Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 299th episode of Awards Chatter, the Hollywood Reporters Awards

Award's Podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg,

and my guest today is one of the outstanding actresses

of her generation.

A woman who seemingly came out of nowhere and became a star and America

Sweetheart in Cameron Crow's 1996 film Jerry McGuire, for which she received a SAG Award nomination. She has since shined in a slew of films, including

Carl Franklin's One True Thing in 1998, The Farley Brothers Me, Myself, and Irene,

and Neil Labute's Nurse Betty in 2000, winning a Golden Globe for the latter.

Sharon McGuires Bridget Jones's diary in 2001, for which she received Oscar Golden Globe

and SAG Award Noms, and its 2004 and 2016 sequels receiving

another Golden Globe Nam for the former.

Rob Marshall, Chicago in 2002 for which she won Golden Globe and SAG awards and earned an Oscar Nam.

Anthony Mangelis Cold Mountain in 2003 for which she won Oscar Golden Globe and SAG awards, Ron Howard Cinderella Man in 2005, Chris Noonan's

Miss Potter in 2006 for which she received a Golden Globe nom, and most recently Rupert Gould's Judy, a film about the last year in the life of Judy Garland,

which had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month,

in which she sings dances and looks just like the late showbiz legend

and for which she is already the clear front runner to win the best actress Oscar

a roller coaster 16 years after her last Oscar, the great Renee Zellweger.

Over the course of our conversation in Zellweger's dressing room at Ellen on the

Warner Brothers Lott where she had just taped her first talk show appearance in years, the 50-year-old

and I discussed her rise to stardom, the work that went into the roles for which she is best

...