“I get crazy in a bookstore. It makes my heart beat hard because I want to buy everything.”
“I was in fifth grade and thought I was in love with a boy named Graham. So we kissed. Then he broke my heart and told everybody that I was flat-chested and that’s why he didn’t like me anymore.” – on her first kiss
“I was thinking about why I make movies, and I know why. Life is hard. It’s nice to go escape and have a good time at the movies. If I can give people a movie about hope, love and the future, then I’ve done my job.”
• From 2010
“It definitely sometimes feels like a suit that I wish I could zip off. But I don’t feel bad about any of the things I’ve gone through, whether it’s divorce or breakups or anything like that, because that’s all part of the life journey, and I have those experiences just like anyone else. And I think it deepens what you tap into creatively.” – speaking to Entertainment Weekly about her divorce
“I’d say 99 per cent of the people who come up to me, the energy is totally positive. Not that people don’t come up and go, ‘I hated your last movie, it sucked’ – and I go, ‘I know, I’m sorry. Do you want your money back?'”
“It’s probably not a good idea to talk about your exes too much on a first date. It’s also no good to have a panic attack or take off all your clothes. Better to keep you clothes on!” – giving dating tips whilst promoting ‘How Do You Know’.
“I’m definitely happy. I’m happy with all the experiences I’ve had. I’ve learned what I don’t want. I’ve probably gotten closer to what I do want. It’s good.”
“Sometimes my children (ask), ‘Why weren’t you in school?’ I have such guilt about it. It’s terrible. (I tell them), ‘I know it’s hard to be without your mom sometimes or I can’t be room mom or go on all the field trips, but when you go to college and out into the real world, most people will have that experience. Actually, their mothers probably worked longer. My mother worked all day and all night, and every weekend, as a nurse. My mom always said, ‘Your job is your life insurance.’ You can’t depend on anybody but yourself. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have my job.”
“I would love to have more kids. Kids are the best part of my day. I don’t wake up to make movies. I wake up to hang out with my family.”
• From 2008
“I’m very lucky I get to bring my children to great places and they get to see the world with me, and we get to grow and learn and experience things together.” – on travelling with her children
• From 2007
“The thing that was most valued was intelligence. My dad was very, very academic. And my mother’s academic. And that was sort of a standard. Anyway, that was hard to reach.”
“I spend too much money – I’m obsessed with shoes! And I eat a lot of chocolate. And I drink a lot of coffee. And sometimes I’m not too honest with people. Not always a good thing in this business.”
“I’m fun. I can be really fun.”
“Why do Southern women make bad prostitutes? ‘Cuz we have to write so many thank-you notes! And so true!”
[telling her favorite joke]
“Everybody is hung out to dry now. It’s one think if you’re up for it and you want it, and you go out without your panties on. But if you’re wearing your panties-gosh darn it, leave me alone!”
[on the Paparazzi]
“[My dad and uncle] taught me that in every relationship, the person least interested in maintaining it is going to dominate it, because they’ll never compromise. So you have to always maintain that position of least interest, and you’ll always control the relationship.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I were [always in control]. I wouldn’t be able to have the empathy or the capacity to understand different lives.”
“I don’t go in too much for the fashion stuff because I got other stuff to do. But I do appreciate people who love what they do and work hard on it.”
“Usually, I love the beauty of a great bag. Now I see things for really how little I need them. And how much of your day, as a woman, you can really fall into that rabbit hole.”
“It made me realize how much I have it all! It’s real purty on my bookcase. Everybody that comes to my house, I say, ‘You can touch it, but you have to give a speech.”
[On winning her Oscar]
“I think it’s great to drink in the middle of the day. I would join you, but I gotta drive to pick up the kids. You’re taking taxis everywhere. You could get drunk! You could go from appointment to appointment highly, highly smashed!”
