After giving scene-stealing performances in “The Mask of Zorro,” “Entrapment,” and “Traffic,” Catherine Zeta-Jones would strike gold again with 2002’s “Chicago.” Based on the beloved musical of the same name, director Rob Marshall helmed a film adaptation featuring Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly. The movie received acclaim across the board, and Zeta-Jones’ portrayal of the incarcerated nightclub singer raked in the accolades. In 2003, she was nominated for her first Oscar. At the 75th Academy Awards, she took home the award for best actress in a supporting role.
The movie gave Zeta-Jones an opportunity to show off her musical theater skills on the big screen, and she certainly did not disappoint. “That’s me sliding across the table, going down a pole, falling off a piano, doing cartwheels. We were right there, down in the trenches,” she told the Hartford Courant. “It was a lot of fun. A lot of painful fun.”
What’s more, Zeta-Jones helped shape the character’s aesthetic. It may be impossible to imagine Velma Kelly without her jawline-grazing bob, but evidently, the film’s producers initially had another hairstyle in mind. However, as Zeta-Jones shared on a 2021 episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” she fought for Velma’s bob. “For me, when I saw Velma Kelly, I saw that blunt, Louise Brooks look. … You know, as an actor, you know the period. They didn’t have beach waves, you know, in 1930s Chicago,” she iterated. “And I won that battle.”
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