Reese Witherspoon talks to Tim Nasson
Los Angeles – It’s been almost fifteen years since I first sat with, well, a fifteen year old, tomboyish Reese Witherspoon. The setting was an empty theater at Loews Copley Place in Boston, about a half hour before her first movie, “The Man In the Moon,” was to screen for a hyper group of Boston Latin high school students – waiting impatiently in the theater’s lobby.
Confident, even though her first movie had not yet been released, Witherspoon was the shining star, sitting on folding table at the front of the movie theater, next to “The Man In the Moon” costar Jason London, bubbling with enthusiasm. It was as if she had just found the career she was looking for – while still in high school.
It would be eight years before I would sit with Witherspoon, the daughter of two doctors, again. Actually, two separate times in 1999; the first for her role as Annette Hargrove in “Cruel Intentions,” which she costarred with husband Ryan Phillippe – whom she met at a birthday party the year before.
The second time I sat with Reese, (her mother’s maiden name), in 1999 was for her pitch perfect role as the duplicitous high school president wanna be, Tracy Flick in the film “Election.”
Witherspoon’s role in “Election” was Oscar worthy, yet for whatever reason – her youthful age, beautiful looks, or the fact that the role was comedic and not one where played a transgender murder victim – the Academy overlooked her.
It was with “Legally Blonde,” in 2001, though, that Witherspoon took the world by storm. There can’t be a person who has ever been to a movie theater under the age of fifty who doesn’t know who Elle Woods is.
Witherspoon could have become richer and more famous a lot faster had she not turned down the lead in “Scream,” which went on to earn a gazillion dollars and spawn two successful sequels.
“‘Legally Blonde’ came out of nowhere,” recalls Witherspoon. “While shooting the film, I loved the character and the script but no one, not anyone on the set, had any idea that Elle Woods was going to become an iconic character.”
While Elle Woods will live in infamy, the sequel to “Legally Blonde,” died a quick death at theaters and was relegated to the ‘Under $10 Bin’ at the local DVD store within weeks of its release.
“The sequel was rushed, had different writers and a different director. Who knows how it would have turned out if everyone involved with the first ‘Blonde’ came back for the second?”
Witherspoon has a point. Robert Luketic, who directed the original “Legally Blonde,” went on to direct “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton,” “Monster-In-Law” and is currently behind the camera shooting the big screen version of the television soap “Dallas.”
One must move on, however, and move on Witherspoon has.
“Sweet Home Alabama” was the comedy hit of the summer of 2002.
“Making ‘Just Like Heaven’ was a lot of fun,” says working mom, Reese, whose husband, while still taking select roles, spends a lot of time with the two kids, a six year old daughter and two year old son, while she is on set. “I play a spirit who haunts the apartment she lived in while she was alive. I have never worked so closely with one actor before on a movie. With this film, I was working side by side with Mark Ruffalo in almost every scene. It was a different kind of experience but since we got a long so well together it made for a pleasant few months.
“This may sound a bit kooky,” reveals Witherspoon. “But I watch all those John Edwards shows on television and read all the Sylvia Brown novels. There is something comforting believing that people who are no longer alive are still influencing the lives of living people.”
Nearly thirty years old, now, that elusive Oscar may not be that far away.
In November, Witherspoon costars with Joaquin Phoenix in the bio pic of Johnny Cash’s life, “Walk the Line.” In it she plays Ruth Carter-Cash. I have seen the movie. And there have not been such dead-on portrayals of musicians since Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne crawled into the shoes of Ike & Tina Tuner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” – twelve years ago – and earned Best Actor and Best Actress nominations for their roles.
