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Judy Garland's daughter won't watch Renee Zellweger's new biopic

Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland (Credit: Pathe)
Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland (Credit: Pathe)

Judy Garland's daughter has said that she will not be watching the new movie Judy, the forthcoming biopic of her mother starring Renee Zellweger.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Lorna Luft encouraged people to seek out her films and music for themselves instead.

Read more: Watch Renee Zellweger transform into Judy Garland

“You know, I’m really protective of my mom’s legacy and my mother’s legendary career,” she said.

“And I feel that if you really want to know about my mum, go see her movies and go listen to her recordings and go watch her television shows.

FILE - This June 1, 1993 file photo shows singer Liza Minnelli, left, and her sister Lorna Luft at the Tony Awards in New York. Luft and Minnelli, daughters of the late Judy Garland, will perform together for the first time in 20 years during two concerts next month to raise money to fight breast cancer. The concerts will be held Oct. 14 and Oct. 21 at the jazz club Birdland on West 44th Street. Most tickets start at $250 and include drinks and dinner. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Liza Minnelli and her sister Lorna Luft at the Tony Awards in New York (Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew)

“By the time my mother was 37, she had made 39 movies, and she had done over 500 radio shows, 1257 concerts. So, it was an extraordinary career.

“And I sit here and I think to myself that I’m the luckiest person in the world to have had her as my mum.

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“She passed away early but what an incredible legacy that she left.”

The movie centres on Garland's five week residency in London in 1968, when she was struggling with depression, alcohol addiction and substance abuse.

Rufus Sewell stars as Sidney Luft, Garland's third husband, and father of Lorna Luft, while Michael Gambon plays Bernard Delfont, the theatre impresario.

Luft herself is played by Bella Ramsey in the movie, the actress who played Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones.

Reviews for the movie, which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival, were generally glowing, with Zellweger among those likely to be nominated in the Best Actress category at the Oscars.

For her part, Zellweger agrees with Luft's opinion of her mother.

“It’s hard to fully appreciate the context of the circumstances that she was grappling with at the time,” she told USA Today.

“And when you see what she was able to achieve in spite of the challenges she faced, then you can really see how extraordinary she was. It sort of sets her apart, in my opinion.”

Judy hits cinemas in the UK on October 2.