Being away from Hollywood for a few years can be career suicide for an actress.
But Renee Zellweger says she has no regrets about her five-year hiatus from the limelight.
The star is back with a new film, “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” and she’s talking about why she left the scene in 2010 before returning to work on the latest movie in the “Bridget Jones” franchise.
“I planned to take some time off after ‘Chicago’ (2002), but there kept being once-in-a-lifetime experiences in front of me that I didn’t want to miss out on,” she told American Way magazine.
“Then I learned you can’t keep doing that forever, so I chose to see what would happen if I did let that once-in-a-lifetime experience that was ahead of me go and just be still and see what I could build.”
Instead Zellweger chose to travel as part of her work with the Great Initiative, a gender equality initiative started by one of her friends. Her time in Liberia, Thailand and Cambodia was transformative, she said.
“I think traveling off the beaten path is a good idea for anybody because it’s essential for understanding not just the rest of the world but yourself,” she said.
Now she is back and working because she said she “craved the creative process again.”
“When I stopped making films, it was because it became more depleting than rewarding,” Zellweger told the magazine. “It was because of the way I was living my life, and I don’t think you can be good in a creative medium if you aren’t grateful for the opportunity to participate. I started to miss it and I felt ready.”
“Bridget Jones’s Baby” is set to open in theaters September 16.