The Tale-Teller of Lakeland ; a Century After the Publication of the Tale of Peter Rabbit, Children's Author Beatrix Potter Is Brought to Life On Screen by Renee Zellweger. Garth Pearce Meets the Texan Actress On Set

Summary

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RenEe Zellweger slips out of her hotel room at dawn, a slim figure in a grey tracksuit. She crosses the seafront road in Douglas, Isle of Man, where she is filming. Her early-morning run is part of the intensely focused routine she follows when filming. The American actress has twice played the very British Bridget Jones; now she is not only playing a British character once more, but an icon of English literature. The life of Beatrix Potter, who died on 22 December 1943 at the age of 77, has been tracked, recorded and dissected by an army of fans and historians.

'I am more than aware of the question marks,' RenEe admits. 'I am playing a character who is part of British history. Most people have read her books as a child or bought them for their own children. They all have an opinion. My first instinct was, "Do I really want to put myself through it?" Then I kept returning to the script and starting to think of her story and what we could do with it. I became hooked.' The film, which will be released on 5 January, co- stars Ewan McGregor as Norman Warne, Beatrix's publisher and later fiancE, with Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Gosford Park) as his sister and Bill Paterson (The Killing Fields, Chaplin) and Barbara Flynn (Elizabeth I) as Beatrix's snobbish parents, who disapproved of the engagement as beneath her.

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The Tale-Teller of Lakeland ; a Century After the Publication of the Tale of Peter Rabbit, Children's Author Beatrix Potter Is Brought to Life On Screen by Renee Zellweger. Garth Pearce Meets the Texan Actress On Set

RenEe, who plays Beatrix in her late 30s, when she was about to have her first book published, researched Beatrix's history thoroughly, even becoming a member of the Beatrix Potter Society (and enrolling the other main actors as a gift). She is determined to get things right. And she does all this alone; there is no entourage, as there is so often with big-name performers.

RenEe became intrigued by t...

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