The life of Reese Witherspoon

Brut America

"When women are the architects of the story, the stories change." Both on screen and off, she has used the world of film to empower women. This is Reese Witherspoon.

Transcript

00:00And I dread reading scripts that have no women involved in their creation because inevitably I get to that part

00:05Where the girl turns to the guy and she goes, what do we do now?

00:10Now, do you know any woman in any crisis situation?

00:23Any woman in any crisis who has absolutely no idea what to do

00:31I

00:45Believe ambition is not a dirty word. It's just believing in yourself and your abilities

01:00My mom really wanted me to be a pediatric

01:04Cardiologist, so sorry mom

01:07My dad really wanted me to be the great American novelist. So sorry dad

01:14But as it turns out as a result of this career I have been a doctor a Harvard Law School

01:21graduate an Olympic athlete

01:31I

01:44Just figured out I was kind of good at it when I was young and I just liked being funny and I liked making people

01:49laugh and entertaining people and it just

01:53you know, I worked worked like a dog to go into the business and

01:58And just sort of, you know worked out that way

02:08I remember when I was 18 years old and I was applying to colleges and I had this male college counselor and he said don't even

02:15Bother applying to Stanford sweetie. You're your SAT scores aren't good enough and I just don't aren't gonna want you

02:20But I did it anyway, and I got in

02:27You

02:29You

02:31You

02:55You think this girl is certainly

02:57Not very smart because of the way she speaks the way she looks and then

03:00She just turns the tables on everybody and becomes smarter than everyone and I just love that

03:08It was great to be in the executive producer because I got to work really closely with the screenwriter on the script and put a lot

03:15of my own ideas into it and

03:17You know, I thought it was really important if I was gonna do a sequel of this movie to make it very socially responsible

03:27You

03:46Singing was terrifying for me. I never sung professionally and

03:51Had a lot of fear of it

03:54Because very early on someone told me I wasn't a very good singer so

03:58You know, you got to be careful what you tell little kids. They really believe you

04:23You

04:54You

04:59It was time to turn to myself and say what are we gonna do now?

05:02Okay, Reese. What are we gonna do now? And the answer is really clear my mother who's here tonight

05:08Very strong smart southern woman said to me if you want something done, honey, do it yourself

05:24You

05:34You know, my daughter really motivates me as well because I want you know, I want her to have role models on film

05:39I want her to see real diverse interesting complicated women on film so that motivates me every day

05:53You

06:07This film from beginning to right to this moment has been my baby and

06:13It's my first movie. I produced and I'm just so

06:17Thrilled that not only you know to get these wonderful nominations, which will hopefully help more people see the film

06:22But that the movie is doing so well

06:24Like people are very hungry for these kinds of films and I'm just really proud of it and how it turned out

06:52You

07:16When women are the architects of the story the stories change and you see things differently

07:21So we need to see here stories from different types of people different every type of person and I think that's been going on too

07:27Long the same people telling stories over and over again, and it feels like it's changing. It really does

07:34You

07:50We are more united as an industry than we have ever been men and women determined to

07:57Change our own industry, but also shine a light on other industries

08:04You

08:34You

08:51I'm enormously proud to be producing these shows and bringing these opportunities to the to these wonderful talented people

09:04You

09:34You

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