Renée Zellweger reveals What/If temptress Anne Montgomery was based on Mrs Robinson

Renée Zellweger’s brand new Netflix series What/If officially launched on Friday and it’s completely barmy.

The 10-part thriller sees the 49-year-old Bridget Jones actress play a manipulative venture capitalist named Anne Montgomery, who offers couple Sean (played by Blake Jenner) and Lisa (Jane Levy) financial help in exchange for sex.

And it turns out Renée’s character was based on Mrs Robinson from the 1967 film The Graduate.

‘Mrs. Robinson was a really, really, pretty telling prototype,’ Renée told The Hollywood Reporter. ‘So, we went from there and of course he had suggested, well, we’ll subvert the trajectory of that character.

‘Let’s just say you take all that power and self-loathing and instead of channeling it into alcoholism. What if she did something proactive? What if, say, she builds an empire.’

Anne Bancroft played Mrs Robinson in the classic film by Mike Nichols, which follows the story of an older woman seducing a college graduate.

Renée continued to the publication: ‘It’s only on when it serves her. Warmth is a tool. And she’s very contained and calculated, meticulously to how she presents herself.

‘It’s funny to consider that she’s so completely contained and tightly wound because [it’s] a part of her or a necessity for perfection. It was pretty clear to me who she is through my conversations with Mike [Kelley] and who’s he wanting her to be.

‘Her sense of entitlement is extraordinary.

‘Her ambition and that everything is a tool including her sexuality, which she leads with unapologetically so uses to manipulate.

‘So those things were necessary to tap into. And what does that look like? Well she takes up a lot of room but at the same time she has to be groomed.’

What/If is available to stream on Netflix.

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