Renée Zellweger’s performance as Judy Garland in Judy has won just about every Oscar precursor an actor could win in the lead-up to this Sunday’s Academy Awards: the Golden Globe, the SAG, the BAFTA, and a prediction in that weird Oscar ballot the official Academy Awards account tweeted out on Monday. But there’s one honorific Renée has no hope of landing, and that’s two hours of Liza Minnelli’s time. In a cover story for Variety, the Academy Award–winning actress and daughter of the late Garland shared her thoughts on Zellweger’s lauded portrayal of her mother: “Minnelli has no interest in seeing the film. All she will say right now is ‘I hope [Zellweger] had a good time making it.’â€
Ah, so that’s how it is. Minnelli hopes Zellweger had a good time doing her little dress up, putting on her make-pretend show. It’s a very Lucille One thing of her to say, as a Lucille Two. (Speaking of which, Minnelli also told Variety that she did her own stunts on Arrested Development: “I did all the pratfalls and falling on my fanny.â€) It’s also not all that surprising. In 2018, Minnelli posted to her Facebook page after the Judy casting announcement announcement:
I have never met nor spoken to Renee Zellweger … I don’t know how these stories get started, but I do not approve nor sanction the upcoming film about Judy Garland in any way. Any reports to the contrary are 100% Fiction.
That’s cold. That’s cold mountain. Zellweger did tell USA Today in 2019 that she tried to get in touch with Minnelli through a mutual friend, “but, I guess I wasn’t successful in doing that.â€