To celebrate Renée Zellweger being back on screens with Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, we’ve rounded up some of the greatest and most heartwarming Hollywood comebacks of all time.
The showbiz industry is famously fickle and even actors at the top of their game can have lulls in their careers, whether they are chosen or enforced.
Here are ten stars who have taken breaks from acting before making triumphant returns to the screen.
Renée Zellwegger
Renée Zellwegger, who came to prominence in the classics Empire Records (1995) and Jerry Maguire (1996) broke into the A-list and earned legions of fans when she landed the role of Bridget Jones in the acclaimed romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), followed by Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, both of which garnered her Best Actress Academy Award nominations.
She landed her first Oscar in 2004, Best Supporting Actress for Cold Mountain, and was busy throughout the noughties, including making the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. In 2010 she stepped back from Hollywood, which ended up being a six-year hiatus.
“I was sick of the sound of my own voice”, she recently told British Vogue. When I was working, I was like, Oh my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice? It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences.”
After a break, in which she “wrote music and studied international law…built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company, advocated for and fundraised with a sick friend, and spent a lot of time with family and godchildren” and “got healthy”, the Texan native made a much welcomed return to acting with Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third installment in her rom-com franchise, in 2016 and went on to land her first Best Actress Academy Award for playing Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy.
Zellweger shows no signs of slowing down as she brings her signature combination of bubbly charisma and pathos as Bridget Jones in the fourth instalment of the beloved franchise, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey made his breakthrough in the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused in 1993, and had a string of big roles in movies such as A Time to Kill (1996), Contact (1997) and Amistad (1997), but it was his 2000s run of romantic comedies, including The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006) and Fool’s Gold (2008) that made him a household name.
After starring in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in 2009, McConaughey took a two-year hiatus from acting to distance himself from his rom-com persona.
He previously told Interview Magazine: “It was scary. I had long talks with my wife about needing to find a new vocation. ‘I think I’m going to teach high school classes. I think I’m going to study to be a conductor. I think I’m going to go be a wildlife guide.’
“I honestly thought, ‘I stepped out of Hollywood. I got out of my lane.’ The lane Hollywood said I should stay in, and Hollywood’s like, ‘Well, f*** you, dude. You should have stayed in your lane’.”
After his acting break, his comeback, dubbed the ‘McConaissance’, included roles in The Lincoln Lawyer, Magic Mike and Mud, before he went on to win an Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. He had a memorable supporting role in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and, arguably, a career-best performance as Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO’s crime anthology series True Detective.
Cameron Diaz
One of the biggest and most bankable movie stars of the ’90s and noughties, Cameron Diaz made her film debut opposite Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994) before starring alongside Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) and landing an unforgettable role in the iconic Farrelly brothers comedy There’s Something About Mary (1998).
More serious performances in the sports drama Any Given Sunday and Spike Jonze’s fantasy film Being John Malkovich in 1999 earned her recognition as a dramatic actress, and she went on to flex her box-office appeal in the blockbusters Charlie’s Angels (2000) and its sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), as well as voicing Princess Fiona in the Shrek franchise. Vanilla Sky, The Sweetest Thing, Gangs of New York, The Holiday, The Other Woman, Sex Tape and Annie were among her varied film credits, before Diaz announced her retirement from acting in 2014 to focus on her personal life, which included marrying Good Charlotte singer Benji Madden in 2015 and welcoming two children.
Speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in 2024, Diaz said it was “just something I had to do”. She explained: “It felt like something I had to do to reclaim my own life. And I just really didn’t care about anything else.
“Nobody’s opinion, nobody’s success, no one’s offer, no one’s anything could change my mind about my decision of taking care of myself and building the life that I really wanted to have. It really comes to: What are you passionate about? For me, it was to build my family.”
Diaz returned to screens with her first film in over 10 years with the Netflix action comedy Back in Action, in which she co-stars alongside her Annie colleague Jamie Foxx.
“I didn’t think I was going to make another movie,” she told Netflix. “I was perfectly happy just living my life, doing other things day in and day out. Not movies.”
However, a pitch from Foxx convinced her to return to acting. “If there’s anyone I’m going to go back and spend months on end on set having a ball [and] laughing with, it would be Jamie. For me, it was just something I had to do,” she said.
Josh Hartnett
Josh Hartnett achieved heartthrob status with roles in The Faculty (1998), The Virgin Suicides (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001) and 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002), but the attention that came with being a Hollywood star didn’t sit easy with him.
He left Los Angeles, moved back to his native Minnesota, parted ways with his agents and stopped working for over a year. Upon his return, Hartnett turned down bigger projects, with The Guardian reporting he rejected the role of Superman twice, and concentrated on smaller roles.
His career resurgence has shown Hartnett’s talent for memorable character roles in TV and film, including playing gunslinger Ethan Chandler in the horror-drama series Penny Dreadful, which was filmed in Ireland, an astronaut in an episode of Black Mirror, a brilliant guest-starring spot as Richie’s ex-wife’s fiancé in The Bear and a nuclear physicist in the Oscar-winner Oppenheimer.
