Renée Zellweger’s Secret Job: How She Disguised Herself Before Bridget Jones

It’s hard to believe Renée Zellweger could go unnoticed. But the 55-year-old recently revealed in Vogue that she went undercover — and undiscovered — as she prepped for the first Bridget Jones movie in 2001.

The Oscar winner revealed she got into character as a PR assistant by spending “a month or two” working incognito at the U.K. publishing company Picador. Things got awkward when Renée was tasked with gathering clips about the much-anticipated movie. “I started having to clip these articles about this ‘crap American actor’ who was set to play Bridget Jones,” the beloved character from the Helen Fielding books, she recalled.

Even a coworker reading Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing, featuring a pic of Renée on the cover (she starred in the movie), failed to make the connection. After gaining weight for the role, the actress guessed it was her “chubby cheeks” that kept her ID secret!