“This is never going to happen”: Renée Zellweger Was Convinced She Wouldn’t Be Cast in Tom Cruise Movie Despite Being Broke At the Time
In addition to appearing in films like Judy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, One True Thing, and many others, Renée Zellweger is regarded as one of the best actresses in the business. She shot to fame when she played Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire opposite action star Tom Cruise.
When the romantic comedy Jerry Maguire made its debut in 1996, both critics and viewers praised the film’s screenplay, which was based on Leigh Steinberg’s interactions with her client Tim McDonald. Leigh Steinberg also served as the film’s technical consultant. Renée Zellweger, who was essentially unknown at the time, believed she would not be selected for the role. Learn more about the actress’s perspective.
Renée Zellweger was convinced she would not get to play Dorothy Boyd
Actress Renée Zellweger, who had appeared in minor roles in 1993’s Dazed and Confused and 1994’s Reality Bites, was at the time convinced that she would not get the part opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. She said as quoted in IMDB,
“I remember driving to the audition, and I remember being very calm because I was thinking, ‘This is never going to happen’.”
According to the Spokesman, the actress received a call from her agent out of the blue that the director, Cameron Crowe, wanted to meet her and the next thing she said she remembered was she was reading lines by Tom Cruise. Zellweger said,
“We had a really great day, and I was like, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you, God,’ because when I read I remembered all my lines and, you know, I didn’t look like a dork and that was all I was hoping for, so I went home a happy girl.”
The actress who went into the audition thinking that it was never going to happen for her was surprised when she was called for a screen test, but what surprised her more was that she was given the part opposite Cruise. She has explained that at the time she wasn’t doing anything but just trying to learn about work as much as she could and admitted that she didn’t have enough of a balance to make a withdrawal from her card at the time.
Renée Zellweger says she never gets tired of ‘you had me at hello’ dialogue
The actress whose career shot up after she starred in Jerry Maguire is remembered via dialogue which she says to Tom Cruise in the movie; ‘you had me at hello’, and after so many years of the movie’s release, people still associate the actress with her and she said that she never gets tired of it.
In an interview with OK Magazine, she was asked how many times a week she hears the line to which she said,
“Not enough! Maybe a couple of times. I don’t go out much, so it would be weird if I heard it a lot. It still touches me. What a cool thing that somebody gives you a line like that!”
In her interview with Vanity Fair, she noted that the movie had played a very significant part in her life, not just professionally, but personally as well. Director Cameron Crowe shared with the LA Times that the minute the actress walked in he knew he was going to cast the heart and soul of the movie. He explained:
“She walked into the room for her audition and the room just kind of tilted her way. The part was very real for her and that helped Tom a lot in terms of people’s perceptions of him, you know, that he’s living in this lofty superstar world. She helped put this guy in a real context. “
Crowe said Zellweger challenged Cruise in that way, which worked right for the movie.
Renée Zellweger acknowledges that by casting her, Cameron Crowe took a risk
In her interview with the LA Times, the actress admitted that she was aware that the director had taken a big risk by casting her in the lead role opposite Tom Cruise, especially because she was relatively unknown in the industry. She said,
“My main priority was having something to give. I’d say to myself every day, ‘Please, just let me make my character all I can make her, all that Cameron wanted her to be,’ because he’d given me this opportunity and I just wanted to give something back.”
Crowe mentioned that what is refreshing about the actress is that people are used to watching people who work in movies and act it all, act their interest in the one making the movie, and then they witness the actors fall in love with someone else’s project when they are trying to get a new movie but with Renée Zellweger, one would never get that.
