NEED TO KNOW
Renée Zellweger is the writer and director of They, an animated short film premiering this month at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
The “little project that could,” as Zellweger called it to The Hollywood Reporter, was inspired by the pervasiveness of toxic negativity in society today
Making a directorial debut was “kind of a fluke” and came from an “organic calling to tell a story,” said the Oscar-winning actress
Renée Zellweger is following her bliss.
The screen star, 56, has now made her behind-the-camera debut as the director of They, an animated short film premiering at the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival (which takes place Aug. 14–20).
“It was kind of a fluke,” Zellweger told The Hollywood Reporter of her directorial debut in a recent interview. “I don’t think that directing was a personal ambition in and of itself.”
She continued, “I always thought that if there was some organic calling to tell a story and I felt that it was the right fit then I’d probably love to do it and give it a shot… not just for the sake of having the experience.”
The two-dimensional and hand-drawn They, conceived by Zellweger and her production company Big Picture Co., depicts a town overrun by toxic clouds of complaints. “As the world reaches peak negativity,” reads a synopsis on the Edinburgh International Film Festival website, a hero’s plan “for peace backfires with drastic consequences.”
They totaled seven years in the making, the two-time Oscar winner told THR. She conceived of it during conversations with an ailing friend and that friend’s carer, “talking about toxicity and the divisiveness and how polarized we’ve become as a society,” Zellweger said. “We were thinking it’s just so sad, the decline of social discourse, how it seems that we all have these opinions about one another. Conversation seems to have left the building.”
EIFF
‘They’
Collaborating with various producers and animators — between working on and promoting recent projects like her 2019 Judy Garland biopic Judy and this February’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — was “really special,” added Zellweger. “We did it because we loved it, and it was just joy. It was just this little side thing, the little project that could.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
While at the University of Texas at Austin, she said, she sought out animation film festivals. “I lived in a dormitory that was on top of an independent movie theater, and they would host these festivals and these shorts would come through town, and I’d go back again and again,” recalled the Chicago star. “I just love it.”
Asked if she thought whether audiences would be surprised by her passion for animation, she gave a candid reply: “I guess I don’t spend a lot of time wondering what people would think.”
Dia Dipasupil/WireImage
Renee Zellweger at a ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’ New York screening on Feb. 12
In addition to They, Zellweger’s upcoming projects include a starring role in the fifth season of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, premiering Sept. 9.
Read the original article on People
