That's Reese: stepping into the ring of fire

Interview, Dec, 2005 by Ingrid Slschy

[Ingrid Sischy and Reese Witherspoon are shown to a quiet table on the patio of the Cabana Club Cafe at the Beverly Hills Hotel.]

INGRID SISCHY: Time for me to get out my trusty old tape recorder. As you can see, it's an antique, so sometimes I have to kick it or bang it on the table until the spools go around again.

REESE WITHERSPOON: [laughs] You haven't gone digital yet?

IS: No way. Okay, so on to you. What interests me about so many of the pieces that have been written about you is that they seem fixed on an old-fashioned idea of what women get to have in life--they make a big deal about the fact that you are successful and also nave a solid marriage with kids-

RW: Depends on the week. [both laugh]

IS: A big deal is made that you went to Stanford, that you're smart and together. It's as if people are surprised, as if--

RW: That's impossible? Well, I just don't see any of it as that remarkable. Maybe that's the attitude I choose to have to keep me sane and keep my feet on the ground. I grew up in an environment where women accomplished a lot. And if they weren't able to it was because they were limited by society. I grew up with a grandma--my father's mother--who was incredibly intelligent but was limited by the bounds of society and propriety. I think she really struggled with depression because of it. She was a voracious reader, and she encouraged me to read a lot as a child; but I always sensed this disconnect between her capabilities and her lack of fulfillment and achievement, because she could have done so much more.

IS: Was she from the South?

RW: Yeah. We're all Southern. [laughs] My grandmother's from Cookeville, Tennessee. My mom is from Harrian, which is near Knoxville. And my dad is originally from Georgia, but he grew up in Nashville. A lot of the family's been rooted there for a long time or are from different parts of Tennessee, like the rural parts.

IS: Were they big storytellers?

RW: Absolutely. There's a culture of that in our house. I grew up in that tradition, learning to be funny and silly and tell stories and exaggerate--I exaggerate a lot! [laughs] It drives my husband [the actor Ryan Phillippe] crazy! I embellish, and I add years to people's ages and add amounts to things that happened--"Forty paparazzi were there, honey. It was crazy! They were coming at me from all sides!" It's about pulling people in, you know?

IS: Of course.

RW: And it's a Southern storytelling tradition that June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash [played by Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line] invoked a lot. It's about connecting and not being aloof. [laughs] There's nothing alienating or aloof about country music or a Southern sensibility, so I had a sort of natural in to a lot of what the movie is about.

IS: Before we go to Walk the Line, which by the way you're incredible in, I want to stay on this thing about connecting and drawing people in. It's been a long story for you, since you were 7, right?

RW: Well, what happened was the grandmother of my best friend in the neighborhood had a flower shop, and they made a commercial to run on the local station. I got to be in it, and I just thought that was so exciting! [laughs]

IS: What do you think it was that drew you?

RW: I have no idea. When you become an actor and you have some success, you begin to contemplate why on earth you ended up doing it! You ask yourself, What is it that drives me to need attention? Sometimes I think it's about acknowledgment. I always felt like people didn't understand me what I was capable of or what I could accomplish. I was driven to make people understand that I was capable of more. It's something I see in my own children too, so possibly it's a defective gene. [laughs] But for me part of the experience of acting is that it is really moving--it's almost meditative, going into a different character. You lose all self-consciousness and self-awareness for that brief moment. It's really magical. Of course, it can also be drudgery if you can't connect with the material or director.

IS: Has that happened to you?

RW: Oh, sure. I don't think there's anybody without those experiences of disconnect.

IS: Your choice to be an actor sure is interesting, especially given the fact that your parents are in medicine, a totally different field from what one associates with the narcissism of Hollywood and all that. What was their reaction?

RW: The great thing about my parents is, even if they were completely befuddled and perplexed as to why their child was interested in this--which they later told me they were--they never showed their doubts to me and took it as seriously as someone would when their child says, "I like gymnastics," or "I'm good at soccer." They never complained about paying the money, even though these things add up and become expensive; they had to drive me everywhere, but they could see my enthusiasm and encouraged me. They didn't step on my dreams or see them as inconvenient to their lives.

IS: And what about when you felt beaten down, like when you'd go for an audition and they'd say you're too this or not enough that?