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Doing Voices
RD: Have you always seen the glass as half full?Zellweger: I don’t see the point in the alternative.
RD: You’ve played serious and comedic roles. Does humor play a part of your personal life?
Zellweger: Every day. I think funny comes from recognizing the ridiculous elements of a situation. I love it when a bad day is really funny.
RD: What do you mean?
Zellweger: For instance, my friend’s wedding. It started with getting ready: the hair falling because it’s humid. She then has to go to the bank, get cash for the caterers. Then the cash is stolen …
RD: Oh, no.
Zellweger: The DJ plays “Who Let the Dogs Out” for the couple’s first dance. And the floor in this sweet old church in the country falls through. Everybody just went phoomph. Everything that could go wrong does. You’re trying so hard to have this be your perfect day, and it’s not working out. But no one will ever forget it.
RD: Were you the one who made her see the day as funny?
Zellweger: Oh, no. She saw it as funny too. She’s my friend for a reason.
RD: You recently costarred with Jerry Seinfeld in his Bee Movie.
Zellweger: I had the best time working with him. Talk about looking forward to going to the office. To watch as he’s coming up with something, you can see it: Oh, it’s brewing, it’s happening. Ah, what’s it going to be? And then out it spills, and it’s brilliant.
RD: You also have Leatherheads coming up, with George Clooney directing. Did you know him before?
Zellweger: Oh, for ten years or more. He’s a good friend.
RD: You two should get together.
Zellweger: Well, let me get my phone, and you can call him.
RD: It’d be perfect.
Zellweger: You know, we have a lovely relationship. I write him six-page e-mails about my political rage, and he writes back, and cares too.
RD: Bee Movie is obviously about bees. Bees have been mysteriously dying. They thought it was global warming, but now they think it might be a virus.
Zellweger: The global warming stuff is bizarre. What scares me is if it in some way affects the laws of nature as we know them. If the winters are so short, certain critters will do a lot more breeding. Rodents and insects, for example. Mosquito season is twice as long now, and London is fast becoming a tropical holiday destination.
RD: Bee Movie’s an animated film. Is it easy to do a voice?
Zellweger: With voice, you don’t have all the other things to lean on that you have in traditional filmmaking. You show up in your sweats and basically create it in your mind.
RD: Does it take less time?
Zellweger: Oh, no—it takes years. Jerry started four years ago. It’s a time-consuming process. Especially with Jerry. Everyone kept asking, When’s it going to be finished? And I’d say, When he stops waking up at four in the morning with ideas, which is never. When Jerry gets bored. Not going to happen!
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