“Right around Christmas-time I was sitting in a parking lot and I felt like I just couldn’t get out of the car. It was like, I can’t get out of the car. Any I though, Okay, half of the parking lot has dealt with this. More than half of the parking lot has dealt with this. Okay, let’s make it a little bigger. Half of this city has dealt with this. Okay, let’s make it a little bigger-half of this country, until I finally got out of the car. It was like, it’s okay. It’s okay. There’s this moment in Walk the Line where June Carter says, ‘I was never aware of how much I was seen.’ I was very aware of how much I was seen. It was this moment of self-discovery and loss of identity and who was stepping out of the car-you know? Who is that person? Should I not be this honest?”
[on the divorce]
“Actors have this influence — people ask about our clothes and things like that. I don’t want my politics to become part of that. It’s personal to me.”
“I’ve been to those marketing meetings where they talk about your approval ratings, who likes you and who doesn’t. But I don’t pay them much attention. The way I choose things is not that studied. I just try to make films that make me feel good.”
“Honestly, nothing has really changed. I still feel like I did when I first left my parents’ house. I’m still not sure what I can afford. I still call up my accountant if I want to rent a beach house for a weekend. I’ll call and ask him, ‘Can I afford that?'”
• From 2006
“I don’t know if people believe me, but the money’s just the icing on the cake for me. It’s really nice to be in this place. But if it all went away tomorrow, I’d still be happy. I’m thrilled with my family. I love my husband. I have great children. Literally, this is just a job.”
“Ryan grew up in Delaware and I grew up in Tennessee so we don’t have a lot of tolerance for children who want their way. We’re raising our children the way we were raised. They won’t get their own credit cards and fancy clothes any time soon!”
“I didn’t know I was the lead until I got the script and my character was on every page.”
[On landing the lead role in Man in the Moon]
“At that point there is nothing I can do to change the film. You only have control over it while you’re making it and once it’s out I pretty much relinquish any sort of torment I have about it. And I don’t read reviews.”
[Upon a films release]
“I just think there’s not enough strong political female figures. Hillary Clinton is the closest to representing the things I believe in, though I don’t align with her on every issue. I’m just saying that I wish there was someone out there who represented more of my ideas.”
“Obviously I have a set of political beliefs. I just don’t believe in talking about them publicly. I’ll vote, and I’ll talk to my friends. Truthfully, my opinion is not more important than anyone else’s. I’m just an actor, and if I had some really strong political conviction I’d run for office. We all have the right to have a voice, but it’s mixed messages when you’re selling movies and politics.”
“I have a couple Hollywood people I feel I have a connection with, and I’ll talk to them occasionally for support. But most of my friends are moms, and these are the people I relate to.”
“The thing that worries me most is that this generation of young women hasn’t been fully taught about the strides made by the women’s movement in the not-so-distant past—the struggle for votes or to be recognized for legitimate opinions. It irritates me that the sort of fad that ‘stupidity is cute’ might really be doing some serious damage. It’s the cheap answer, and let’s hope that their moment fades. Sorry, but I have a little girl.”
“I choose the roles I do because I want my daughter to see what strong, accomplished women are like.”
• From 2005
“It’s not like there’s a grand plan. I just look at whether the material appeals to me or not. I like to do my job, go home and play with my kids.”
“I grew up in that tradition, learning to be funny and silly and tell stories and exaggerate – I exaggerate a lot! I embellish, and I add years to people’s ages and add amounts to things that happened. It’s about pulling people in, you know?”
“What gets me is how many women – young women – give up their power and sense of self. Thinking they’re going to get more out of life if they take off their clothes and objectify themselves, instead of functioning on the principle that they’re smart and capable, that you can be an actress and not be on the covers of T&A magazines. I’m flabbergasted by how many legitimate actresses do that. It blows my mind.”
“I feel there are certain people who systematically ripping [feminism] down because of their lack of regard and their ignorance about what the women before us had to go through.”
“There’s a new type of magazine out there, which has insatiable needs for photographs of about 20 people, most of whom happen to be women. There’s illegal behaviour going on-the way they procure the photographs, the way they drive, the verbal harassment, preventing you from getting away – and I feel good about going on the record about it.”
“There’s nothing extraordinary about me. I have an extraordinary job, but I’m a regular person.”
