Reese Witherspoon opened up to the Los Angeles Times about her self-made rocket-ship to success, and why she wants to pull other women up with her.
NO FEAR
She says part of her success is due to her confidence and inherent beliefs in life and what comes later: “I don’t have a lot of fear, that’s true. There’s a time and a purpose and a place, and I don’t fear death, because I know there’s heaven. I know it.”
Still, Witherspoon acknowledges that between coronavirus and the current national conversation about systemic inequality, it isn’t easy. She says of a recent conversation with Ava (she also has younger sons Deacon and Tennessee): “I believe deeply that there’s a higher power — and I don’t know what that is — but I just don’t fear dying. A lot of people have these repressive experiences with religion, and I didn’t. I felt this incredible acceptance and that everyone has a gift and we’re all God’s children and your purpose in the world is to find the gifts that God gave you.”
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Witherspoon also shared insight into the launch of media company Hello Sunshine, created to tell the stories about all kinds of women. She says she had a wake-up call in her late 30s: “I’ll never forget, I had a financial advisor tell me, ‘You need to start saving,’ I was like 37, and he said, ‘You need to start saving right now, because you’re going to be making drastically less money in your 40s. Basically, you’re not going to have much of a career.’ And he’s apologizing, but not really. ‘I’m sorry to tell you, but somebody has to be honest with you.’ I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget! It put me in a panic state.”
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Witherspoon has gone on to produce several award winners with diverse casts, including HBO‘s Big Little Lies and Apple TV‘s The Morning Show, plus Hulu‘s Little Fires Everywhere. Not that it’s been easy.
“I wasn’t getting calls … and I’m still not,” she says. “The phone’s not ringing. If Nicole Kidman and myself aren’t doing this work or Kerry Washington, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie and Laura Dern … we’re working hard to create a surplus. We have to give each other ideas and produce for each other, because no one’s out there thinking of us first.”