Mud (2013)
Devil's Knot (2013)
The Good Lie (2014)
At the 2011 MTV Movie Awards when Reese Witherspoon took the stage to accept her Generation Award, she used the moment to stand up for every young woman out there.
During her headline-making speech, she proudly told the girls watching the show that “I know it’s cool to be bad. I get it … but it’s also possible to make it in Hollywood without a reality show.” Now, many months later, Witherspoon sat down with MTV News on Tuesday (January 31) for “MTV First: This Means War.” And, during the lengthy chat, she opened up about her speech.
“Well, I have a 12-year-old daughter, and I take it all very seriously. I think there’s not a lot of positive images out there for young women, honestly,” she explained. “I don’t know, I just feel like shining the light on the good was an incredible move on MTV’s part and that you don’t have to sell yourself short and objectify yourself in order to be popular or liked or loved. And there’s many different ways to the watering hole and you can maintain you self-respect and still accomplish things.
“I don’t watch certain reality shows but there’s ones where people are doing cool, interesting things, like ‘Project Runway.’ But I’m not into women hating on other women or hitting each other or beating the crap out of each other to make money for a bunch of other people,” she continued. “I think that’s not what I want my kids to see.”
That feminist stance has made her the go-to role model for a new generation of stars, including Taylor Swift, who cites her as one of her idols. “I think it’s an accumulation of life experiences and hopefully you handle yourself with grace and dignity and life and that’s all you can hope for and hope to pass on to people,” she said of her own role-model status.
“And I think [Swift is] just an exemplary young lady,” she added. “It’s kind of interesting to see what a profound songwriter she is. I don’t even think anyone has realized, the long term is going to be the bigger revelation. It’s incredible how quickly she writes songs. We’ve hung out a couple of times; we live near each other in Nashville.”
- MTV.com
Colin Firth has joined Reese Witherspoon in Devil’s Knot, the Atom Egoyan-directed drama about the West Memphis 3. As Deadline revealed just after the West Memphis 3 murder defendants were released from prison August 19, The Sweet Hereafter and Chloe director Egoyan came aboard to direct a script that was originally written by Scott Derrickson and Paul Boardman, the team behind The Exorcism Of Emily Rose.
Firth will play Ron Lax, a private investigator who was the first pro bono supporter of the defendents as they headed to trial in 1993. Lax built one of the most prominent private investigative firms in the Southeast, and offered his services for free to the defendants, who at the time were reviled because of the heinous nature of the crime and the sensationalized reports about devil worship and ritualistic sacrifice. All of that was later proven to be unfounded, after Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted despite not a shred of physical evidence. Lax was an unsung hero and helped find the DNA in the knots that bound one of the victims, that cast suspicion on Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Steven Branch, one of the 8-year old murdered boys. Witherspoon will play Pam Hobbs, the mother of Branch. She initially believed the trio murdered her son, is eventually persuaded that the three suspects are innocent and wrongly accused. Filming begins next summer in Louisiana, and other big names are expected to join the cast in smaller roles.
McG believes the most crucial part of directing a movie is getting the casting right.
The filmmaker is currently promoting his new movie This Means War, which stars Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hardy and Chris Pine.
The director explained why the romantic action movie needed a cast of strong actors to make it work.
This Means War tells the story of two best friends, who happen to be top secret agents. When they find out that they are in love with the same woman, they battle each other with high-tech surveillance and advanced tactics to win her affections.
“I believe that 90 percent of directing is casting, so I wanted to get together a group of talented people and you’ve got Chris and you’ve got Tom and you’ve got Reese,” McG told Cover Media at the London premiere of the film. “The film mixes a lot of tone – it’s an action picture and there’s a lot of comedy and there’s a lot of romance – and it’s all over the place and to make that satisfying in the end it required the deft touch of the three actors. And dare I say a fourth actor, Chelsea Handler, who is out of her mind.”
As part of her US promotional tour for This Means War, Reese will be appearing on Live With Kelly on Monday February 13th. Check your local listings for times.
We’ll do our best to bring you the video and screencaptures asap after the show has aired!
Below are another couple of videos with footage and interviews from the London premiere of This Means War, the first one of which has brief footage from inside the premiere, showing Reese, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and director McG inside the cinema presenting the film on stage:
You’ve already heard actress Reese Witherspoon heap praise upon “Water for Elephants” co-star Robert Pattinson, so it seems only fitting she move on to another squee-inducing celebrity: Justin Bieber.
During tonight’s MTV First: This Means War (airing on MTV at 7:56 p.m. ET followed by a 30-minute interview on MTV.com), the topic of the “Baby” singer’s rumored “Fear” remake came up, and as far as we can tell, Reese has no trepidations about the Biebs tackling her 1997 drama.
“Oh, really?” she asked, apparently hearing the news for the first time. “Fine, great. That’d be cool. Would he be playing me, or is he playing Mark Wahlberg? Is it like a girl who harasses the family, like a stalker who can’t leave him alone? That would be good, right? I mean girls get crazy about him. Yeah, he’s very talented.”
We hadn’t thought of the role reversal before, but dang-it, Reese, if you haven’t hit on a good thing there. We smell a producer credit, for sure.
Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
• MTV.com
In addition to her successes as an actress and her respectable reputation, Reese Witherspoon is the envy of millions of Twilighters after working alongside superstar heartthrob Robert Pattinson in not one, but two films — not to mention the fact that she’s kissed him too.
When MTV News caught up with Witherspoon recently as part of “MTV First: This Means War,” we asked her the first thing that comes to mind when she thinks of her “Water for Elephants” and “Vanity Fair” co-star.
“I would say [he is] the hardest-working person I’ve ever worked with, honestly,” she said. “[He's] professional, hard-working, so appreciative, more grateful than I’ve ever seen anyone for where he is in life.”
Given the fact that Witherspoon has been in the business for decades and experienced every facet of being famous, we asked her to weigh in on the current fan frenzy that surrounds Pattinson wherever he goes and how it may or may not affect a person.
As I posted about last night, Miss Reese attended the red carpet premiere of This Means War in London last night, looking totally stunning! We now know that Reese’s gorgeous green dress was Louis Vuitton, and her shoes were Christian Louboutin.
Today I’ve added another 126 HQs to our Gallery for your viewing pleasure, and there are some great shots in there of Reese striking a pose for the photographers! Further down this post are a few videos with footage and interviews from the premiere.
More HQs from this premiere are still to come…
• “This Means War” London Premiere x126 more
