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Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon talks to Karen Kay about making brave choices and taking her career to the next level

WiTHERspoon

photographs robert gauthier/los angeles times/contour by getty images

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Reese“How many times will you see a film like Wild, where the woman ends up with no man, no money, no family, but she still has a happy ending?”

Portraying Elle Woods in her breakthrough role in Legally Blonde in 2001

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As a diminutive former cheerleader from nashville, with a southern drawl and wide smile, reese Witherspoon might have been labelled ‘too blonde’ at various points in her life. yet, just like elle Woods, the fashionista- turned-law student she played in Legally Blonde, the 39-year-old actress has fought against stereotype. With her recent career choices, we’ve seen her leave behind her comfort zone of commercially successful chick-f licks to become a hollywood ‘power player’.

‘my frustration had been building up over a period of time,’ she says, contemplating her career leaps. ‘even though i didn’t know exactly what types of projects i wanted to make, i knew i wanted to find and develop movies with strong and dynamic female characters.’

it has been a bumpy ride for the actress; she enjoyed pheno-menal box office success with her 2001 breakthrough role in Legally Blonde followed by Sweet Home Alabama soon afterwards. the potential to be typecast was clear when the press dubbed her ‘the new meg ryan’.

in 2007, Witherspoon split from her husband of nine years, actor ryan Philippe, who she’d met at her 21st bir-thday party, amid allegations of his chronic infidelity. their acrimonious divorce took its toll and Witherspoon stepped back from hollywood to focus on raising their children, daughter ava, now 15, and son Deacon, 12.

however, she still actively sought roles that would give her the chance to stretch and demonstrate range in her acting ability and, three years later, in 2010, her determination paid off when she won an academy award for her emotive portrayal of country singer June carter cash opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, performing her own vocals and wooing even the most devoted of country music fans with her authentic singing voice.

as a nursing professor, her own mother was a powerful role model, says Witherspoon. ‘my mom was my inspi-ration because she was very hard- working and disciplined – i get my work ethic from her. that’s why i never take my career for granted and i am very

aware how fortunate i am to enjoy this kind of life. i’m grate-ful for my success, but i’m even prouder to be able to have a wonderful home and family around me.’

that family now includes her second husband, talent-agent Jim toth, who she married in march 2011 at her california ranch, and their two-year-old son tennessee. contentment in her personal life fuelled her to pursue similar satisfaction in her professional life, actively seeking grittier, charac-ter-driven projects. it came after a period where Witherspoon confesses she felt ‘lost as an artist’. but in the last year, she has enjoyed a string of critically acclaimed productions both in front of the camera and as a producer.

Actress and producer‘i feel very good about my work. i’m very excited about what i’m doing as a producer and being part of Gone Girl and other projects. it’s a lot of work, but there’s so much satisfaction knowing that you’re creating something for yourself and not just waiting for things to happen.’

Witherspoon had initially hoped to play amy Dunne in gillian Flynn’s big screen adaptation of her bestselling thriller Gone Girl, but even as a produ-cer on the high-profile project via her own production company, Pacific standard, she didn’t dare pull rank on director David Fincher. ‘Whenever David Fincher says he wants to do a project, you just sit back and say,

“Whatever you want to do”,’ she laughs. ‘We had a long conversation where he was like, “you’re not right for it. and this is why.” and i actually completely agreed with him.’

the coveted role eventually went to british actress rosamund Pike, who starred opposite ben affleck and won baFta, sag and academy award nominations for her performance. meanwhile, Witherspoon ended up nominated alongside Pike for her work on another acclaimed project, this time as producer and leading lady. Witherspoon set herself the challenge of playing cheryl strayed, author of the bestselling 2012 memoir Wild, which documented her soul-searching

Starring – and singing – as June Carter Cash in 2009 with Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line

Starring as Carrie in The Good Lie, who helps settle Sudanese refugees into a new life in America

In the 2014 film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild, for which Witherspoon received an Oscar nomination

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TH E fi l m

THE GOOD LIE

Witherspoon’s latest tells the story

of Sudanese war orphans as a

humanitarian effort offers 3,600 lost

boys and girls a new life in the USA.

Witherspoon stars as employment

agency counsellor Carrie Davies,

alongside Sudanese actors (some

of whom were also children of war),

including Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany,

Emmanuel Jal, and newcomer Kuoth

Weil. A poignant tale of the innocent

victims of conflict, striving to find a

place in society, The Good Lie has at

its heart the warmth and generosity

of humankind, set against a backdrop

of brutality. As Davies finds herself

unexpectedly emotionally attached to

her charges, she enlists the help of her

boss, Jack (Corey Stoll) to help them in

more ways than her professional remit

entails. These unlikely strangers find

friendship, humour and affirmation

amid a clash of cultures and the

challenges of building new lives.

1,100-mile solo trek along the Pacific crest trail on the american west coast.

