LONDON – "Bridget Jones" star Renee Zellweger (search) says that being around British people makes her feel "curt and clumsy."
In an interview with London's Time Out magazine, the Oscar-winning actress -- who lived in London while filming the hit 2001 comedy "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its sequel, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" (search) -- also revealed that she plans to take a year off from movies to spend time with friends.
"What did become apparent to me when I was living in England were my Americanisms," the 35-year-old star said in the interview, published Tuesday. "I felt that so strongly. I felt loud and inappropriately direct.
"I felt curt and clumsy and I felt obnoxious in my straightforward way of communicating."
Zellweger said she had been reluctant to do a Bridget Jones sequel, fearing it was simply a moneymaking venture. "(But) I came to understand as we began to talk about it that it wasn't that at all."
Zellweger, who won the best-supporting-actress Oscar this year for "Cold Mountain," (search) said she now plans to take a year off.
"The work is all-encompassing and there are so many things that you are not allowed in your life, because of it," she said. "Conventional friendships, unconditional friendships. I'd like to have coffee every day with my friends.
"So I'm stopping. I'm not really considering anything until this time next year."
"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," also starring Colin Firth (search) and Hugh Grant (search), opens next month.
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