Renee Zellweger Speaks to Rumors That She Got Plastic Surgery After Infamous 2014 Red Carpet Appearance

Renee Zellweger is on the cover of New York magazine’s new issue!

Here’s what the 50-year-old actress had to share with the mag…

On the headlines that came from her 2014 red carpet appearance where fans thought she underwent plastic surgery: “Well, because there’s a value judgment that’s placed on us. As if it somehow is a reflection of your character — whether you’re a good person or a weak person or an authentic person. And the implication that I somehow needed to change what was going on because it wasn’t working…That makes me sad. I don’t look at beauty in that way. And I don’t think of myself in that way. I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter mix of things. It enables me to do what I do. I don’t want to be something else. I got hired in my blue jeans and cowboy boots with my messy hair. I started working like that. I didn’t have to change to work. So why was I suddenly trying to fit into some mold that didn’t belong to me?”

On taking a six year break from the spotlight from 2010-2016: “I wasn’t healthy. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was the last thing on my list of priorities. [My therapist] recognized that I spent 99 percent of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life. I needed to not have something to do all the time, to not know what I’m going to be doing for the next two years in advance. I wanted to allow for some accidents. There had to be some quiet for the ideas to slip in.”

On movies she’s made: “I think the majority of the films that I’ve made wouldn’t get made today. I just don’t think the business model is there to support it anymore — I guess that’s what it comes down to. I feel lucky that I lived that moment, but I don’t mind that it’s different. We’re minstrels. We play for our supper. And that’s what we’re doing more than ever now, and I don’t mind! What I really love about it is that I’m still allowed to do it.”

For more from Renee, visit Vulture.com.