Forget ‘Judy,’ Renée Zellweger Should Have Won the Oscar for ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’

Renée Zellweger performs something akin to a magic trick in the film, Judy. She transforms herself — a blonde Texan actress with a girl-next-door appeal — into the iconic star Judy Garland. Thanks to this performance, Zellweger is poised to win her very first Best Actress Oscar. She’s swept all the major awards leading up to this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony and seems to have carved out something of a picture perfect “comeback” narrative for herself this season. It’s Renée’s time at last.

But shouldn’t Renée Zellweger already have a Best Actress Oscar? Sure she won the Academy Award for her supporting turn in Cold Mountain, but even that honor felt like a consolation prize for the fact that the Oscars overlooked a string of phenomenal performances in the years prior. I’m talking about her incandescent turn in Chicago, her kooky performance in Nurse Betty, and the very best role of Renée Zellweger’s career.

I’m saying it: Renée Zellweger should have won the Best Actress Oscar for her work in the 2001 romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary.

I know that Oscar voters like it when beautiful actresses transform themselves physically and put themselves through masochistic levels of heartbreak on film. They also love it when classically trained actresses adopt an affected accent and take huge risks for the sake of their art. Well, Renée Zellweger did all that in Bridget Jones’s Diary. She — gasp — gained weight, sang off-key, pulled off an Estuary accent, and dared to be an American movie star in a beloved British property. What Zellweger does as Bridget Jones isn’t just akin to what she pulls off in Judy; it’s better. Why? Because she shows off the same level of technical craft while also not being a showboat about it. She’s effortlessly hilarious as Bridget Jones and totally in service to the story.

What’s wild is that Oscar voters in 2001 knew that Zellweger was phenomenal in the rom-com. SHE WAS NOMINATED FOR THE BEST ACTRESS OSCAR THAT YEAR! Do you know how hard it is for actors to get critical recognition for their work in comedies? It’s easier to run the Iowa caucus than to earn an Oscar nod for yukking it up in a flick. Bridget Jones’s Diary demands that Zellweger plays a frazzled singleton dealing with heartache, life changes, and the embarrassment of sliding down a fireman’s pole with her butt on camera. And she still got Oscar buzz!

Zellweger didn’t win the Oscar for Bridget Jones’s Diary because that’s the year Halle Berry won for Monster’s Ball and Nicole Kidman almost won for Moulin Rouge!, but Zellweger’s performance is arguably the most beloved of the lot in 2020. After all, she’s reprised her role not once, but twice, and just this weekend, Hugh Grant managed to ad lib Bridget Jones’s Diary-related jokes after her win at the BAFTAs.

The fact that Bridget Jones’s Diary still has cultural caché two decades after its release is a testament to how good it is and how fucking good Zellweger is in the film. She’s sweet, messy, vulnerable, flawed, and wonderfully tenacious. She sinks into the role as if Bridget is more real than she is. There’s even a tremendous argument to be made that without Bridget Jones, you don’t get Fleabag. (After all, who was the first messy, drunk British singleton narrating her inner monologue to the audience?)

Renée Zellweger is probably going to win the Best Actress Oscar this weekend for Judy, but in my heart, she already has little golden guy for her transcendent turn in Bridget Jones’s Diary. And Chicago. And Nurse Betty. And Jerry Maguire. And…well, what I’m saying is Renée Zellweger is one of our great national treasures. It’s just a shame that it’s taken this long for us to celebrate her incredible talent.

And, yes, her performance in Bridget Jones’s Diary freaking rules.

Bridget Jones’s Diary and its two sequels, Bridget Jones and the Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones’s Baby, are now streaming on Hulu.

Where to stream Bridget Jones's Diary