Reese Witherspoon Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Roles | PEOPLE

Movies are fun because you think they're a thing when you make them and then they go out into the world and take on a life of their own and it's not really up to you, it kind of belongs to the

people

once you put it on. in the world I wish I could be like you you don't talk nonsense it's not nonsense you're the smartest girl in school you're so pretty it hurts kids fall down by themselves when you walk down the street and I I'm just a man lump in the moon was my first movie.

I auditioned for it in Nashville when I was 14. They did a talent search across the country for a southern girl and I got the part. How was it perfect? I remember entering. from softball practice and the phone ringing to the kids this was when the phone was on the wall and it had a curly cord going back to the wall my mom said my mom picked it up and said what do you mean kings they said? that they wanted you to come do a movie and I was like what she said, they said you got the part and we were all screaming and jumping up and down and it was really, it was a really magical, incredible moment, see, I believe in the voters understand that elections are not just popularity contests, they know that this country was built by

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like me, who work very hard and don't get everything handed to them with a silver spoon, oh my goodness, it was so much fun to play Tracy's movie.

I remember when I read the script I thought I have to play this role, I have to play this character and I remember walking into an audition and I looked at Alexander Payne, the director, and I thought: you can audition other people, but I'm the right person for this part, it was like shit, okay, I'm ready to go and I never let go of that character. I flew to Omaha, Nebraska and had every day. It was a great pleasure with Alexander, he is very funny, he and I would do it. Laugh all the time and he just let me be free to be as silly and weird as I wanted.

I remember watching the movie and crying because I was like that. He did that thing where he stops moving on my face while I'm talking. so I'm like that at certain times I'm like that, I thought why did you do that? I look so bad and I was like crying and I thought and then people started calling me and saying, I love this movie. I'm obsessed with this movie, this movie is so funny, so great, it was amazing that people loved it so much and that she became such an

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female political character because we don't have that many and she's kind of an archetype of de American ambition and this idea of ​​a woman who wants to get ahead and it's an interesting thing if you step back and look at it now, what are the qualities that we thought were not good about her ambition and now that we encourage it in young women, so it's a real change.

I think please stop, it's okay, you can last. I promise I won't tell anyone. Cruel Intentions was so much fun that I just remember reading the script and thinking, well, this is just a fun ride and getting to work. with Sarah, who is the ultimate vampire slayer, and Ryan and I were together as this couple and we were having a lot of fun and it was fun, we had a great time. I remember being in New York City and driving that, in the last scene where I'm driving the Jaguar, they had a helicopter shooting at us and I was like, oh man, this is like a real movie.

Magic, this is so cool, so what did you do that made daddy interrupt you? Okay, I bought. a boat, you bought a boat, yes, but it wasn't for me, it was for a friend Bo, we become friends with the wrong sister, oh my god, still being friends to this day is one of my scariest moments because it was in front of a live audience yeah, hi, and I never really did theater. I had never been in front of a live audience and I was blown away by how that cast pivoted so quickly with their banter and that's Joey, hey, how's it going, don't do it and they had this natural rapport and rhythm between them that I don't think I've ever seen before. has really existed, I've never seen it again, it was just these six people working together on Rhythm um and so you could tell they really loved each other um So it was really lovely for me to be able to see them.

I was the girl on set. I think I was 22 and of course Jen was the sweetest to me. It was always her. I just had a baby and I remember her and Courtney. running to my dressing room saying: can we see the baby? You have a baby. I was like, "I do, y'all, I have a baby," they were like, "We can touch the baby, we can hold the baby." I was like, yeah, here and AA was on. set and I had to put her on the couch in Central Park and I still have a little picture of her in Central Park and she's like a baby like that, you got into Harvard Law, what's hard, oh my gosh, Warner, it's going to be cool .

I'm planning this big party. You have to help me. I'm thinking a luau or maybe a casino night. This will be like last year, except it will be more fun. Playing Elwoods was the highlight of my life. early in my career, I'm sure she was a really funny character, she was an underdog and I was just trying to find those parts of her that were really vulnerable, that feeling that people underestimate you and think you can't do things, which It's a feeling that so many people feel in this world and if I had no idea when we were doing it, it was going to touch the hearts of so many people and what I really love about lwoods is that I share that performance with so many young people thanks to the play of theater so many people have played lwoods, so I feel like I'll have all these great people come to me and it'll be like I've played lwoods.

