Renee Zellweger Dishes on Taking Time Off From Hollywood

— -- Renée Zellweger will be back in theaters Friday in "Bridget Jones's Baby," but the return to the role comes after the Oscar winner took a long vacation; her last big screen role was in 2010’s "My Own Love Song."

She relished the time off, she told Kelly Ripa and her "Live with Kelly" guest co-host Neil Patrick Harris.

"Kinda great, Kelly. I gotta tell you. I went to the grocery store, and nobody noticed," Zellweger joked.

"I had a great time," the Oscar winner continued. "I just needed a little normalcy, I think, you know. I wanted to meet people — and really meet them."

Zellweger explained she spent her free time spending time with family and going back to take some college classes.

"I highly recommend it because it's very different than when it's the perfunctory thing that you're supposed to do after you finish high school to make your parents happy," she said. "Because now you kinda have an idea about what you're interested in and what you want to know more about — so when you go and study, it's not because you need to make a grade but because you want to know what's in a book."

"Oh, my God, I so hope my son is not watching this right now," Ripa interjected to laughs, referring to her college-age son, Michael, with her husband, Mark Consuelos.