Liza Minnelli Opens Up About Mom Judy Garland in Rare New Interview

Liza Minnelli has somewhat been out of the spotlight over the last few years but on Tuesday spoke with Variety for its annual Academy Awards issue where she opens up about a number of topics including her mother, Judy Garland.

Specifically, Minnelli, 73, was asked about the biopic "Judy," a biopic about the Hollywood icon and starring Ren�e Zellweger, who is a favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Garland. Minnelli said she no interest in seeing the film but told Variety she hopes Zellweger "had a good time making it."

Elsewhere in the interview, Minnelli discussed her own career in the shadow of Garland, who died of an accidental drug overdose at 47. She also confessed she went to rehab in 2015 and has been four years sober.

"I knew, and I told my father [Vincente Minnelli]. He said, 'Well, let's see what can we do about it.' I said, 'Well, all these people talk about the Betty Ford Center,' and he said, 'Then you'll go there.' Just like that. So he took me there," she said of going to rehab.

"The hardest part was getting to be known as myself as opposed to somebody's daughter. I remember Mama saying, 'Now don't get upset because of the way they may compare you to me because you're an entertainer too,'" Minnelli told Variety. "I said, 'Oh, I won't.' And then she reads something where they compared me to her. She said, 'How dare they? You're your own woman. Dammit! Can't they see?' And she'd throw it down in the trash. She was wonderful and so overprotective. She tried saving us from any of the stuff that other people said, except the great stuff."

Click here to read the full Minnelli cover story.