“It was really, really hard. I was so darn nervous I had to have a bucket near by in case I was going to loose my lunch before I got up on the stage.”
[On performing in Walk the Line]
“There are no words in those things – a monkey could make those magazines.”
[On tabloid gossip magazines]
“People want movies that make you feel good, that make you believe in love, in hope, in life, in humanity. And I refuse to believe that big, commercial movies have to stink.”
“My whole childhood and high school experience was about CCR. I love Creedence. I just think it’s brilliant and amazing and beautiful and fun – that’s a party to me. Creedence!
[On the band Creedence Clearwater Revival]
“In ended up in big mainstream comedies by default. I couldn’t get a job after Election – I had a really hard time. I think because the character I played was so extreme and sort of shrewish – people thought that was who I was, rather than me going in and playing a part. I would audition for things, and I’d always be the second choice-studios never wanted to hire me, and I wasn’t loosing the parts to big box-office actresses but to ones who I guess people felt differently about. I’d get letters from the directors saying, ‘I loved your audition. I really wanted to cast you, but the studio wouldn’t let me.'”
• From 2004
“If Becky were alive today, there would probably be a 12-Step program for her – Ambitious Anonymous.”
[On her Vanity Fair character, Becky Sharp]
“I remember being such a voracious reader in kindergarten that I read all the books for the whole year in the first month. I am very goal-oriented.”
“I like work. If it’s not hard enough, I try to make it harder. I like the process of being daunted by it, tackling it, and knowing what I can do.”
“I did Vanity Fair for practically no money. It was like an art film. I could have done romantic comedy after romantic comedy, but at what cost? You burn yourself out. You get a bunch of movies you’re not proud of, and your career is over. I’m just taking my time.”
“When Mira starts talking about bosoms and heaving flesh, I start to sweat. There’s something about overt sexuality… It’s like scatological or something! I’m all about trying to make movies that have nothing to do with my body. I’m prudish and nervous. I don’t have the excuse that my grandmother is watching anymore, but she’s watching!”
[On filming Vanity Fair]
“It makes me nervous when I see a woman’s midriff showing. I would never do that on purpose, and if it happened by accident I’d be mortified. Like women on the cover of hootchy-kootchy magazines! The way I was brought up, I wasn’t allowed to wear black, and I wasn’t allowed to wear bikinis. And I was only allowed to wear two shades of lipstick-peach and pink. It was all about what was ‘appropriate.'”
“I study other people’s careers, and I spend a lot of time thinking, what would Tom Hanks do? I’m trying to stick around and make sure I have a career when I don’t I don’t seem like the new sexy thing.”
“I don’t want to be something I’m not. I think other women really like the idea that someone’s just who they are – and not trying so desperately hard to be something they’re not.”
“For women in this business, ascendancy is always a battle. It’s scrape and claw. I just try to stick to my guns and respect myself. I want to take the ingenues aside and say, ‘Value yourself! It’s OK if you have opinions!'”
“I feel like that whole thing got misconstrued. People were not nice about it. They thought it connoted big dark clouds on our lives. Since when it self-improvement a negative? Why wouldn’t I be interested in psychology? I like to read a lot of psychology books. I’m obsessed with child behaviour; I would love to be a child psychologist.”
“I’m an organization freak.”
• From 2003
“It’s just good luck, really. Just fortune. You gamble every time you make a movie. You take a chance.”
“It’s sort of the closest film I’ve made to my own personal life because it has to do with what happens if you move away, become successful, and then have to go back home. Are you the same person? How have you changed? I certainly get a different reception than I did 10 years ago.”
[On Sweet Home Alabama]
“I’ve had a long time to get used to it. I’ve been in this business for 12 years. And, you know, fame has sort of come in increments. At the end of the day, there’s a trade-off for the kind of lifestyle you lead. I think you have to be accepting of a certain sort of attention.”
“I wanted to be a country and western singer first. I wanted to be Dolly Parton. I still have an obsession with Dolly.”
