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The actress has another "Bridget Jones" movie set to debut this fall, but it arrives 12 years after the last movie in the franchise, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," and six years after the release of her last film, the road-trip movie "My Own Love Song."
"As a creative person, saying no to that wonderful once-in-a-lifetime project is hard," the actress told British Vogue. "But I was fatigued and wasn't taking the time I needed to recover between projects, and it caught up with me. I got sick of the sound of my own voice. It was time to go away and grow up a bit."
The Texas native was once one of the biggest leading ladies in movies. She starred opposite Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire," won an Oscar for "Cold Mountain," and fronted the "Bridget Jones" movie franchise.
But during her time away from her movie career, Zellweger said she got some perspective, much-needed privacy, and the ability to try and see new things.
"I found anonymity, so I could have exchanges with people on a human level and be seen and heard, not be defined by this image that precedes me when I walk into a room," Zellweger, 47, told the magazine. "You cannot be a good storyteller if you don't have life experiences, and you can't relate to people."
Zellweger is back in the swing of things. Aside from the upcoming "Bridget Jones' Baby," she stars in two other films hitting theaters by 2017.