How Reese Witherspoon Became One of Hollywood’s Big Names and Started Making Films for Women

Reese Witherspoon has already made the list of the 100 most influential women on the planet by Forbes magazine. Her family had no money or influence — the actress conquered Hollywood all by herself.

We, from awesome.club, we are fans of the artist, so we decided to find out how she became a symbol of feminism and an inspiration for women around the world. And in the bonus you can also check out the next production in which this big screen superstar is involved. Check out!

Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon was born in 1976 in New Orleans, United States. Already at the age of 7 she was chosen to film an advertising campaign for a flower shop. At 11, she won a talent contest. Despite attending a theater school, her main passion was studying: “I was a bore who read all the time and was crazy about books: I wanted to buy everything”.
When the future star was 15 years old, for the first time fate smiled at her: Reese, along with friends, went to audition to act as an extra in the cast of In the Moon Worldbut she pleased the producers so much that she ended up winning the lead role.

In her debut playing a country girl named Dani, Reese instantly won over not only audiences but critics as well. She was even nominated for the renowned Young Artist Awards. She successfully graduated from a prestigious girls’ school, where she was also a member of a cheerleading group. She subsequently entered Stanford University to study a degree in English literature. Nonetheless, after a year studying, he decided to drastically change his career: despite the objection of relatives and friends, she left the university to dedicate herself to acting. As time has shown, this turned out to be a great choice.

In 1997, handsome and stunning actor Ryan Phillippe attended Reese’s 21st birthday party, which marked the beginning of a romance. In 1999, the actors were cast together in the drama Second thoughtswhich was a modern adaptation of the 18th-century French novel The Dangerous Liaisons🇧🇷

After the film’s premiere, the two were married, and in September 1999, Reese gave birth to their first daughter, Ava Elizabeth Phillippe. The actress said that that moment was not easy for her: “I realized that motherhood is when you cannot leave the house to go to the supermarket without constantly remembering the child. You don’t think if you are cold or hot, you only think about your child and how he is doing. And it’s like that every second. But if you want to be a mother, if that’s important to you, have a child. Don’t put it off for all the things that now seem like a barrier. You will understand later”.

When he first moved to Los Angeles, Reese had no family or friends. She then signed up for a yoga group where she found new friends who helped her take care of her daughter Ava. The actress remembers that time with a smile: “I needed to mature quickly and figure out what example I wanted to set for my daughter. My agent once called me and said that I should dress sexy when I went to meet the head of the studio. She was 23 years old, a daughter at home, needed money and was being mentored by people who knew what they were doing. It’s funny to think about all the things we were told to do back then, because now I’m like, “Oh God, if someone told my daughter to do that, she would react by saying, ‘I really hope you’re kidding'”

Despite the general expectation that a young mother disappears from the market, the birth of Ava gave strength to the actress, and, in 2000, she founded the production company Type A. The name was not chosen by chance: it is a reference to a nickname of hers from her school days — Reese always got excellent grades (“A” is equivalent to grade 10 in the Brazilian system). The artist continued to participate in tests and raise her daughter, and in 2003 she gave birth to Deacon Phillippe.

The marriage to Ryan lasted until 2006. Going through a difficult divorce process at the time, the actress surprised the public when she shared a statement through her publicist to end all the gossip once and for all. She said in the ad: “I know what you want to hear: that we have beautiful children, that they never cry. That my husband and I don’t have problems, we don’t fight and that we’re best friends, because that’s so common in Hollywood. But this is not the reality. We are normal people with common problems. We have decided to officially divorce, but remain loyal to our family and ask that our privacy be respected.”

In 2001, the star got the role of the preppy lawyer in the film Legally Blonde, which was a defining moment in his career. Thanks to the character of Elle Woods, Reese actually became known around the world and received a Golden Globe nomination, which only strengthened her success.

