The 10 Best Renée Zellweger Roles

Renée Zellweger has built a filmography that moves confidently between sweeping period pieces, brassy musical numbers, and character-driven dramas. Across lead turns and transformative biographical performances, she has collaborated with acclaimed directors and an impressive roster of co-stars while collecting major awards along the way. The range of roles below—spanning romance, satire, true-crime television, and more—shows how consistently she anchors stories with precise character work.

This list gathers ten of her standout roles across movies and television, with each entry highlighting what the project is about, who she plays, notable creative collaborators, and how the role fit into her career. You’ll find everything from breakout parts that broadened her profile to later performances that brought industry-wide recognition and renewed attention to her versatility.

‘Judy’ (2019) – Judy Garland

This biographical drama centers on the late-career concert engagements of singer and actor Judy Garland during a residency in London, interweaving flashbacks to formative moments that shaped her life. The film explores the pressures of fame, the demands of touring, and the personal obligations Garland navigated while preparing for and performing a run of sold-out shows.

Renée Zellweger performs the musical numbers herself, supported by live-performance staging and arrangements that mirror Garland’s setlists and onstage patter. Directed by Rupert Goold, the production features costuming, makeup, and hairstyling that track Garland’s stage look and offstage vulnerability, with the role earning Zellweger major awards recognition across leading categories.

‘Cold Mountain’ (2003) – Ruby Thewes

Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, this adaptation follows intersecting journeys: a wounded deserter traveling home and a minister’s daughter struggling to keep a farm afloat. Ruby Thewes enters as a resourceful, plain-spoken farmhand whose practical skills and blunt counsel help stabilize a household under extreme hardship.

Directed by Anthony Minghella and based on the novel ‘Cold Mountain’ by Charles Frazier, the film was mounted with large-scale location work, period production design, and an ensemble that includes Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. Zellweger’s supporting turn drew extensive critical notice and led to a sweep of prominent Best Supporting Actress prizes across major awards bodies.

‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ (2001) – Bridget Jones

Adapted from Helen Fielding’s bestseller, this romantic comedy follows a London publishing professional who documents career misadventures, complicated relationships, and attempts at self-improvement in a personal diary. The story charts her encounters with a charming but unreliable boss and an unexpectedly principled barrister as personal and professional lines blur.

Zellweger trained in a British accent, worked with dialect coaches, and immersed herself in the character’s workplace rhythms to capture Bridget’s social circle and office culture. Directed by Sharon Maguire and co-starring Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, the film’s success led to a long-running ‘Bridget Jones’ franchise in which Zellweger continued the character’s arc across sequels.

‘Chicago’ (2002) – Roxie Hart

This big-screen adaptation of the stage musical centers on the collision of crime, celebrity, and media spectacle in Jazz-Age Chicago. Roxie Hart, a chorus girl charged with murder, chases stardom from the confines of a jailhouse, aided by a high-profile lawyer and a press corps hungry for headlines.

Under Rob Marshall’s direction, the film employs stylized musical numbers that shift between reality and vaudeville-style fantasy to convey character psychology. Zellweger’s performance required extensive vocal and dance preparation, and the ensemble—featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and Queen Latifah—was recognized across major craft and performance categories during awards season.

‘Jerry Maguire’ (1996) – Dorothy Boyd

This sports-industry dramedy follows a high-powered agent who writes a mission statement that upends his career, forcing him to rebuild his client list and personal life from scratch. Dorothy Boyd is a single mother and accountant who joins his fledgling operation, creating a small, high-stakes partnership grounded in loyalty and mutual risk.

Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, the film pairs Zellweger with Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr., whose roles intersect through contract negotiations, public relations, and family dynamics. Zellweger received widespread recognition and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her portrayal, which became a key early milestone that broadened her casting opportunities.

‘Nurse Betty’ (2000) – Betty Sizemore

This dark comedy follows a Kansas waitress whose life unravels after a violent crime, triggering a delusional break in which she believes she is engaged to a soap-opera heartthrob. She travels cross-country to find him, while two hitmen pursue her for reasons she doesn’t fully grasp, intertwining satire, melancholy, and fish-out-of-water hijinks.

Directed by Neil LaBute, the film blends crime-thriller plotting with commentary on television fandom and identity. Zellweger won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for the role, sharing the screen with Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, and Greg Kinnear as the story toggles between fantasy and reality.

‘Cinderella Man’ (2005) – Mae Braddock

This boxing drama chronicles the comeback of heavyweight contender James J. Braddock during the Great Depression, detailing the economic pressures and family stakes surrounding his unexpected return to prominence. Mae Braddock navigates the demands of household stability and public scrutiny while her husband faces punishing bouts and financial uncertainty.

Directed by Ron Howard and co-starring Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti, the production recreates period arenas, training regimens, and press coverage with detailed art direction and fight choreography. Zellweger’s portrayal anchors the domestic storyline, and the film received multiple nominations for performances and technical achievements across major ceremonies.

‘Miss Potter’ (2006) – Beatrix Potter

This biographical drama explores the life of author-illustrator Beatrix Potter, tracing the creation of her beloved children’s books, her professional challenges within the publishing world, and her efforts to preserve rural landscapes. The narrative follows her collaborations with an editor who champions her work and the ensuing shifts in her personal and creative life.

Directed by Chris Noonan, the film integrates animated flourishes that echo Potter’s illustrations while maintaining a grounded period portrayal. Zellweger leads an ensemble that includes Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson, with the production emphasizing costume and set design that mirror the author’s London milieu and Lake District ties.

‘Down with Love’ (2003) – Barbara Novak

This stylized romantic comedy pays homage to mid-century “no-sex sex comedies,” pairing a self-help author with a star reporter who adopts an alias to expose her. The plot riffs on office politics, publishing-house showmanship, and shifting gender expectations, culminating in a series of reversals that hinge on competing public personas.

Directed by Peyton Reed, the film features split-screen gags, bright production design, and period-correct costumes that echo studio comedies of the era. Zellweger co-stars with Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, and Sarah Paulson, and the project has been noted for meticulous visual pastiche, choreography, and music cues that support its retro conceit.

‘The Thing About Pam’ (2022) – Pam Hupp

This limited series dramatizes the investigation into the murder of Betsy Faria and the subsequent legal proceedings, focusing on Pam Hupp’s role in the events and the media aftermath. The narrative covers law-enforcement decisions, prosecutorial strategies, and the ripple effects on families and small-town institutions as the case evolves.

Produced for network television with a writers’ room led by producers of true-crime programming, the series casts Zellweger opposite Josh Duhamel, Judy Greer, and Katy Mixon. The production employed extensive prosthetics, wardrobe transformation, and vocal work to approximate Hupp’s physicality and mannerisms, with Zellweger receiving nominations from major TV awards organizations for the performance.

Share your favorite Renée Zellweger role in the comments and tell us which performance you’d add to the list!