“I just shook during the whole audition. I couldn’t even get the words out of my mouth. It was my first audition ever as a professional actress. Oh, it was intimidating. Robert De Niro had to finish my lines for me.”
[On auditioning for Cape Fear]
“And suddenly I got inspired. I was like, ‘OK! I have to do it!’ And there were a couple of people in my life who were like, ‘You’re really going to do that movie? It’s just so fluffy and not you.’ And I was like, ‘No, I think it’s really a great message for young women’. You can be frivolous and love clothes and be girly, but still have dreams and want to succeed and get the job done.”
[on Legally Blonde]
“I don’t like sexy-sexy clothes. It’s just not me. Some women look fantastic in sexy clothes, and that’s great. But I realized a few years ago… I don’t know, I just have this sort of idea, particularly as an actress, that when you sell yourself as a sexy thing – ‘I’m a sexy actress!’ – there’s going to come a time when you’re that used-to-be sexy actress. I’d prefer to wear things based on, like, a sense of humour. I like Moschino because it’s funny. Or things that are… colourful! Or interesting! Those are things that never show signs of age, things that have spirit about them.”
“Yesterday, I needed to get Ava a bathing suit. And this woman in the store is like, Oh, my God, we have these fantastic bikinis.’ I go, ‘A bikini?! For a three-year-old? I don’t think so. My daughter is not going to be walking around with her belly button hanging out.’ It even surprises me that I’m that conservative. I don’t like them wearing clothes that they look like an adult or sexy in. It really, really bothers me.”
“I was never the little girl who was in a pretty little dress with perfect hair. I guess I realized I was funny on the playground. I have a distinct memory of the first time people laughed at me, and instead of feeling hurt by it, I loved it. I thought, I can’t wait to do this tomorrow at recess.”
“I had to audition with Oliver Stone, and I was like, ‘I know this girl, I am this girl, all right. So stop looking because she’s right here.”
[On Freeway]
“That’s when I knew that this is what I’m supposed to do: character work. I finally understood that it was about voices and characterization and changing myself. It was not being me in a different movie. It’s hard to find that kind of direction when you’re so young, but… I got it. And I thought, If people like me in this, then I’ll keep going, and if people don’t, then I’m going to quit.”
[On Freeway]
“In my motivation to be… I don’t want this to sound wrong… and I don’t mean the best, but I’m going to say the best, but I mean the best version of myself, not the best out of everybody else. I just know what I’m capable of, and sometimes I push myself too hard because I know I can do it.”
“I grew up with a mother who was like, ‘Yep, you just do it.’ Doesn’t matter what the challenge was, you just did it. You didn’t mope around and bellyache. I’m not just sunshine and light for no reason. It’s a choice I have made in life, rather than being dark and depressed about the way things really are.”
• From 2002
“I don’t like it when people sugarcoat things for me. You know, I’m honestly the best judge of my own work. It really rings insincere to me when people are too complimentary. There is a lot of empty flattery in this industry. You have to keep a really level head about when you’re good and when you’re not.”
“It helped that my brother was with me as my driver on Sweet Home Alabama, so he and I would fight every morning on the way to work. The accent always comes out when I’m a little bit angry.”
“I knew I was smart. I didn’t know I was pretty. And you know what? I don’t think it’s really that important.”
“I think that if acting ever didn’t work out for me, I could be a professional trampolinist.”
“My nature is to be really super nice, open, and giving. I’m an I’ll-tell-you-all-my-secrets-in-one-conversation type of person. But I’ve learned to be more reserved, which doesn’t come naturally. I know sometimes it’s not fun being friends with someone who does what I do for a living.”
“When I first moved to Los Angeles, I went to see a doctor, and he said, ‘Reese Witherspoon? Well, that’s a name you’ll never see in lights.'”
• From 2001
“Self-confidence. It’s what makes people sexy.”
“I do feel like I’m a very strong woman who’s confident, and believes in herself. I have insecurities, but I work every day to overcome them.”
“I don’t fuck around. I don’t think it’s a joke that people put up $20 million to finance a movie. I show up. I know my lines.”
