|
 It may be the best move she has made in awhile, offering the
normally pretty and perky Witherspoon the chance to play a raw
and angry woman venturing into the wilderness on her own, for
1,000 miles with a monster-sized pack to do one thing: save
herself. The story is a real one, based on the best-selling
memoir by Cheryl Strayed.
"Wild" director Jean-Marc Vallee demanded the mirrors in the
make-up trailer be covered so Witherspoon wouldn't know just how
bad she looked without make-up.
"It was raw, I had never seen myself in a movie like that
before," Witherspoon said ahead of the film's showing at the
Toronto International Film Festival on Monday.
In a year with many strong male film leads and few female ones
so far, Witherspoon can take most of the credit for making this
role happen: she contacted Strayed directly to buy the film
rights after reading the book before publication.
"I just knew it would be one of the most important books in my
life," said the 38-year-old actress and producer.
Witherspoon, who won the best actress Oscar for her 2005 role as
June Carter in "Walk the Line," promised Strayed she would get
the movie made quickly and not let it "languish around
Hollywood."
For Strayed, everything Witherspoon said about why she thought
it could work on film "thrilled me to the bone," and her gut
told her she could trust the actress.
SELF-DESTRUCTION
Together they lined up a team that would be the envy of many a
project: Vallee, the French Canadian director who had just made
the acclaimed "Dallas Buyers Club" and British screenwriter Nick
Hornby. Ironically, both men say they have an allergy to hiking.
[to top of second column] |
While large parts of the film focus on Cheryl and the solitude of
the grueling Pacific Crest Trail through the West, there is also the
backstory that landed her there, presented in flashbacks.
Cheryl has lost her loving mother, played by Laura Dern, to cancer.
She cheated on her husband by having sex with strangers and turns to
shooting up heroin. She divorces and sets out on a journey for which
she is woefully unprepared.
She runs out of food and water, loses her boots and is covered in
sores. But between her bravery and the kindness of strangers, she
endures 94 days.
After a screening at Telluride Film Festival last month, New York
Times film critic A.O. Scott called her "an excitingly credible
feminist heroine" and pundits speculated Witherspoon will earn a
best actress Oscar nomination.
And to those who have suggested "Wild" is a "chick-flick," Vallee
responded on Monday: "Chick-flick, my ass."
The Fox Searchlight picture opens Dec. 5 in North American theaters.
(story corrects spelling of heroin in paragraph 11)
(Editing by Grant McCool)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
