Renee Zellweger is out and about in LA just days ahead of Bridget Jones’s Diary 20th anniversary

Renée Zellweger was staying busy during an outing in Los Angeles on Wednesday when she took a phone call after leaving an appointment.

The 51-year-old actress and two-time Academy Award winner looked comfortable in a casual look as she did some simple exercises outdoors while chatting.

Her outing came just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of her iconic romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary, which was released on April 13, 2001.

Renée sported a low-key look featuring a thin black vest–shirt combo that was zipped up to her neck.

She wore it over a charcoal shirt and light gray pants and Converse high top sneakers.

The Chicago star represented her home state and her alma mater the University of Texas at Austin with an orange-and-white Texas Longhorns cap.

She had a black Tod’s crossbody bag slung across her shoulder, and she wore a thick beige mask to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. 

Back in her car, Renée could be seen beamingly widely, and she laughed heartily while talking on the phone.

Although the actress has starred in multiple classic films, including Chicago and Jerry Maguire, but she’s best known for playing the title role in her 2001 rom-com Bridget Jones’s Diary, which was a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, based on the 1996 novel by Helen Fielding.

Colin Firth reprised a version of his Pride And Prejudice character, renamed Mark Darcy, a pompous barrister who initially looks down on Bridget.

After she’s turned off by his demeanor, she insinuates herself with her boss at the publishing house, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).

But Daniel isn’t all he’s cooked up to be, and the two men end up doing battle in the streets for Bridget’s attention.

While she’s focused on the men, Bridget worries about her weight and her health, leading her to take on dieting and exercise and to try to quit smoking. 

Bridget Jones’s Diary was a sensation in the US and the UK, earning nearly $282 million against a modest $25 million budget.

Its success led to two sequels, 2004’s Bridget Jones: Edge Of Reason and 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.

Both grossed similar amounts against similar budgets, leading to a successful trilogy of romantic comedies.

Despite arriving a few years later, Edge Of Reason is set shortly after the first film when Renée and Colin’s characters are dating.

But a failure to communicate leads to their break-up and throws her back into the arms of Hugh’s character when she takes on a job co-hosting a travel series with him. 

The third and final film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, takes place years later and finds Bridget and Mark’s characters separated with him married to another woman, while Hugh’s character Daniel has seemingly died in a plane crash.

She finds that she’s pregnant, but she doesn’t know if she’s having Mark’s baby, or the child of Jack Qwant (newcomer Patrick Dempsey).

Prior to the film’s release, Hugh expressed his dislike for an earlier version of the script and said he wouldn’t appear in the third film.

Renée’s most recent film was 2019 Judy, in which she played the singer and actress Judy Garland in her twilight years.

The role earned her considerable acclaim, though the film wasn’t as passionately praised by critics.

Still, her portrayal earned the actress her second Oscar for Best Actress, after she previously won the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her role in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain (2003).