'It was terrifying': Renee Zellweger ventures 'Over the Rainbow' to sing as Judy Garland

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Renee Zellweger stars in the final chapter of troubled Judy Garland’s life in “Judy”
USA TODAY

TORONTO – Renee Zellweger has been singing in movies for more than 20 years, first in “Empire Records” and most famously in the Oscar-winning “Chicago.” But playing Judy Garland and singing “Over the Rainbow” live by herself in front of a theater full of people? That was something else entirely.

“Yes, it was terrifying. And if I could have run away, I would have run away,” Zellweger tells USA TODAY, letting loose a hearty laugh.

The actress is earning Oscar talk for “Judy” (in theaters Sept. 27), which is showing at the Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Rupert Goold and based on the stage musical “End of the Rainbow,” the movie centers on Garland’s last concert run in winter 1968 at London’s Talk of the Town months before she died.

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She remains a worldwide icon, but in the movie, Garland is broke and can’t get a manager; she’s fighting for custody of her children and in deteriorating health. Everything turns around when she hits that stage and performs tunes such as “The Trolley Song” and “By Myself.”

One of the biggest emotional and cathartic moments in “Judy” comes when Garland steps on the stage, sits down and sings “Rainbow,” her legendary song from “The Wizard of Oz.”

Goold remembers that day of filming being “pretty magical. There’s something in the structure of that song as a piece of songwriting that it kind of unlocks people.”

Doing that scene, “I was thinking about what that song meant to her at that point in her life,” Zellweger says. “Together, we were creating this thing. So I didn’t feel alone at all. We were sharing this experience that was interactive, and it sounds so corny to say that it was affection for (Garland), but it was.”

Goold kept Zellweger backstage and out of sight from the audience of actors up to the moment she came out to sing.

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“After the first time, I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got lots of notes about that. We can improve that,’ ” the director recalls. “As I was going in to do some of the notes, I could see all the extras and supporting artists were in tears.” They were pretty close to Zellweger, “which is pretty electrifying. But also I think they thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Judy. That’s Garland.’ They hadn’t met Renee prior to that. They were part of something special.”

The project wasn’t all solo singing for Zellweger. For the “Judy” soundtrack (also out Sept. 27), she recorded a pair of duets: “Get Happy” with Sam Smith, whom she calls “a new personal hero,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” with her longtime favorite Rufus Wainwright.

It’s “dream-come-true stuff,” Zellweger says about being “spoiled rotten” working with those two. “I joked around with Rufus, and I said, ‘We’ve been singing together for 25 years. You should hear our harmonies on “Poses”! They’re amazing. Especially in Laurel Canyon with the windows down.’ ”

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