Actress Renee Zellweger wrote an essay denying she had plastic surgery on her eyes because “speculation became the truth”, she says.

“I needed to respond to some things that have been, you know, said about me personally,” she told 7.30 of the essay titled We Can Do Better published in May.

“Speculation became the truth, and it seems if you repeat a thing enough it becomes the truth.”

Zellweger, who is in Australia to promote her new film Bridget Jones’s Baby, said she did not usually respond to gossip about her.

“I don’t want to perpetuate any negativity by commenting on it so then they can say, ‘Well, she denies,’ suggesting that I’m lying or something,” she said.

“It’s boring and, you know, I’m doing other things and unless it’s pointed out to me, I don’t know anything about it.

“I don’t go online and look and see what an anonymous person is saying, and I’m not interested.

“I don’t think there’s any dignity in seeking the approval of people you don’t know and who make fun of other people.”

‘I love what I do’

The actress recently took a break from acting and said it was tempting “in some ways” to stay away.

“But I miss what I do. I love what I do. I never had any intention of staying away. I just needed to go away for a minute, as many actors do,” she said.

Renee Zellweger in 2006 (left) and in 2014. Photo: Getty.

“I think to be good at this job, you have to live a little so you have your own experiences to draw from.

“You can’t be playing a character and just be drawing from the experiences that you had playing other characters.”

‘She makes it OK for people to be imperfect’

In the first two Bridget Jones films, the main character drank and smoked too much, could not find a man and was always trying to lose weight.

In the third film she has reached her ideal weight and gets to choose between two appealing men.

Asked if Bridget was still as loveable when she is less flawed, Zellweger said: “I don’t think she is less flawed.”

“I think in her mind she had a weight issue. She didn’t have a weight issue. It was just this imagined ideal she was trying to achieve, and what I love is that although she has achieved it, her life isn’t any more together,” she said.

“She makes it OK for people to be imperfect and I think that’s what we connect to.”

See the Bridget Jones trailer