He told The Guardian of his decision to step back from typical Hollywood roles: “I just didn’t want my life to be swallowed up by my work. And there was a notion at that time you just kind of give it all up. And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn’t want that for myself.”
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson rose to fame as a Playboy covergirl before landing a role in the ABC sitcom Home Improvement in 1991. But it was her role as “C.J.” Parker on the action drama series Baywatch (1992-1997) that took her career to new heights and made her a household name. In 1995, personal home videos of Anderson and her then husband Tommy Lee were stolen and sold as a sex tape. This traumatic experience was recently dramatised in the Hulu mini-series Pam & Tommy, which was made without her input.
After speaking out in recent years about being mistreated in the industry throughout her career, Anderson has had a much-welcomed career renaissance, starring in the Broadway musical Chicago, the Netflix documentary Pamela, A Love Story, and most notably, in Gia Coppola’s indie drama The Last Showgirl, for which she has earned nominations for the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.
In the film, Anderson plays Shelly, a veteran Las Vegas performer who learns that her show is shutting down after a 30-year run. The actress told NPR that Shelley’s story of reinvention resonated deeply with her: “If I had any other life, I couldn’t have played Shelly as I did. I had this amazing, wild, messy life and that gave me a lot to pull from when I was playing this character. … I feel like my pockets are full of experience.”
Eddie Murphy
Comedy icon Eddie Murphy shot to fame on Saturday Night Live in the early 80s and was credited with helping revitalise the show. He made his name as a movie star in the classic 80s comedies 48 Hrs., Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, before landing leading roles in films such as Coming to America (1988), Harlem Nights (which he also directed) (1989), The Nutty Professor (1996), Dr. Dolittle (1997) and Daddy Day Care (2003).
The comedy legend won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Dreamgirls (2006), but he paused making movies after he received the Razzie for Worst Actor of the Decade in 2010.
Murphy told the podcaster Marc Maron in 2021: “I had stopped making movies in 2011. Because I was making these sh**** movies, and it was like, ‘This sh** ain’t fun.’ They giving me Razzies; I think these mother******* gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie. Maybe it’s time to take a break. I could sit on the couch and not get off it, but I don’t want the last bunch of sh** they see me do [to be] bull****.”
In 2019, he made a massive comeback in the Rudy Ray Moore biopic Dolemite Is My Name, which garnered him Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations. The Razzies even recognised his return by bestowing him with the 2020 Redeemer Award for that role.
Meg Ryan
After making her break into Hollywood with a role in Top Gun (1986), Meg Ryan went on to be dubbed ‘America’s Sweetheart’ with a run in the beloved romantic comedies When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998).
She worked consistently through the 90s and noughties before stepping away from acting in 2015 following the drama Ithaca, which she starred in and directed.
Ryan returned in 2023 when she directed, co-wrote, and starred in the rom-com What Happens Later alongside David Duchovny.
She told People of her hiatus: “I took a giant break because I felt like there’s just so many other parts of my experience as a human being I wanted to develop. It’s nice to think of it as a job and not a lifestyle. And that is a great way of navigating it for me.”
Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan rose to fame as child actor with roles as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). While he was in his 20s and struggling to find acting work, he made the decision to step behind the camera and worked as a stunt choreographer and assistant director.
The break from acting lasted nearly two decades, before he returned to screens in 2021 with the family adventure film Finding ‘Ohana. But it was his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once the following year that catapulted him back into the spotlight. The acclaimed comedy drama won seven Oscars in 2023, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Quan.
He told NPR of returning to acting: “I spent a long time lying to myself that acting isn’t fun anymore. All of a sudden I felt like I was back where I needed to be.”
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the 90s, starring in high-profile films such as Seven (1995), Emma (1996), Sliding Doors (1998), A Perfect Murder (1998) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Roles in the brilliant Anthony Minghella thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Wes Anderson’s quirky The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) followed, before she made the transition to blockbusters with her role as Pepper Potts in Iron Man (2008).
In 2017, Paltrow said she would take a break from acting to focus on her wellness and lifestyle business Goop, saying: “I’m still going to do a little bit here and there, but [the company] really requires almost all of my time.” She hasn’t had a big acting role since Ryan Murphy 2020 series The Politician but is now set to make a comeback in the upcoming Josh Safdie film Marty Supreme, in which she stars alongside Timothée Chalamet.
She told The Drew Barrymore Show of filming the A24 sports drama: “I’m doing a movie which I haven’t done in a really long time. To be honest, I was a bit nervous.”
Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser had his breakthrough in 1992 with the comedy Encino Man and the drama School Ties and worked consistently throughout the decade before landing the leading role of Rick O’Connell in the action-adventure The Mummy which brought him international stardom.
His career slowed down from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s, but his career had a remarkable resurgence in the 2020s.
He starred in the Steven Soderbergh crime-thriller No Sudden Move in 2021 before landing the leading role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which landed him the the Academy Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and SAG Award for Best Actor.
Fraser said while accepting his Oscar: “I started in this business 30 years ago, and things, they didn’t come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn’t appreciate at the time until it stopped. And I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgment.”
