Renee Zellweger Finally Talks About Kenny Chesney

Well, kind of. In a vague, circular fashion anyway. The actress recently sat down with Life magazine to discuss her divorce and her upcoming movie, Miss Potter.

LIFE: In your new movie, Beatrix Potter best expresses herself through the characters she created, like Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Bunny. How do you best express yourself?
ZELLWEGER: Oh, I don't know. I'm not a performer. I don't want to hop up on a stage and go "Look at me! I'm Renee! What do you think?" That's not me. What I do is very different. If I want to express something, it's through the filter [of a character]. So I never feel exposed.

LIFE: You made the movie in a very difficult part of your life last year.
ZELLWEGER: It was important for me to make this film—going to work and being with my friends, getting through the days.

LIFE: What was the hardest part about 2006 for you?
ZELLWEGER: Well, I'm sure that if you buy groceries, you might have read something about it. It's not on the top of my favorite things that have ever happened. [Her eyes well up] I'm not a superficial person. I don't care about what's on the grocery-store shelves. That's just salt in the wound. But it's not a television show. I lived it. [A breakup] is a very sad experience for anyone to go through, and it's not fun when people decide that it's a lovely thing to capitalize on. But you're oblivious to that because you are living the reality of the experience—which is devastating.

LIFE: Are you two still friends?
ZELLWEGER: I'll tell you that I was saddened. I'll tell you that it took . . . it's, it's not something I could [reason] away. It's something that I'll live through, but I don't want to talk about it beyond that because it matters to me.

LIFE: Beatrix Potter loved children but didn't have any of her own. Do you want kids?
ZELLWEGER: I don't think about it. I don't believe in prerequisites for happiness. It's not a mantra, it's just my composition. I don't have a list of things I need in order to be happy. I like to take the good that's in the mix [of her life] and use that to create the happiness today.

LIFE: But what about marriage? Did you always dream of that?
ZELLWEGER: No, no.

LIFE: So your thinking was, If I meet somebody . . .
ZELLWEGER: If the circumstances are right, then sure. It was more about it being the right thing to do.

LIFE: Do you think you will fall in love again?
ZELLWEGER: Maybe.

LIFE: And if you don't, would you feel that there was something missing, having been in love before?
ZELLWEGER: I don't know, because I'm different now. I'm different than I was entering into [her relationship with Chesney]. And so, I'm open to something new. . . . I just don't have any expectations. That doesn't mean that I'm not a romantic, and it doesn't mean that I don't have things that I believe in, because I do.

LIFE: So what do you do to escape?
ZELLWEGER: Road trip. Whenever I can. It's been a while.

LIFE: Do you still have your truck?
ZELLWEGER: Same truck that I've always had . . . an old Chevy. A year and a half ago [she drove from] New York to Florida to see my parents. I rented a small car because I wanted to drop it off in Florida. I didn't know where I was going to go.

LIFE: What was the best experience you had on that trip?
ZELLWEGER: A Motel 6 in South Carolina. I wrote a lot that night, and I drove around the little town.

LIFE: You're about to start filming George Clooney's Leatherheads, a 1920s romantic comedy. Is it true he sent you the script one night and you committed the next morning?
ZELLWEGER: Oh, I was in before I read the script. I'm a big fan of his directing, and he's charming. But I'm scared—I've heard he's relentless with the on-set pranks. He plans months in advance, and I'm terrified of what he's got up his sleeve for me.

Photo from Life.