At just over 5’2, she may be petite, but Reese Witherspoon is a towering figure in Hollywood. Not only is she an Oscar-winning actress and one of the most bankable stars in show business, America’s favorite perky blonde, who turns 32 in March, is also emerging as a powerhouse producer.
Penelope, a charming, off-kilter modern fairy tale about a young girl who sports a pig-shaped snout due to a curse on her blueblood family, is Witherspoon’s first major effort as an executive producer–one so hands on that she shepherded the material all the way from script to screen and even takes on a supporting role as a tough-talking, leather-clad bike babe (OK, it’s a Vespa).
Witherspoon gave Hollywood.com the lowdown on the pleasures of going behind the scenes, working with her cast, going head-to-head (kinda) with Vince Vaughn in her next film, and her overwhelming desire to tweak her sweet image by playing a “kick-ass” chick.
Hollywood.com: Penelope is your stint as the producer of an independent film.
Reese Witherspoon: This is the first independent film. We produced Legally Blonde 2 and then this was the first film that we found the script, found the director, and did all the heavy lifting. My producing partner Jennifer Simpson brought me the script about four years ago. She had been working with my company, she found the script, and she loved it. It was a script that other people had read, there were a lot of ideas about how to make it. People tossed around making it an animated movie. When she brought it to me I just thought it was great. It was perfect for our company because at the center it was a wonderful, fantastic, cinematic movie. At the center it also had a really great female character who was strong, ambitious, but definitely had a journey to go through to get to the place where she would find herself.
HW: Did you ever think about playing Penelope yourself?
RW: Yeah, I actually did. I thought about it, but I got busy with other commitments and the movie had to go forward. We decided to cast it but I always knew I wanted to be in it in some capacity. It was kind of fun for me to get to play a smaller character and get to be a “broad.” [PAGEBREAK]
HW: Can you talk about casting Christina Ricci?
RW: She was my first choice. I was so excited, it’s great when you have this hot script in your hand, and you’ve got this great character. You are like ‘Ooo, my choices!’ so Christina was my first choice. We were lucky when we sent her the script. She and I sat down for lunch and I thought ‘She is not going to want to do this.’ Here is this weird pig face. I think that people around her were thinking she didn’t want to do it, she just came in and was like ‘No, I’m excited! I want to do this. I want to wear this pig face, I think it’s great, and it’s awesome.’ I was like ‘Are you sure?’ and she just was fearless. That is what I have always loved about Christina, she has a real intelligence to her work. She always plays a very intelligent woman, also very sharp, very witty, and she’s always just been great. We grew up auditioning together. We had known each other for years from sitting in the waiting room, waiting to get cast, or not cast in movies. We made a friendship. It was great to finally have that collaboration we had talked about for so many years.
HW: What do you guys have in common as actresses, and how do you differ?
RW: Losing a lot of parts to other actresses, being really grumpy, and miserable about it. No, I think we have a similar sensibility. She is younger than I am. In The Opposite of Sex she’s got this great force of nature about her. You do want to wrap your arms around her and love her, that’s why I’m so excited about this film. I do think it’s an opportunity for audiences to really embrace her. She’s great and she’s got great taste, too.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: You don’t get a chance very often to play a supporting role. Is it nice to not have to be the star and carry the weight of an entire movie on your shoulders?
RW: Yeah, I carried the weight in other ways. Like “How are we going to get distribution?” and that kind of thing. It’s fun, it’s sort of very freeing to play a supporting character. Those are the kind of parts I came up playing, so it was kind of nice to return to that. I love those kinds of characters. Like Barbara Stanwyck – you don’t know if she’s going to kiss you or stab you in the neck. I love those kinds of characters.
HW: Speaking of that, what did you have to do to develop your character, who’s a departure from the kinds of women you’ve played before?
RW: I found somebody I thought was kind of like her and I just kind of mimicked her. It was fun, yeah. I got to run around the streets of London on a Vespa. I got to wear the funny hair, just be ballsy, and funny.
HW: You said you enjoyed having the chance to play a broad. What are your broad qualities? What did you do to embrace them? Do you have any in real life?
RW: Fast-talking, sharp-shooting, tough girl. Yeah, I like to think I’m really tough on the outside, with a caramel sweet center. Most people who know me would agree.
HW: We heard there were some mishaps on the Vespa when you were actually filming on it?
RW: Yeah, it’s because I’m height-challenged. My feet wouldn’t touch the ground on the Vespa. They tried to lower it as low as they possibly could and my feet still couldn’t touch the ground on the Vespa. We had to put it on a rig. Christina is pretty short too and she had to sit on the back. Somebody went off, so we had to rig it up, and do it good old movie style. I think that was it.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: What do you hope that young girls in particular who are having a really tough time with image, take away from this movie?
RW: I guess that there are all sorts of definitions of beauty. Beyond what is the physical aspect of beauty it’s about finding what makes you unique is what can be really defining in your life. It’s important to really know yourself.
