Renée Zellweger discussed her burnout and the powerful metaphor Salma Hayek shared with her to help her realize she needed time to heal before announcing her six-year hiatus from the entertainment industry.
The captivating Academy Award-winning actress, 54, has spent decades gracing our screens with her extraordinary talent. However, there came a time when this gifted actor unexpectedly decided to give up acting, leaving her fans confused and curious as to what motivated her to take that action. As fate would have it, it was during this period that Zellweger’s friend and fellow actress, the inspirational Salma Hayek, intervened and provided sound advice, reigniting the former’s life.
Following the release of her 2010 road movie, My Own Love Song, Zellweger took a six-year hiatus from the public eye.
How Salma Hayek’s Sage Advice Sparked Renée Zellweger’s Life Journey
In an interview with Vulture, Renée Zellweger talked candidly about a period of her life when her fame and career got to the point where they eclipsed her personal life and caused burnout. She talked about her mental health before stepping away from the spotlight:
“I wasn’t healthy. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was the last thing on my list of priorities.” I
At this point, the Judy star thought she ought to visit a therapist. It was during their therapy sessions that Zellweger discovered just how little of her private life she had been defending and investing in. She recalled:
“He recognised that I spent 99% of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life.”
Her decision to take some time for herself was influenced by this as well as an accidental encounter with Salma Hayek in an airport. Zellweger later disclosed that the Desperado actress had shared a powerful metaphor with her:
“She [Salma Hayek] shared this beautiful … metaphor? Analogy? ‘The rose doesn’t bloom all year … unless it’s plastic.’”
She continued by elaborating on what the metaphor actually meant:
“It means that you have to fake that you’re OK to go and do this next thing. And you probably need to stop right now, but this creative opportunity is so exciting and it’s once-in-a-lifetime and you will regret not doing it. But actually, no, you should collect yourself and, you know … rest.”
The Jerry Maguire Star Discussed her Six-Year Hiatus From Acting
Renée Zellweger has starred in some good projects since she started acting in the 1990s and continued this trend until 2010. That is when the legendary actress decided to pull a complete 180 degrees and distance herself from Hollywood. For six years in all, she worked to discover who she was and enjoyed living life to the fullest away from the lens of the camera. In a cover interview with British Vogue, Zellweger confessed:
“I found anonymity, so I could have exchanges with people on a human level and be seen and heard, not be defined by this image that precedes me when I walk into a room. You cannot be a good storyteller if you don’t have life experiences, and you can’t relate to people.”
She continued by saying that she wanted to take her time becoming a better human because she was tired of hearing her own voice. She explained:
“As a creative person, saying no to that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime project is hard. But I was fatigued and wasn’t taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me.”
With the 2016 release of Bridget Jones’s Baby, Zellweger made a significant comeback to the movie business. We last saw her as Judy Garland in the 2019 biographical drama film Judy, which is based on the life of American actress Judy Garland.
You can stream Judy on Amazon Prime Video and FuboTV.
