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 Sitting amid the wilderness above Beverly Hills, Witherspoon
talks about finding "the most true honest expression of who I
really am" in her new film "Wild," opening this week in U.S.
theaters.
Stripped down and raw, critics are calling it her strongest role
in years and it is largely of her own making, for she bought the
film rights to the best-selling memoir from Cheryl Strayed, a
grieving, wayward young woman who hikes over 1,000 miles (1,600
km) in a solo quest to heal.
It was the kind of role, she says, that was scarce when she
founded her production company three years ago: strong leading
roles for women, great parts that show complex characters.
Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar in 2006 for her role as
June Carter in "Walk the Line," but had not matched that success
since.
"You know, it wasn't about the studios not giving me what I
wanted," Witherspoon said in an interview.
"You can't expect people to develop projects that
quintessentially capture what you want to say in film. If you
want something done right, you do it yourself."
After "Wild" and their recent box office hit "Gone Girl,"
Witherspoon and producing partner Bruna Papandrea have 16 more
projects in the works.
"We have a project pretty much at every studio now," she said.
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'HAVE TO EVOLVE'
Moviegoers will see a different Reese in "Wild," a Fox Searchlight
film directed by Jean-Marc Vallee.
Cheryl is grimy and bruised on the trail, and in flashbacks she
mourns her dead mother Bobbi (played by Laura Dern), shoots up
heroin and has rough sex with strangers, naked.
"Audiences that saw me doing movies years ago have changed," said
Witherspoon. "They have dealt with grief and loss and divorce and
having children. You know your audience evolves and you have to
evolve as well."
Indeed, Strayed has found she has quite a bit in common with
Witherspoon, the only person in Hollywood to whom she sent her book.
"Sometimes people will decide that I have written this book about my
wild behavior in my twenties and Reese is America's sweetheart and
they want to put us in opposition to each other," Strayed said. "And
we laugh about that."
(Editing by Eric Kelsey and Jonathan Oatis)
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