MAY 2017 29
»I’m tired of
seeing talented
women playing
thankless parts
Reese Witherspoon
E
ven though she’s long been
one of Hollywood’s most
beloved and well-respected
stars, Reese Witherspoon
has struggled to overcome
her image as an effervescent southern
belle. Best known as a rom-com queen,
she felt frustrated and despondent with
her career when – despite winning an
Oscar for the Johnny Cash biopic
Walk the Linein 2006 – she couldn’t
convince the studios to allow her to
play the serious parts she craved.
“For a few years, I was a little bit
lost as an artist, not being able to find
what I wanted to do and making
choices that I wasn’t ultimately
very happy with,” says Reese. “I
wanted to play dynamic women
and be part of stories that
would allow me to explore allOnce condemned to rom-com hell, Reese Witherspoon is now one of
the most important women in movie-making, revolutionising the way
women are treated in Hollywood. She talks about love, loss and the
turning point in her career that changed everything.the doubts and anxieties I was facing
in my own life and that most women
go through.”
Films like the biographical survival
dramaWild(2014) and coming-of-age
dramaMud(2012) took her in that
direction and intensified her ambitions.
That led her to produce and star in
Big Little Lies, the acclaimed seven-
part series based on the best-seller by
Australian novelist Liane Moriarty
now streaming on Sky’s Neon channel.
Centred around a trio of mothers in an
affluent seaside town along the coast
of California, the series offers poignant
and often humorous insights into
issues that affect women and which are
vitally important to Reese, now 41. She
was excited to be producing a show
with such strong female leads.
“It’s a unique pleasure to be able tocome to other women with a piece of
material I feel deeply proud of,” she
says. “These are the kinds of things
that shift consciousness... We need to
create more series and movies that
treat women in a realistic way and
enable female audiences in particular
to see themselves and identify with
modern, complex female characters.
“What was great about reading
the novel for the first time is that
I saw myself in different stages of
motherhood. I was a mom at 22, I’ve
been divorced, I’ve been remarried...
They showed every spectrum and
colour of a woman’s life. I thought it
was incredible to have so many parts
for women in one piece of material.”
Reese, who previously produced
Gone Girl, the hit 2014 film that
starred Ben Affleck and Rosamund[Cover story]
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