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She gained weight to star as Bridget Jones – but faced backlash after wearing a fat suit and prosthetics to get into character to play real life killer Pam Hupp.
And Renee Zellweger has responded to criticism she faced after some people felt a plus-sized actress should have taken on the role.
She transformed into the killer, who is serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, for the upcoming NBC true crime series The Thing About Pam.
‘Look, you want to be respectful and responsible’: Renee Zellweger has responded to criticism for wearing controversial fat-suit and prosthetics to play real life killer Pam Hupp
And speaking to The Sunday Times magazine, Renee, 53, said: ‘Look, you want to be respectful and responsible.
‘There’s always a limit to how much you can establish an authentic approximation without being distracting.’
Plus-size writer Sarah Alexander previously told Metro.co.uk: ‘There are plenty of incredibly talented plus-size actresses that could have been hired for the role instead of Zellweger. Why were they overlooked and a fat suit considered a viable option?
‘For Zellweger to masquerade as a plus-size person is damaging, fatphobic and potentially triggering to other plus-size people. It seems like she has not considered the effects this will have on fat people, and is unaware and/or naive that she is adding to the stigma fat people already face on a daily basis.’
Renee said: ‘There’s always a limit to how much you can establish an authentic approximation without being distracting’
Motivation: The 52-year-old actress transformed into the killer, who is serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, for the upcoming NBC true crime series The Thing About Pam
Renee herself has said she was ‘amazed’ when she saw herself as murderer Hupp for the first time after donning a body prosthetic.
The star recently sat down for an interview with Entertainment Tonight and insisted that it was ‘really important’ for the viewers that she tried to look as much like Hupp as possible.
Speaking about seeing herself as Hupp for the first time, she said: ‘I was amazed. You might achieve a couple of things, but I had no expectation it was gonna be as remarkable as that.’
Zellweger stated that the project’s team was dedicated to making her look like the convicted murderer for the show.
‘The idea is to be accurate, the idea is accuracy. I think, especially in the case of telling this story, it was really important to as closely resemble Pam Hupp as we possibly could,’ she said.
The actress also pointed out that she wanted to look like the murderer as ‘she seems so familiar, she seems like someone that we recognize, and we know.’
Hard at work: Zellweger stated that the project’s team was dedicated to making her look like the convicted murderer for the show
Zellweger went on to express that the accuracy would serve to highlight multiple aspects of Hupp’s personality.
‘In order for you to better understand how possible it might be that people would project onto her who they are sure that she might be or what kind of person she might, it just seemed really important that we got as close to that as we could.’
The series was mainly filmed in New Orleans, where it was regularly hot and humid, but Zellweger found the makeup process to be particularly impressive.
She added that, although the city’s temperatures were ‘really hot,’ she described her transformation as ‘amazing to watch.’
She pointed out that one of the prosthetic makeup artists had particularly impressed her with his attention to detail.
‘Arian, who builds these things and applies them every day, he creates them by hand and paints them down to the last freckle. His precision is remarkable. It’s part of the adventure, watching that happen every day, is pretty cool,’ she said.
The Bridget Jones’s Diary star revealed she was initially spending four hours being transformed into Hupp, but towards the end of filming it only took two hours.
She told E!: ‘We started at about four [hours] and we whittled it down to around two.’
Running it down: The Bridget Jones’s Diary star revealed she was initially spending four hours being transformed into Hupp, but towards the end of filming it only took two hours
Zellweger expressed that the prosthetics were particularly difficult to work with, which led to her spending long stretches of time in the makeup chair.
‘They have a mind of their own, you know? If everybody cooperates – the cheeks are feeling like playing nice, the nose, and everything. But yeah, it took about a couple of hours,’ she said.
The performer also remarked that she now saw acting with the usage of prosthetic makeup as a new challenge unto itself.
‘It was kinda fun to learn about it. I didn’t know that trying to tell a story and act with the prosthetics on is a whole different thing. I didn’t know it was a skill that I didn’t have,’ she stated.
Roughing it: Zellweger expressed that the prosthetics were particularly difficult to work with, which led to her spending long stretches of time in the makeup chair