Renée Zellweger: From Small Town Girl to Superstar

Tamara Jones is a former production operations supervisor in the
Entertainment Department of Paramount Canada’s Wonderland.

Mark Wells charts the remarkable career path of an unpretentious Texas
girl who took some huge risks and became a respected Hollywood star.

Renée Zellweger spent an idyllic childhood growing up in Katy, Texas,
with her older brother, Norwegian mother, and Swiss father; her humble
beginnings laid the foundation, Wells writes, for her “natural charm
and effusive sincerity.” A beginner’s drama class at the University
of Texas ignited her passion for acting.

Zellweger’s first mainstream film was Reality Bites (1994), but it
was her performance as the sweet single mom Dorothy opposite Tom Cruise
in Jerry Maguire (1996) that established her in the public eye. She
proved herself a formidable actor in films like Nurse Betty, White
Oleander, Cold Mountain (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress
Oscar), Chicago, and Cinderella Man. And she proved her detractors wrong
with her critically acclaimed performance as Bridget Jones in the movie
adaptation of the British novel.

In this lucidly written biography, Wells relates his subject’s
“American dream” tale with a refreshing absence of hyperbole or
cynicism.