Renée Zellweger is stepping behind the camera for the first time.
The 56-year-old Oscar-winning actress has made her directorial debut with a nine-minute animated short called They, which had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 16.
The hand-drawn 2D short follows a town plagued by negativity until a hopeful hero and his dog rally the people together in an unexpected way.
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“I don’t think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself,” Renée told The Hollywood Reporter. “I always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit, then I’d probably love to do it and give it a shot. Not just for the sake of having the experience, you know?”
The inspiration for They came years ago while Renée was with a friend who was unwell.
“We were sat on her bed watching the afternoon news because she had a crush on the local newscaster… and it was so depressing,” she recalled. “Her carer Jerome and I started talking about toxicity and the divisiveness and how polarized we’ve become as a society. This is 2018, 2019. We were thinking it’s just so sad, the decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building.”
Renée began writing from there, collaborating with animators including Paul Smith, Nick Loose, and Ste Dalton. The short also carries personal touches, such as a dedication to pets Renée and her producer lost over the years. (A dedication at the end to Dylan, Ellie, Chester, Betty and Grady refers to the late pets of the actress and her producer Tora Young.)
“People say ‘passion project,’ and that’s genuinely what this is,” Renée said. “It’s just a love of the art form and how you can use it to engage in a conversation without being offensive.”
The Bridget Jones star confirmed she would love to direct again: “Oh, of course. I loved it. I felt really lucky working with extraordinarily talented people. There are always ideas brewing. It’s just a matter of timing and things coming together.”
She also addressed whether she’d do more Bridget Jones movies.