RSS Feeds
Renee Zellweger's 'Vanity Fair' Hitchcock Homage: Emoting Like You've Never Seen Before
Posted by Seth at 7:02 AM on February 6, 2008
Our appetites whetted with the release of the upcoming Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue cover featuring ten of today's most desirable starlets in a variety of glamorously uncomfortable poses (sooo much better than last year's shoot featuring four overexposed comedians and some hotly buzzed penguins whose careers quickly nosedived), we delved deeper into VanityFair.com's stash of preview goodies. It was there that we discovered Renée Zellweger starring in the most amazing piece of video that we've seen in at least the last twelve hours.
Our appetites whetted with the release of
First, some context. The clip comes from a behind-the-scenes video documenting the making of a portfolio of famous Hitchcock tableaus, set to what we strongly suspect is "Disney's Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House". The silent result is something akin to one of those UnitedHollywood.com protest videos, just with a Hollywood budget. It features everyone from Jodie Foster paying birdpoop-encrusted homage to Tippi Hedren, to Renée Zellweger, featured in the snippet above, channeling Kim Novak in the Vertigo bell tower scene--despite their end credits incorrectly listing it as a scene from Rear Window. Some homage! Still, we advise any aspiring thespians among you to study the footage well, as Zellweger's emotive performance is nothing less than a Cindy Sherman-caliber masterclass in Acting for the Cinematic-Still Recreating Camera.
- The Making of the Hitchcock Portfolio [VanityFair.com]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Kay
Posted February 8, 2008 5:52 AM
mmm seriously harsh comments oh here. maybe you should judge how good an actress she is from her actual movies then a behind the scenes video of a photo shoot. jeeze like you could do any beter..thats why your all here watching her do it instead.
kathotdog
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
"See the door? See how it seems to be breathing?"*
Oh I'm sorry, that's just Rene Zellweger acting.
*huge fan of the Disney Haunted House record!
kathotdog
LBJeffries
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
@alice: God, you're so real.
LBJeffries
SteamyMcFirecrotch
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
Anagram Sam, you're my main man. You're a natural born poet, you're just outta sight.
SteamyMcFirecrotch
alice
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
mainstream media sucks. retro sucks. vaniety fair; you suck. old hollywood has been done to death.
alice
mepo
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
She was just trying to get her eyes to look actually open for the shot.
mepo
bess marvin, girl detective
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
@anagramsam: i like you. i like you a lot.
bess marvin, girl detective
iheartschadenfreude
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
well... that was a little awkward.
that's one reason (besides the obvious) I could never be a model/ actress/ whatever. I would be in a constant state of embarassment having to do all that shit
iheartschadenfreude
BoHan
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
I was guessing that they filmed after Jack White asked her for a donkey punch.
BoHan
mr_wednesday
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
Note for Renee. Your dinner called. It misses you.
mr_wednesday
anagramsam
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
renée zellweger = elle geezr wren
anagramsam
scroll_lock
Posted 9:08 AM 6/2/08
They filmed the moment she realized she'd once married Kenny Chesney.
scroll_lock
Miss d
Posted 10:09 AM 6/2/08
Best Nicole Kidman impersonation ever! Cold Mountain wasn't a complete waste, eh, Renee...
Miss d
VirusWithShoes
Posted 10:09 AM 6/2/08
That "wind whistling" noise was actually the air evacuating through her mouth.
VirusWithShoes
MartyPants
Posted 10:09 AM 6/2/08
That Ellen Pompeo is good at tearing up on cue.
MartyPants
FreedomFries
Posted 10:09 AM 6/2/08
So from watching that video, I learned that Renée Zellweger has never seen even one episode of America's Next Top Model. She obviously doesn't know how to bring the fierce.
FreedomFries
dellaswan
Posted 10:09 AM 6/2/08
She looks like Sandra Dee after all the booze.
dellaswan
alice
Posted 11:09 AM 6/2/08
@LBJeffries: I just have a huge hangup about retro. It's as if no one is capable of an original thought in mainstream art anymore, even fashion. The cover of vanity fair the last few months has been worse than usual from Nicole Kidman in that goofy sailor outfit to Katherine Heigel trying out the old hollywood glam. now this.
it's 2008, the future is friendly. George Clooney was bitching about how they don't make movies like they used to. His movies The Good German and the last two Ocean's movies suck and stuck in retro glut. I hate it. I'm also tired of old movie, comic book, tv franchises etc being brought back from the dead.
Fashion designers are either bringing back mod, or disco or to my disdain, high-waisted pants of the 70's and 80's. Everything just sucks about pop-culture and art.
alice
gwiliandre
Posted 11:09 AM 6/2/08
oh for fuck sakes......give renee the skinny double latte
no foam now!!!!! give her the drink, damn it!!!!!! (delivered/emoted a la shirley in terms of endearment as she pleaded for debra winger's character to get the pain meds for the terminal cancer)
gwiliandre
OldTowneTavern
Posted 11:09 AM 6/2/08
Very Doris Day. Nice.
OldTowneTavern
DukeLaCrosse
Posted 11:09 AM 6/2/08
She looks surprisingly less sweaty-puffy-faced-coke-whore than usual.
DukeLaCrosse
FATAL_BIPOLAR_HOTNESS
Posted 11:09 AM 6/2/08
Oh sweet bedazzled Hezoos, someone managed to make her look normal. She always looked like she was smelling a big pile of turd. And who can forget the chipmunk cheeks and tranny Shenaynay pout?
FATAL_BIPOLAR_HOTNESS
Tripletz
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
Um. I am an acting student. And this just made me puke my dinner up.
Which on the bright size puts me one step closer to that size zero that is necessary for me to have a career!
Tripletz
raincoaster
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
@Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.: Well, she DID start out in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series.
raincoaster
Trixie from Toronto
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
Tyra and Nigel would be so thrilled by how fiercely Renee is working it!
Trixie from Toronto
Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
Brilliant widening of her sour-lemon smile to suit its true purpose: horror.
Her Royal Empress Dr. Bufflekins III, Esq.
whatever
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
That makeup artist should get an Oscar because who he is he made Renee's eyes look almost big.
whatever
WGARefugee
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
That camera must have shoot at 6000 fps, like what they use to shoot rocket burns, 'cause it's obvious that Zellweger's acting cannot be recorded by ordinary video cameras.
WGARefugee
roxybebop
Posted 1:08 PM 6/2/08
you had me at hello.
roxybebop
bestdamnedtapper
Posted 2:08 PM 6/2/08
So she DOES have a neck. How about that.
bestdamnedtapper
bitterlibrarian
Posted 4:09 PM 6/2/08
Both Renee and Jennifer Garner attended the "no matter what I'm doing, I STILL look like I'm pouting" school of acting...
bitterlibrarian
billybastion
Posted 4:09 PM 6/2/08
despite the snarky cynicism found here, i for one think she pulled it off. she looks great and like a spitting image of what shes supposed to be honoring.
billybastion
gwiliandre
Posted 7:09 PM 6/2/08
@billybastion:
she only honors her manager, right?
gwiliandre
gwendolyn
Posted 4:09 AM 7/2/08
@MartyPants: All Ms. Pompeo has to do to bring the teary is contemplate her career post-'Grey's Anatomy'...
gwendolyn
yesteryear
Posted 2:10 AM 8/2/08
nauseating.
yesteryear
Political Party Girl
Posted 4:24 PM 16/2/08
Smile with your eyes, Renee! Has Tyra taught you nothing?
Political Party Girl
ALE81
Posted 4:24 PM 16/2/08
Well at least her eyes and lips didn't look like she had just eaten a Warhead.
ALE81