After that, she managed to get cast in several successful roles. Among them, she played the ghost of a doctor in the romantic comedy And If It Was True and graceful Marlena, a circus performer in the film Water for Elephants. And for giving life to June Carter Cash, the second wife of singer Johnny Cash in the film Johnny & Junereceived a large number of awards, including Oscar, Globo de Ouro and the BAFTA for best actress.

Reese’s personal life gained a new chapter in 2011: she married agent Jim Toth and, a year later, their third child — Tennessee James — was born. The couple still remain together and happily.

Despite the abundance of proposals, it seemed to the actress that Hollywood producers were not very interested in the fate of women: there are few films for and about them. What’s more, the scripts they sent her got worse and worse: the woman was seen only as an inferior element fighting for men’s attention. Reese once commented on this: “I was tired of making movies where I was the only female lead on set. I was tired of seeing scripts where there was a poorly written female role and yet every actress in town wanted the role because there was nothing else.”

The artist decided once again to fight fate and Hollywood and follow her own rules. In 2012, joined forces with Australian Bruna Papandrea to create a new production company and produce projects about strong women.

As the founder of the media company Hello Sunshine, she launched a talk show called Shine On with Reese, in which he interviewed successful women to find out how they achieved their dreams. To strengthen the role of women in the film industry, the tireless artist announced the start of a project called the Filmmaker Lab aimed at teaching young girls the art of filmmaking.

As promised, Reese began making films that recognized incredible women in order to inspire others around the world. The first step happened with Free, based on real facts. The plot tells the story of a writer who decides to go alone on a long journey to learn to live again, understand herself, overcome divorce and her mother’s death. The actress played the main role brilliantly.

She covered 1,770 km alone, repeating the feat of Cheryl Strayed — the writer who inspired the film. The protagonist cried, her feet hurt and the film crew just had to film everything. For this role, she was again nominated for an Oscar. From a pretty actress doing romantic comedies, Reese was officially turning into a serious-themed drama performer.

A little after that, the company Hello Sunshine filmed a new television project, the series The Morning Show. Full of tragedies, the story about a news presenter became one of the most talked about series in the entertainment world in 2019.

Thanks to Reese’s media company, the psychological drama Gone Girl and the critically and commercially successful series Big Little Lies were produced. The actress did it all with one goal – to change the role of women in the modern world.

“Columbia University researchers concluded that an ambitious woman appears to be selfish. It got me thinking: what’s wrong with ambition? I’ve been ambitious my whole life. For example, in 3rd grade, I wanted to become the first female president of the United States. Ambition is just a driving force. Thanks to it, curiosity, ideas and the desire to realize them are generated. I am very pleased to see how the women in my company have achieved great victories. But we still have a lot to fight for, ”she said.

Disgusted with the insistence of the paparazzi, she collected information about the invasive behavior of photographers that violate the limits of privacy and forced the state governor to pass a law restricting their rights, imposing a fine on those who photograph without the consent of the individual.

The artist fights with Hollywood bosses for equality, to stop sexual harassment in the workplace, for equal pay conditions for men and women and advises young actresses on contractual aspects. “I have always been inclined to express my opinion”says Reese. “And I absolutely don’t care if it was appropriate or not.”

“If things are going well with the movies, it’s time to dedicate myself to my second passion — literature,” said Reese, who founded an online book club, following the current trend. Today, his project has already surpassed 1.5 million subscribers.

Once a month, she selects books for the club and discusses them with subscribers. Selected publications become instant bestsellers. This happened in 2017, when he chose Little Fires Everywhere as book of the month. The novel was so successful that the artist decided to film it. The eponymous series was released in March 2020.

At age 37, a financial adviser told Reese, “You’re at the end of your career and you won’t make much money anymore. Start saving.” Three years later, she became the third highest-paid actress in the world, earning 35 million dollars. And she remembers the case with indignation: “I was simply paralyzed. And then I fired the consultant, because I believe in myself, I believe in creativity, I believe in my fullness”.

The belief in a better future paid off: in 2017, her career experienced a second wave of popularity thanks to the series Big Little Lieswhat is it…