Whenever I see the trailers or promotional photos for any of Renee Zellweger’s projects from the past few years, I end up feeling sort of sad. Like, Renee Zellweger 2000-2005 was the sh-t. She was doing quality film after quality film, getting nominated for (and winning) Golden Globes and SAGs and Oscars. And then at some point, there was just some profound shift with her career. I don’t even think it was about “well, Renee was at the age where the scripts dried up.” She was always talented enough to work in a variety of projects, comedy, drama, film, television, whatever. Then there was her relationship with Bradley Cooper, and there were literally years where we barely heard about her or only gossiped about her occasionally in relation to Bradley and it was just… weird.
In any case, Renee has been making a comeback over the past few years. None of the projects has felt very high-quality, but at least she’s working and she’s available for work. When I saw the first photos from Judy, Renee’s starring role as late-in-life Judy Garland, I was… not pleased. It felt like it was going to be a very soap-opera Lifetime-movie take on Judy Garland’s last years. Well, now the second trailer – the full-length trailer has come out and…
My first issue is that she still sounds too much like Renee and not enough like Judy. That being said, they got some talented wig people and makeup artists, so that’s a plus. A minus: God this seems depressing. Judy was just such a mess at this point in her life and it definitely feels exploitative, probably because the real Judy was exploited so many times in her life and in death. Also: was it a mistake to allow Renee to sing all of Judy’s songs? Should they use Judy’s old recordings instead?
Poster & promotional still from ‘Judy’.
I like Renee, but I agree with you, Kaiser. It just feels wrong and exploitative. Also, while I prefer when actors can themselves sing, Judy’s voice was so distinctive that having Renee sing herself takes me out of seeing Judy to just seeing Renee in Judy Garland cosplay.
Judy could also belt a song out or use that distinctive tremulo of hers. Renée doesn’t have that kind of range, and without it, she’s a pale imitation. To be fair, I don’t know of anyone who could pull off Judy Garland except for a couple of fabulous drag queens I’ve seen.
And Liza, of course.
If you love Judy Garland’s voice like I do-it’s hard to hear Renee sing because Judy was a force of nature. I was hoped the movie would have Judy’s voice because those recordings are amazing but I guess not.
That was my reaction, too. No disrespect for Renee, but Judy was a powerhouse vocalist.
I’m sensing the movie will put forth the idea that Judy’s vocal abilities by ’68-’69 might have been impacted by years of bad habits – was she a smoker?
I’m trying to find YT clips of Judy’s London performance. The one I’m listening to right now doesn’t reflect the powerhouse of her early 60’s Carnegie Hall performance. But the audio is kind of fuzzy. I need to keep looking. She had such a gift – I hate, hate, hate the way the studio bosses treated her
I believe the health issues she had stemmed from the studio bosses who gave her barbiturates to keep her weight down early in her career. She also had the worst stage mom in history which made what the studio bosses did easy-she was on their side not Judy’s. She was always dealing with that to some degree, from what I remember, the voice was always there, it was her body’s ability to keep up with her performing schedule while being addicted to drugs and possibly alcohol eventually took it’s toll. Judy didn’t sing with her diaphragm, she sang with her whole body-everything. They simply worked her to death. One of the worst cases of mismanaged talent I’ve ever seen.
What happened to her?! It’s true that she was at the top of her career when she suddenly disappeared. I wonder if the body changes for Bridget Jones took a toll on her… And then she comes back in the news because she got eyelid surgery (whatever the name of the procedure is) and everyone made fun of her. Was she depressed? Did she have her heart broken? Really curious here for some reason because she gives off sad and depressed vibes. This film is the nail on the coffin it seems.
I don’t think people made fun of her for having the surgery, it was for denying that she had done any work on her memorable face. She was asking the public to ignore what their own eyes and brains were telling them. Like a Trumpian move! It would have a minor issue had she said simply said, she had minor surgery to her eye area for personal reasons. It was seriously a crazy town of denial so yeah perhaps she had developed some medical brain/mental issues.
I remember reading about how unrecognisable she was before she said anything, which made her reaction to these articles even more surreal. But people were definitely making fun of her before – saying how stupid she was for having done that since her eyes were one of her trademark features, etc. It all escalated quite fast and then she disappeared again.
I think her script-picker is off. Her mini-series on Netflix was just – not good. It felt very ‘made for TV. I was really disappointed. Don’t think I’m eager to see this…
Renee is a great actress so I think the she will do a great job. Also I’m okay with her singing the songs. I’ve always found it strange to watch an actor play an icon and have the icon’s voice seeming come out of their mouths. It’s a tad morbid IMO. And it’s usually just bad lip-synching.
I think we need to remember that biographical films are still artistic interpretations of real events. They are rarely ever 100% accurate.
So this is why she had eyelid surgery?😂
She doesn’t capture Garland’s speech pattern. Judy Davis did a great Garland; Renee, not so much.
I like Renee a lot as an actress, but I don’t see how anyone can top Judy Davis’ performance in Me and My Shadows. She was mesmerizing.
Let’s not forget about the whole Kenny Chesney debacle. That was weird.
I totally forgot that she ever dated Bradley Cooper.
I like Renee, but I don’t feel her singing voice is quite strong enough for this role, but we’ll see. Judy’s voice at her peak was exquisite.
I don’t know that I really want to watch this though, Judy’s story is one of the saddest.
Renee looks the part and I’m sure she can act the part, but if they coudn’t get permission to use the original recordings then the soul of this series will be gone. It’s a pity Jim Baily isn’t still around to do the voice.
This feels like grief p0rn to me. Haven’t we wrenched enough tragedy and drama out of that family?