Iconoclasts - Season1 - Zellweger on Amanpour

Renée Zellweger

Actor

Renée Zellweger never took an acting class until college, yet she has gone on to be an Academy Award winner and three time nominee. In 2004 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Ruby Thewes in Anthony Minghella's COLD MOUNTAIN, and her performances in CHICAGO and BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY have also garnered praise. She is quirky and spunky and audiences everywhere love the heartfelt passion that she puts into all of her work. Renée grew up in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a Swiss father and a Norwegian mother. She was a member of her high school drama club but never considered pursuing acting as a profession. She took one acting class in college at the University of Texas (Austin) to fulfill a distribution requirement. However, after she graduated she decided she wanted to act as a career and auditioned for commercials, television shows and independent movies. She gained experience by appearing in television projects such as the USA Network telefilm "A Taste for Killing" and the Showtime Drive-In Classics series "Shake, Rattle and Rock," she made her film debut while still in Austin in Richard Linklater's coming-of-age film DAZED AND CONFUSED. This was followed by Ben Stiller's REALITY BITES, LOVE AND A .45 (for which she received her first Independent Spirit Award nomination), THE RETURN OF THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and EMPIRE RECORDS. Finally, with the success of these movies, Zellweger's career began to take off. Her performance opposite Tom Cruise in JERRY MAGUIRE was the true breakout role of her career. She received critical acclaim for her performance and she was named Best Breakthrough Performer of 1996 by The National Board of Review, received a Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. Another memorable role that she gained much attention for was the smash hit BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and its sequel, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY: THE EDGE OF REASON. For Zellweger's part as Bridget she won the 2005 People's Choice Award for Favorite Leading Lady. True to her craft, Renée gained 20 pounds to play Bridget where she starred opposite Hugh Grant in this tongue-in-cheek comedy about a British woman's determination to improve herself as she looks for love while filling her personal diary with her idiosyncratic thoughts and experiences. In 2005 Zellweger starred in Universal's CINDERELLA MAN, the story of Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock, who defeated the 1935 heavyweight champion in 15-round slugfest. She stars alongside Russell Crowe as his loving and devoted wife Mae. Zellweger is also a great advocate for community service. She was an active participant in tsunami relief efforts in January 2005 and has been an outspoken voice in many campaigns to fight cancer.

Christiane Amanpour

Journalist

Christiane Amanpour is CNN's chief international correspondent based in London. Amanpour is a skilled journalist who can adapt to the most challenging situations. She has reported on crises from many of the world's hotspots, including Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East. Her assignments have ranged from exclusive interviews with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, to covering the civil unrest and political crisis in Rwanda, as well as the ongoing war on terrorism in the aftermath of September 11. In 2003, Amanpour led coverage of the Israeli elections. Additionally, she has received wide acclaim for her extensive reports on the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Amanpour has set the standard for journalistic integrity and for her ability to relate all different types of people and audiences. In May 1999, it was a groundbreaking achievement when Amanpour secured the first-ever interview with Jordan's then new monarch, King Abdullah. Additionally, she was the last journalist to interview the king's father, the long-reigning King Hussein, just days before his death. Her other high-profile interviews have included Arafat from his blockaded Ramallah compound in 2002; Pakistani President Musharraf during the beginning of the U.S.-led war against terror in 2001; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during the heightened peace negotiations in 2000; and Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev in November 1999 at the 10th anniversary of the fall of communism. Amanpour has spent years on some of the most dangerous assignments that journalists have faced in recent history, bringing the 1990s Bosnian tragedy into context and to the world's attention. No other U.S. network correspondent has reported as continuously from this ethnically torn region. Amanpour subsequently covered the Slobodan Milosevic war crime trials at the Hague in 2001 and 2002. During 2003's Operation Iraqi Freedom, Amanpour reported for CNN from several military locales, including with British troops on the Faw Peninsula. She later reported throughout Iraq, including inside Baghdad, on various issues, from troop engagements to the Iraqi perspective of the war. Amanpour risks her life to do her job and while she constantly finds herself in precarious situations, she is never shaken and is the consummate professional. For her reporting from the former Yugoslavia, Amanpour received a News and Documentary Emmy, two George Foster Peabody awards, two George Polk awards, a Courage in Journalism Award, a Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival Gold Award and the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Additionally, the New York Chapter of Women in Cable and Telecommunications named her the 1994 Woman of the Year. Amanpour has been awarded numerous other honors, including another Emmy for her documentary "Struggle for Islam;" the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Broadcast Journalism; the Sigma Chi Award for her reports from Goma, Zaire; two George Polk awards for her 1994 coverage of Bosnia; and for her work on the 1997 CNN International special "Battle for Afghanistan." Recently, Amanpour was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, an honor recognizing significant contributions to journalism. She began her CNN career in 1983 as an assistant on the network's international assignment desk in Atlanta. She also has worked in CNN's New York and Frankfurt bureaus. Additionally, she is a contributor to CBS News' "60 Minutes." Before joining CNN, Amanpour worked at WJAR-TV, Providence, R.I., as an electronic graphics designer. From 1981-1982, she worked as a reporter, anchor and producer for WBRU-Radio, also in Providence. Amanpour graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.

Photos from this episode:

Image from Zellweger on Amanpour episode of Iconoclasts Season 1

Image from Zellweger on Amanpour episode of Iconoclasts Season 1