HW: Was the family-friendly quality of Penelope especially appealing to you as a mom?
RW: It’s always important. Sometimes I get frustrated that there are not a lot of really great female characters out there that young women can look at and go “I want to be like that, it’s awesome.” I go to movies and I get frustrated. I’m just like “Shoot him! Just shoot him!” Why does the guy get to shoot him? Why can’t the girl shoot him? I miss those characters in film. I feel like it would be nice to see more of them. I’m happy to be part of something where I feel like there is a great female character, which Christina plays, and it could be inspiring to people.
HW: Are you saying you would like to play a really kick-ass female character yourself?
RW: Yes, possibly I would like to do that, and I would like to see other women do it. I love to see Angelina Jolie in movies like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I can’t wait to see her in Wanted. I think those movies where women have great strength, and character, it’s always interesting.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: What kind of character do you play in your next film, Four Christmases?
RW: I play a woman who is in a relationship with a man [and] we both mutually agree we don’t want to see our families. Every Christmas we travel and have a very particular theology about relationships, and life, that we are never going to get married, never have children, but we like our life. Through a course of events we have to go home. Both of our parents are divorced so we have to go to Four Christmases in one day.
HW: And Vince is your man in this one. How did you like trying to keep up with his improvisational approach? Did it throw you?
RW: It’s actually great. He’s a wonderful collaborator. He’s inspiring and he’s so open. I was scared to death the first day. I was like “Oh no! He’s going to say a million things and I’m not going to know what to say back.” The good news is we had been working on it for five months in a room. I had gotten used to his personality and how fast his mind works. His mind literally works so fast. I said to him ‘People can’t talk as fast as you think.’ You can’t keep up with him. I feel like I’ve been in Vince Vaughn training. Now by the end, he says one thing and I’m like “Blah, blah, blah.” [To herself] “Shut up, just stop talking, you never shut up.”
HW: Did you ever throw him? Were you ever thinking “Yes! That was the greatest comeback I could ever throw at him?”
RW: I got him a couple of times. I have to say it’s like a mental bench mark for me. I was like ‘Yes! I got him!’ Probably only twice. He gets me six times, and I get him twice.
HW: Do the unexpected one-liners go off-color?
RW: Yeah, have you met him? [Laughs] Sometimes I have to go home and call my brother and say “What is a Connecticut Waffle?” I’m sorry, I still don’t know what it is, so I’m sorry if I have offended anybody. Literally, it will be like… I don’t even know. It’s words I’ve never heard of.
HW: He’s 6’5, you’re a little over 5’2”. How did you deal with those scenes where you’re supposed to be face to face, and you’re face to belly button.
RW: It really is that the top of my head hits his armpit maybe. I drag my apple box around. I have an apple box, it’s Reese’s apple box, and I have a platform, and an apple box, and I just drag it with me and stand on it next to him.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: As an Oscar winner do you look at scripts through a different eye in the future? Is it just a nice thing on the resume and you go forward like you always have?
RW: I think you just have to go forward like you always have. I’ve never let anything stop me. You are who you are in life. You are just who you grew up being. I still feel like I can barely afford an apartment sometimes. I call my accountant and I go ‘Can I afford to buy that car?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, you can.’ ‘Okay.’ I think, in the sense of choosing material, I feel like I’m always choosing things based on where I’m at in life. The process of what I’ve gone through recently is always a part of decision making. It’s interesting how things come your way that are right for you. You gravitate towards things that you are trying to work out in your own life.
HW: Your company’s name, Type A, implies a lot of ambition on your part. You have achieved so much in your career. Where are your ambitions now? What are the things that you still want to check off the list?
RW: Kick-ass female role, definitely shooting somebody in the neck, in a movie. Or in the knee or something – just the knee, nothing permanent. I don’t’ know. I have a lot of ambitions. I really am interested in doing a period film. There are a lot of filmmakers I would love to work with, like Ridley Scott. There are other actors I think are really interesting. I really like Marion Cotillard, I thought that movie La Vie en Rose is so good. I am endlessly inspired, but now I’m interested more in design and production design. I’m getting more involved in that sort of thing.
HW: Directing?
RW: Possibly, I think I’m inching towards it, I have to say. [Laughs] Be afraid, be very afraid, I’m not doing that exactly next. It’s very inspiring to see people like Sarah Polley who I was auditioning with, being on the cover of Vanity Fair with, and seeing her adapt the Alice Munro short story, and direct Julie Christie to an Oscar nomination. That’s really inspiring.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: What is the best career advice you have ever received and who gave it to you?
RW: The best career advice was never miss an opportunity to just be quiet. That is always a good piece of advice, just in life. It was actually put “Never miss an opportunity to just shut up.” That was from my granddad. Also, the interesting thing about our business is it’s so ever evolving. Always be nice to everybody, particularly the people that answer the phones, because they are going to be your boss in four years. It’s true, it happens all the time.
