challenges and how we can do better.”
Renee’s words are reminiscent of Jennifer Aniston’s essay she wrote back in July, titled, ‘For The Record’.
Read the full essay here.
