Renee Zellweger, currently heard as the lovable Angie in the box-office smash Shark Tale, has decided to take a sabbatical.

In an interview with ananova.com, the star speaks of her need for a complete break after finishing the sequel to her successful 2001 film, Bridget Jones's Diary.

The 35 year old, despite her reported $11m paycheck for The Edge Of Reason, says she can't stop pining for a normal life. Her motivation to take a 'year-off' is apparently to spend more time 'drinking coffee with friends.'

Being around English people during filming in England made her obvious about her Americanisms, Zellweger says. The star of critical successes Cold Mountain and Chicago said she 'felt loud and inappropriately direct. I felt curt and clumsy and obnoxious in my straightforward way of communicating.'

Hence the desire to return to a more American lifestyle: having coffee every day with her friends. Zellweger is probably on the right track -- what could be more stereotypically American than Friends?

Photograph: Getty Images