has revealed she spent much of her lockdown feuding with the squirrels in her garden.
The 52-year-old Bridget Jones actress used her time in the state-sanctioned isolation to take on various projects in and around her home, however, found her attempts to tidy up her backyard were hindered by pesky animals.
‘I was outside every day, building things and planting things,’ Renee told the new issue of magazine.
‘Nature does what it does and, you know, the squirrels and I were at war. Like, “Why you gotta dig that big hole there?”
‘I’m out there every day with my shovel and my bucket. Then I’m inside tinkering. ‘Cause you get quiet and you get creative. Busyness is the enemy of creativity.’
The Oscar-winning Judy actress – who is dating Ant Anstead – also found the time to study her mum’s native language, Norwegian, via a phone app.
‘Now my mom and I can have wonderful conversations about how dogs don’t eat spiders,’ she laughed.
Renee also admitted she was ‘blessed’ to have found the pandemic ‘heaven’ because she enjoyed being able to lead a quiet, undisturbed life.
‘I was so blessed that I wasn’t directly affected by the plague,’ she continued. ‘Outside of the horrific effect on society, I think I’m really cut out for a pandemic life.’
Renee’s interview with the publication comes just weeks after she revealed she snuck into the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to study international law during a break she took from acting.
The Hollywood star, who took a six-year hiatus from the industry in 2010, said that politics was one of her ‘favourite things’ and warned that she could ‘bore you to death’ while speaking about the subject.
Speaking on NBC’s Today show, Renee said she had taken time off from her successful acting career to ‘grow as a person’ and ‘learn some things not related to work’.
‘(I) went to school and just took some time out, and decided to participate in a different way,’ she said.
‘I snuck into UCLA and did some public policy for a little while … international law. I’m interested in politics.’
Asked if her studies were an interim pursuit or whether she had an end goal in mind, she replied: ‘I’m not sure.’
She added: ‘It’s one of my favourite things, I’ll bore you to death at a dinner party, I really will. Don’t get me started. Ask any of my friends.’
The April issue of America’s is on sale from April 5.
