Renée Zellweger Looks Unrecognizable With a New David Bowie-Inspired Pixie Cut

Renée Zellweger's Bridget Jones may be the poster child for the so-called Frazzled English Woman trend—but off-screen, the actor is going for something a little grungier and a little edgier. Just in time for the fourth installment of the beloved rom-com series, Zellweger has debuted a dramatic hair transformation, ditching her long, wavy locks in favor of a cropped, layered pixie cut.

As her stylist Syd Hayes explained to British Vogue, the trim was inspired by the Y2K looks that had been popular at the time of the release original Bridget Jones film, as well as David Bowie. Zellweger was down for the dramatic transformation. “When you’re cutting someone’s hair short, they’ve got to want to do it—it’s them who has to love it,” Hayes said. “She was so open to it. It wasn’t about Bridget, but more about her as a person.”

He added, “When people go for a cut that’s too in-between and not big or bold enough, you don’t get the dramatic effect. You don’t get the wow factor. That’s why Reneé was so cool; she felt the cut. She believed in it.”

He achieved the look with clippers to crop the hair ultra short around the nape of the neck and scissors for the piecey layers on the top. He then used a blowdryer to "push the hair in all different directions, wrapping it around the head," as he put it. "It gives that nice, Bowie-esque bend to the hair.” He finished off with a range of styling products to give the hair a grungy Y2K feel.

This isn't the first time Zellweger has sported a bold pixie cut. Back in 1999, she wore a wavy pixie to the 1999 Oscars, just a couple of years before the first Bridget Jones film dropped. In 2007, she once again wore her hair cropped short.

Alongside the reveal of her dramatic new trim for this month's British Vogue cover, Zellweger also spoke to her Bridget Jones co-star Hugh Grant. As Zellweger said during the conversation, the character is still just as popular as ever thanks to her enduring reliability. "I think maybe folks recognize themselves in her and relate to her struggles and feelings of self-doubt," she said. "Bridget is authentically herself and doesn’t always get it right, but whatever her imperfections, she remains joyful and optimistic, carries on and triumphs in her own way."

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy lands on Peacock on Feb. 13 and in cinemas around the world on Feb. 14.

Read the original article on InStyle