I'm like I've touched lwoods. We're both out of the woods so it's something that I really share with a lot of people oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh you know a lot of people come up to me about Legally Blonde and say they went to law school for Legally Blonde and they didn't. You realize when you're making a movie, the impact it's going to have once it hits the world, but I'll go to places like Japan or Russia or Poland, or I've been all over the world and I've had women. and you tell me: you made me want to be a lawyer, you made me want to get a higher degree or, um, you made me believe in myself and that's it.

I can't express how satisfying it is, especially when listening to little girls. and/or write their college essays on I want to be like The Witz um that's a big part of my life I want to show you something I can't, can't or won't both, all I want to say about Sweet Home Alabama is that it's not Matthew McCon. I know a lot of people think it's Matthew. Matthew always says that everyone comes up to me and says, are you in s? and I don't, and I say: I know it well, I know it and I really just did it well.

I've done three movies with Matthew, but no, he's not in Sweet Home Alabama and he's never coming back. I knew it was a big task because we did seven months of voice and instrument training, so we all had to learn to play. instruments, we all had vocal training, we all had to record an album, um, and it was a tremendous amount of work, but Tbone Bernett, who is a music legend, guided us through that whole experience and, thank God for him, still every time I see him. I see him all the time I tell him T-Bone, thank you for making me a country music star, it was my biggest dream come true because when I was a little girl before I wanted to be an actor, I wanted to be a country music star.

I wanted to be Dolly Parton, that was my dream, my dream, so he made my dream come true. T-Bone and James Mangold, who wrote and directed the movie, and working with Walken was just amazing to see a person disappear in a performance like that. It really transported you to another time and the costumes were so beautiful and such a beautiful love story. It was truly a privilege to play June. I just remember that every time I was completely surprised that I won a prize that I did. the opportunity to play a woman that I admired so much but I was also rewarded by my peers who I admire so much, so the fact that the academy voted for me was really a validation that my mother used to say something that pushed me.

Crazy, there is a sunrise and sunset every day and you can choose to be there. You can put yourself on the path of beauty. Well, Wild is a very important film in my career because it is the first film I produced. I bought the book before. ever came out and it was before it was published and I was fine and I put my own money into it and I developed it and I thought I was going to star in it and that's how my career as a producer started and it's very close. in my heart because Laura dn is one of my best friends in the whole world since that movie, we didn't know each other before that movie and Cheryl Str is just one of the

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phenomenal writers of our time writing about emotions, pain and loss. and I love it, I learned a lot in that film and I was able to be with a director who really changed my career a lot, which is the ballet John Mar, who also directed Big Eyes.

If I were you, I'd just let it go. I would do it with Bonnie Abigail, I would put up with it, no, I love my grudges, I take care of them like little pets, oh wow, I mean, you know, I had seen Nicole Kidman before at the Oscars once, okay, all of you, and her was nominated for Mulan Rouge. and I remember stopping her and just bragging about her and saying "I just want you to know that I think you're incredibly talented and I just hope that one day I get the chance to work with you" and she said, "Oh, that's so lovely, thank you so much." . a lot, that's my nickel impression, um, but then when that book came out, big lies and she and I were bidding on it and we had a mutual producer who called us both and said why don't we all do it together and so on. .

Honestly, every day I was on that set I couldn't believe that I was sitting across from Nicole and that she was acting in a role and I was acting with her. I al

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stared at her half the time because I couldn't. I couldn't believe it was happening and I was like you're Nicole Kman. She said: I know. I was like: I just wanted you to know. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of what came to you. I give you the gift of your flaws. You're welcome, you know that my flaws are bad qualities, right?

Are they really? Well then you're ready, you want to ask me about Oprah. I simply love her. She's really as cool as you think. She is really sincere. The cool thing that I got to do a movie with her and the best thing about doing a movie with Oprah was spending 3 hours with her every day in the makeup trailer because she's that inspiring all the time. I'll see you on Tuesday, okay? Maybe we could go for a drink or something next week. I just feel like when you came back I had all these barriers up and it wasn't fair.

I would really love to, oh my gosh, it's been so much fun doing the Morning Show with Jen. um this was also based on a book and we also called each other and said we should do this together, we should do a TV show together and it felt so good that it was a moment, it was like this, this pivotal moment in journalism where everything was changing and we were seeing behind the scenes what was happening to women in the news and media and it was the perfect time for us to jump into this project together, we just had dinner last night, we are sisters for life, we are sisters in friends Now we're work wives and um, nothing has ever felt more natural, we just love each other, it's really, it's great love.