It wasn’t enough just to look and act like Judy Garland. In the upcoming biopic Judy, star Renée Zellweger is also singing like Garland, doing her best impression of the famous performer.
The new trailer, released Friday, features a movie montage of Garland’s life, with brief glimpses of Darci Shaw playing young Judy, and Finn Wittrock as Mickey Deans, Garland’s fifth and last husband before her death in 1969. Floating over it all is Zellweger’s breathy, emotional rendition of “Over the Rainbow,” Garland’s most famous number.
“I made it clear to Renée that I wasn’t looking for an impersonation of Judy Garland’s inimitable voice, but what I wanted was for Renée to make the songs her own,” director Rupert Goold said in a statement released with the trailer. “And this she did to thrilling effect.”
Like Rocketman, the upcoming Elton John biopic that has heavily promoted star Taron Egerton using his own voice, Judy seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on Zellweger’s real voice. It all comes just months after Bohemian Rhapsody became a global hit, with Rami Malek’s voice dubbed over by the Freddie Mercury originals. If you loved Bohemian Rhapsody, these trailers seem to be saying, imagine how much you’d love a music biopic with real singing.
Though the Judy trailer hops around different moments in the icon’s life, Goold has said the biopic will be more of a concentrated look at one period, focusing on her five-week sold-out run at the Talk of the Town in London. It was 1968, and Garland’s career was winding down as she battled with drug addiction and clashed with her management. In the midst of all that, she was also in a new relationship with Deans, whom she married during the Talk of the Town run, announcing their secret nuptials one night onstage.
In a recent interview with People, Zellweger shared that making the film gave her a new level of “empathy and respect” for the embattled Garland, who had been a working entertainer for much of her life.
“What she had to overcome in a time when women didn’t necessarily feel that they had power over their own lives in the way that we do today, that stayed with me and I hope folks will be moved by that,” Zellweger said. Judy will hit theaters on September 27.
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