All’s fair in love & war

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All’s fair in love & war

Reese Witherspoon on her latest film This Means War — how much it means to her, and how she always looks at the bigger picture

By Ian Spelling

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Published: Fri 2 Mar 2012, 8:52 PM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 3:02 PM

When was the last time you saw Reese Witherspoon in a big, sexy, over-the-top, unapologetically commercial action/romance movie?

The answer is never — at least until now, with the imminent release of This Means War, in which she stars with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine.

“I was really excited when Fox approached me to do This Means War,” the Oscar winner says, “because I’d never done anything action-oriented before. It was a great opportunity to combine the comedy and romance with the action, so I felt comfortable. It wasn’t like I was suddenly pretending to be an action star, with somebody seeing me with a gun in my hand and trying to take me seriously.

“Then, when they got Tom and Chris to play the two male leads, I thought, ‘This is great,’ because I was excited to work with these two guys who are on the precipice of huge movie careers. So it had a little of everything.”

This Means Wars, which released in the US on February 14, casts Witherspoon as Lauren, a woman who falls for two men, Tuck (Hardy) and F.D.R. (Pine), not realising that they’re best friends and partners as agents of the CIA. As one might expect, it’s not long before the sparks — and the bullets — start to fly, as F.D.R. and Tuck’s personal and professional lives converge, ultimately putting Lauren’s heart at risk, not to mention her life.

Speaking by telephone from a Los Angeles hotel that’s serving as home base for the film’s domestic and international publicity push, Witherspoon reports that at times she felt as if she were making two separate and distinct romantic comedies, both under the direction of action maestro McG.

In one she shared scenes with Hardy, the star of Bronson (2008), Inception (2010) and the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, and in the other with Pine, to date best known for Star Trek (2009) and Unstoppable (2010).

“Tom’s character is more brooding and tough and sensitive,” Witherspoon says. “He’s got the sensitive-tattoo-guy thing going on, and he’s obviously very British as well. Chris is very American in his style. His patter is very American, and that kind of witty repartee and meeting-of-the-minds thing he has with Lauren is great. McG and I kept going, ‘Every time we get to set, it’s like we’re making a totally different movie’.

“And, on top of that, it was like we were making two other movies,” she continues. “Chelsea Handler plays my best friend. We had our own insular world, and all of her lines were ad-libbed.

“She’s been very vocal about saying, ‘I didn’t even read the script.’ Then the boys had their scenes together as best friends, with the competition between them. So it was actually kind of like making four movies in one.”

McG put Witherspoon through some hair-raising moments, particularly a chase sequence near the end of the movie. However, that’s not the scene that stands out as her takeaway memory of her This Means War experience.

“There’s a scene where McG talked me into dancing around in a man’s sweat shirt and my underwear,” Witherspoon says, giggling at the memory. “But, you know, it was all in fun and in the spirit of that’s what women do when they’re home alone on a Friday night. They dance around and sing stupid songs and eat popcorn. It was actually sort of freeing. It was nice.”

Hollywood observers expect This Means War to perform well at the box office, and many eyes will be on it, since it’s seen in some quarters as a referendum on Witherspoon’s star power. That’s because her two most recent films, How Do You Know (2010) and Water for Elephants (2011), the former with veteran filmmaker James L Brooks and the latter with trendy co-star Robert Pattinson, were perceived to be disappointments. How Do You Know really did tank, earning back less than half of its reported $120 million budget during its worldwide release. However, Water for Elephants cost less than $40 million and grossed nearly $120 million worldwide.

Witherspoon makes no apologies for either film.

“I don’t perceive Water for Elephants as a disappointment,” she says. “It made so much money. I travelled all over the world for it, and it actually accomplished everything we wanted it to. It’s just hard. You make different movies for different reasons. Of course, when you go out with a big romantic movie, you want it to be seen. You take it personally. You put your heart and soul into these things.

“Jim Brooks’ movie, I worked on that for seven months,” she continues. “It’s a disappointment when audiences don’t love the movie as much as you would hope they do.

“But, in the bigger picture, I look at people like Diane Keaton, who has been in so many movies for so long and is continuing to make great movies, and Meryl Streep, who is arguably having the best time in her career,” Witherspoon says. “I just hope to create a whole body of work that spans many different successes and different kinds of successes. At least I’m trying, you know? I’m trying to always, out of the gate, do something different than I’ve done before.”

Witherspoon’s next project certainly sounds different: She will co-star with Matthew McConaughey, Michael Shannon and Sam Shepard in director Jeff Nichols’ film Mud.

The story follows two boys (Jacob Lofland and Tye Sheridan) who, on an island on the Mississippi River, meet a fugitive named Mud (McConaughey). Intrigued by the man, the boys help him both to stay a step of his dogged pursuers and to locate the love of his life (Witherspoon).

“I was really attracted to Jeff as a filmmaker and to this story being about the South,” says Witherspoon, who hails from Louisiana.

“There are very few Southern filmmakers, and it’s very important that we support those stories. There are whole demographics, whole cultures that aren’t represented in film. Jeff asked me to do the movie. He wrote me a letter and then called me and emailed me. I was just such a fan of (Nichols’) Take Shelter (2010). I really believe in him, so I’m excited about that movie.”

Still only 35, Witherspoon has appeared in more than 30 films, winning an Oscar as Best Actress for her performance as June Carter in Walk The Line (2005). In addition to Mud, which she recently wrapped, the actress will soon start work on another drama, Devil’s Knot, about the West Memphis Three case.

On the personal front, she’s actively raising her young children, Ava and Deacon, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and in March will celebrate the first anniversary of her wedding to talent agent Jim Toth.

“I really love making movies,” Witherspoon says. “I have a wonderful family. I have a lot of different interests in my life. Somebody once said to me, ‘Don’t worry about the future and don’t worry about the past, but take pictures and make plans.’

“And I think that’s pretty well said.”

— New York Times Syndicate


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