“I don’t want to be Tracy Flick for the rest of my life.”
“I have earned the right to have an opinion, so when people don’t listen to me, I get a little pissed off.”
“Holly Hunter, Meryl Streep, Frances McDormand, Susan Sarandon – these are the women I want to emulate. I avoided the whole teen-movie thing because I want to be in the business for more than two years, and I made conscious decisions not to do exploitative things, because they didn’t feel right to me.”
• From 1999
“People want to try and move you into a place where you can be easily identifiable by every woman in America – to be this very likeable woman in a romatic comedy. And its really hard for me. I just don’t see myself as the girl that everybody likes. I never have been and I don’t know how to be that person.”
“Don’t even get me started about Hollywood actors or actresses – they’re so arrogant. Around here, talent gets you into parties, it gets you great tables at restaurants, obviously it gets you great dates. But it takes a long time to understand that ultimately, it doesn’t make you a good person.”
“The battles that we face in this business aren’t financial, but they are moral. And I certainly think that the longer you can keep your values, and your family values, and your morality intact, and keep your head on your shoulders about what is important at the end of the day, you can get the most out of this business and really emerge with something wonderful.”
“Oh, I was kind of the slut of fifth grade when I was 12. I kissed a boy in a roller-rink and none of my girlfriends could believe I’d done it. But they caught up quickly and it wasn’t such a big deal after that. Twelve isn’t two young, is it? It was time. I couldn’t hold back any more.”
“I like people laughing at me. I’d much rather hear someone say, ‘Oh, you look kind of funny’ than ‘Oh you’re so pretty.'”
“Many people worry so much about managing their careers, but rarely spend half that much energy managing their lives. I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out.”
“I went to an all-girls’ high school, so I sort of had a non-conventional high school experience. I was always just trying to fit in. I was desperate to fit in because I was doing movies at the same time, and I was trying to be just lik everyone else. I don’t know. I was kid of probably like everybody else.”
“I’m never surprised when a film I’m in doesn’t make any money. But you always hope for the best and I’ve never invested in any of my films financially, it is the critical response which is really important to me.”
“I see these young women who are so overtly sexual. The pictures they pose for, and the outfits they wear, with their boobs pushed up like earmuffs. And it’s like, that’s wonderful now, hon, when you are 20 years old, but what will you do when you are 35 and your boobs don’t want to go that way anymore? Where does your self-worth or personal pride come from then? I think it is more important to start realizing at a young age that your body is just a vessel for who you are as a person. And until you work on what you give back to the wold, it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. The body dies anyway, but what kind of lasting impression do you leave on the universe?”
“There is nothing more important to me than this child. No movie could ever compare to this child.”
• From 1998
“Actually, it was liberating. I was frightened to death at first, and then I thought, I’m not embarrassed about my body. Fifty percent of the people in this country have boobs themselves; they’re not looking at mine.”
[On her nude scene in Twilight]
• From 1997
“Those are such formative years, and it’s really hard to know who you are if you’re too caught up with what your makeup looks like or your hairdo. And also I’ve found you make closer friends, because to this day I still know everybody and where they went – over 35 women. It’s a great basis of strength in my life that I have all these close friends from high school. And we didn’t have the interruptions, and we didn’t need to be vicious and backbiting, because there was nothing to fight for.”
• From 1996
“Really the most important thing to me is I’m in it for the long haul. I don’t want to be one of those overnight sensations that just climbs to the top and falls right down. I really feel like this is sort of what I was meant to do. I really feel like I was put on this Earth to tell a story in any way, shape or form that I can tell it. And I think that comes from taking life and film in increments and success in tiny, tiny bits instead of the huge inundation of press and all that rigmarole that comes with having a hit movie. Thank God none of my movies have made any money. God forbid they should ever make any money.”
• From 1994
“It’s tough making movies. Six months out of the year I live entirely with strange adults, and then I come home to Tennessee and live with my parents for the rest of the year, just trying to be a normal kid.”
• From Unknown Years
“It was fun being evil. The one they love to hate.”