‘i was looking for a project that had a strong female charac-ter. i wasn’t very happy with a lot of the scripts i had been reading and the kinds of projects i was being offered, so i decided to find something on my own. there are so many inte-resting and powerful female-driven stories out there waiting to be told. i read cheryl’s novel before it even came out and as soon as i finished it, i knew that this was something i had to do even if it scared me. the next morning, i called my agent and said: “i need to speak to this woman right away. her book is extraordinary.” it was such a powerful and beautiful story of a woman who saved herself,’ she explains. ‘We had a great chat. i felt that i had gotten to know cheryl and that i wanted to turn her story into a movie. i wanted to do it in a way that would honour her journey and her struggle.’

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strayed’s book told the tale of a woman attempting to find her true identity after going through some tough emotional challenges, but doing that story justice was going to prove physically challenging for Witherspoon. ‘the first day of shooting i was freezing,’ she recalls. ‘i went back to my hotel and called my husband and complained to him, “i’m not going to be able to handle this. this is too cold.” he just said to me,

“When you sign on to do a movie called Wild – a movie about a woman hiking over 1,000 miles – did you think that that was going to be fun?”’

‘i don’t want to compare anything i had to deal with to what cheryl lived through,’ says Witherspoon. ‘but, for me, it was by far the hardest movie i’ve ever made. We were shooting in remote locations and the crew was slogging lots of heavy equipment just as i had to carry a backpack. Jean-marc [Vallée, the French canadian director] actually made me

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“ It was excItIng to play a woman wHo took cHarge of Her lIfe In sucH a dramatIc way”

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carry a heavier, 65lb backpack as opposed to the 45lb one i had on at first – and if you see me grimacing while i’m carrying that backpack around in the movie, i can tell you there wasn’t a lot of acting involved in that!’

there were emotional challenges, too, when the actress was faced with shooting explicit sex scenes. ‘i nearly backed out of the movie when i started thinking more and more about how i was going to do those scenes. i’ve never done sex scenes like that before, and i was feeling a lot of anxiety the closer we came to starting production. i even called my lawyer and told him that he had to get me out of the movie because i didn’t feel i could do it. i was frantic with worry and told him: ‘i can’t make this movie. i’m going to have to be more raw, more emotional, more sexually explicit than i’ve been in any movie.’

Raw and honestFortunately, her lawyer knew her well, and calmed her down enough to talk through the scenes with her husband and some close friends. ‘i decided that after feeling unhappy with a lot of the work i had been doing, that this was the kind of role i had been looking for, so i had better toughen up and get on with the job.’

‘too often, women are made to feel ashamed of their sexual behaviour. society still attaches a lot of stigma when it comes to women who are very free about sex or having many rela-tionships. it’s just such a liberation i think, particularly for young women, to know that it’s really oK to have these explo-rations. and it was so exciting to play a woman who took charge of her life in such a dramatic way. how many times will you see a film like Wild where the woman ends up with no man, no money, no family, no opportunity, but she still has a happy ending?’

‘this incredible physical journey was cheryl strayed’s pro-cess of healing herself and saving herself from everything that had gone wrong for her. you truly appreciate that kind of determination and resolve, and it makes you never want to complain about anything ever again. i feel very grateful for all the good things that are part of my life.’

While Wild portrayed one woman’s struggle to redefine herself on a solitary hike and rebuild a broken life, Witherspoon’s latest film, The Good Lie chronicles the har-rowing true story of ‘the lost boys’ – thousands of children orphaned in the second sudanese civil War, who trek hun-dreds of miles to an ethiopian refugee camp as they attempt to rebuild their own lives.

The Good Lie focuses on four of these children, and follows them as, years later, they are selected for resettlement in the usa. When they arrive in Kansas, they are met by carrie – played by Witherspoon – who is tasked with finding them jobs in this strange new world and supervising them as they make the transition to their life in america. again, the project had a profound effect on Witherspoon, and she hopes it will do the same for others.

‘there are so many times you think you appreciate your life, but then you see someone else’s perspective on our privileges and the opportunities we have, whether it’s education, health-care, food or running water. one of my favourite scenes is when [one of the refugees] is running his hands under the water tap and he’s turning the water on and off after they’ve walked through the desert and been without water and food for days. i thought it was a great message for families. it’s important to say that i think it’s great to take your kids to see this movie. it brings up a lot of dinner table conversations that we should all be having. and yeah, i’ll take my kids.’

in fact, when Witherspoon visited a refugee camp in sou-thern sudan as part of her research for the role, she took her daughter with her. ‘ava is a wonderful, socially conscious girl, but even a kid that reads a million books about a situation doesn’t understand it until they see it for themselves. i was very lucky that the organisers let her come, because she is a little young to be on one of these trips – she’d just turned 14. it was amazing. she didn’t say a word the whole day. then, she really didn’t talk about it until a couple of days later.

‘We saw women giving birth on metal tables with their infant laying there with no clothes on, kids that were sick, and children her brother’s age sitting on concrete slabs and slee-ping with seven other brothers and sisters. i think seeing the conditions was one thing, but the other really remarkable thing about it is witnessing the joy and the determination of these people to rise above their situation, and their determi-nation to have a better life for their children.

‘their spirit was just incredible. they greet you with smiles and laughter and hugs and dancing. it’s definitely going to affect her for a long time – as it does for me as well. it created consciousness, awareness and hopefully a feeling of wanting to give back. i think travel like that can be the antidote to any kind of selfish behaviour.’

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