Quotes by Others
“My cinematic crush is Reese Witherspoon. She’s been my cinematic crush since … I don’t know how old I was when Election came out, but between that and Sweet Home Alabama, Legally Blonde. And then obviously as I’ve grown as actor I’ve really come to admire her and really enjoy the work she does, but for a while it was just purely her face that I was into. I actually dated a girl in high school just because she kind of looked like Reese, a little bit.”
– Miles Teller
“The movie is about somebody you love disappearing. And Reese is such a beloved actress — she’s such a girl-next-door type, only more beautiful — it makes what she goes through even more relatable.”
– Mark Martin (Rendition co-producer)
“You meet a lot of people who have lists of things they say they’re going to do. But Reese doesn’t just make the list. She actually does what’s on it. That you don’t see very often.”
– Peter Sarsgaard (Rendition co-star)
“Nobody else has her range. Those other actresses are great, but you can’t see them doing pratfalls. Reese can win an Oscar and do a pratfall.”
– Mark Waters (Just Like Heaven director)
“She really put her heart and soul into it.”
– Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line co-star on Reese’s performance in the film)
“Reese Witherspoon: I love, love, love her. She’s articulate and smart, and I think she’s a great role model for young women. She has a great body image and keeps her personal life private, but you still feel like you know her. I also respect her career choices. She goes back and forth between smaller movies she’s passionate about and mainstream studio movies. She seems like someone I’d want to be friends with.”
– Actress/Musician Mandy Moore
“I consider her one of my dearest friends. She taught me so much about caring for myself. But there are times I realize I can’t even open my mouth around her. We’re used to a certain amount of fluff in our lives, and she’ll call you right on it.”
– Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions & Legally Blonde co-star)
“If you have a creative difference with her, you have to be able to back it up. She’s no bullshit. You save hours on a set with Reese, because you don’t have to lie.”
– Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions director)
“Reese will call you on your bullshit in a heartbeat.”
– Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions director)
“She’s a dynamo – this small package just filled with power.”
– Matthew Broderick (Election co-star)
“She’s the real McCoy. She concocted that voice, that walk, the way Tracy pogos in the hallway when she thinks she’s won. And I swear her eyebrows are individually wired.”
– Alexander Payne (Election director)
“Reese is like this Mighty Mite, this little cartoon hero. She reminds me of great comedic actresses of another time.”
– Gary Ross (Pleasantville director)
“There’s something savant-like about her. My God, it was just incredible. And she’s just so funny and so goddamned amazingly smart. She could walk through a field of morons and flatten them all like nothing. There’s no time lag when she digests something. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. She can do anything.”
– Matthew Bright (Freeway director)
“She’s a verbal serial killer.”
– Matthew Bright (Freeway director)
“She brings intelligence, sass, humor and beauty. It’s the multidimensional approach that’s so appealing to men and women. She’s the true embodiment of ‘lit from within.’ You can’t fabricate that. It’s impossible to do anything but fall in love with Reese Witherspoon.”
– McG (This Means War director)
“I have a lot of role models. Faith Hill is a big role model. Reese Witherspoon is a role model of mine – she’s not in music, but I love everything she stands for.”
– Taylor Swift (in 2011)
“I really like Reese Witherspoon. Anne Hathaway, I really like,” she said. “I love all their work.”
– Abigail Breslin (in 2011)
There’s so much talent out there — female talent of all ages, and I just love watching them all work. Whether it’s Reese Witherspoon or one of my favorites, Annette Bening.
– Jane Fonda (in 2011)
“I really, really admire Reese Witherspoon. She’s just incredibly taking charge of her life and doing things with it.”
– Priyanka Chopra (in 2018)
“I think TV’s biggest female trailblazer is Reese Witherspoon – I’ve loved her ever since I was a kid, just for her acting. But what she’s done with Big Little Lies… She’s a powerhouse. It’s really amazing to see what’s possible now. When I was younger, I never thought I could direct, produce and star in a show, because I didn’t see it. Now it’s being done and it really makes me feel confident in the places I can go in my career.”
– Emma Roberts (in 2018)