From ‘Legally Blonde’ to ‘Big Little Lies,’ See a Behind-the-Scenes Guide to Reese Witherspoon’s Most Famous Roles

‘The Man in the Moon’ (1991)

In her first film, Reese plays Dani Trant, sister to the older Maureen (Emily Warfield), but the arrival of Court Foster (Jason London), a local boy threatens to destroy their bond: although Dani meets him first and there is some serious flirtation going on, once he meets Maureen he falls almost instantly in love.

‘A Far Off Place’ (1993)

Reese is one of two South Americans who survive a massacre carried out by ivory poachers, and the duo must survive a trek across the Kalahari Desert. Their lives quite literally depend on an African bushman, who helps guide them.

‘Jack the Bear’ (1993)

The downward spiral of a family following the death of the wife/mother in a car accident, accentuated by a Neo-Nazi living next door who puts the family through hell. Reese plays Karen Morris, girlfriend to Jack Leary (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr).

‘S.F.W.’ (1994)

Offers the official description, “An alienated and misanthropic teenager [Stephen Dorff as Cliff Spab] gains sudden and unwanted celebrity status after he’s taken hostage by terrorists where his indifference to their threats to kill him makes news headlines.” The end result is that he’s transformed into a celebrity. Reese is cast in the role of his girlfriend, Wendy Pfister.

She says she was intrigued by the idea of playing the character, because she could relate to her and the film’s notion of celebrity. “I’m sure it’s a worry for a lot of celebrities that their privacy is invaded — as it is for Wendy Pfister,” she says. “Personally, celebrity is a slightly different thing to me at this point in my career. When you’re a huge celebrity, people tell you: ‘You’re great. You’re great. You’re great.’ But for me, it’s more like people throwing their opinions at me, ‘You were good in this. You were bad in that. I didn’t like this. I loved that.’ Spab and Wendy have to deal with so many opinions at one time, I can relate to their anxiety.”

‘Freeway’ (1996)

Offering up a modern twist on the “Little Red Riding Hood” story, Reese is Vanessa Lutz, who, following the arrest of her mother, goes searching for her grandmother. “Helping” her is school counselor Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland), who she gradually comes to realize is a wanted serial killer.

‘Fear’ (1996)

Mark Wahlberg is 23-year-old David McCall, who falls in love with Reese’s 16-year-old Nicole Walker. When he turns out to be a violent sociopath, the family tries to keep them separate, but David will stop at nothing to be with her.

‘Twilight’ (1998)

No, not that Twilight. There aren’t sparkling vampires anywhere. Released 10 years earlier, this one stars Paul Newman as private detective Harry Ross, who has been hired to go to a Mexican resort to retrieve their daughter (played by Reese) from her low-life boyfriend. Things go south pretty quickly.

‘Overnight Delivery’ (1998)

Paul Rudd is Wyatt, a college student encouraged to break up with the girlfriend back home he thinks is cheating on him by strip club dancer Ivy (Reese), who he strikes up a friendship with. Agreeing, he sends her a particularly nasty breakup letter via — you guessed it — overnight delivery. Realizing he’s made a mistake, he and Ivy take to the road to try and get the letter before his girlfriend does. Hey, you don’t suppose those two will fall in love along the way, do ya?

‘Pleasantville’ (1998)

Siblings David and Jennifer Parker (Tobey Maguire and Reese) find themselves trapped in a black and white 1950s television series, where the residents all seem perfectly happy in their sitcom-like lives. As things go on, however, the duo start introducing more modern day concepts, which gradually has the effect of literally adding color to this black and white world.

Reese was intrigued by the range of experiences her character goes through as the story progresses. “Jennifer goes through a lot of different phases in the film,” she notes. “In Pleasantvllle, she realizes that she doesn’t have to base her identity on her sexuality and constantly trying to conform. She’s always seen herself as a sexy young woman, but when she starts reading books and really opens her mind, she finds that much more exciting. After spending so much of her life being objectified, it’s really liberating to be defined by her intellect instead.”

She was also drawn to Pleasantville’s deeply provocative themes. “I think this is a story that’s really important because it shows people what the possibilities are. It’s fascinating to see how people who are seemingly very innocent and open are so easily corrupted, how easily they are changed by freedom,” she says. “I think the blank books in the library are a metaphor for the entire film. It’s like all these people with covers that are beautiful and well adorned, but there’s nothing really on the inside. And then when they start reading and learning more about themselves and becoming more self-actualized, their insides fill in and start to turn to color and sort of bring their insides out. That’s why I think their eyes and tongues turn to color first. It’s really about finding individuality and identity.”

‘Cruel Intentions’ (1999)

Step-siblings Kathryn Merteuil and Sebastian Valmont (Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe) who are attending an elite Manhattan prep school, make a bet between them that they can get the new headmaster’s daughter (Reese) to lose her virginity before the school year begins.

The script actually appealed to Reese’s sense of humor and presented several challenges for the actress. “One of the hardest things for me about Annette was to find a modern way to make a teenager a virgin,” she explains. “Not to say that all teenagers are sex-starved people, but it was actually difficult to find a reason that wasn’t self-righteous or obnoxious.” In working with director Roger Kumble, the two came up with something that they felt cut close to the heart. “Annette is not interested in having sex for anything but love, and she’s waiting for love. I think that’s what is appealing to Sebastian as well.”

‘Election’ (1999)

Paramount Pictures describes, “A high school teacher’s [Matthew Broderick] personal life becomes complicated as he works with students during the school elections, particularly with an obsessive overachiever [Reese] determined to become student body president.”

“My character is strong-minded, opinionated and unapologetic. She seeks her identity through achievement and is relentless in getting what she wants,” says Reese. “I actually had a lot of teachers that remind me of Matthew’s character, like my eighth-grade science teacher. He was a great guy and everybody liked him. What cracks me up is that Matthew wore the same ties as he did.”

At director Alexander Payne’s suggestion, she went back to class and spent two weeks in Omaha hanging out with high schoolers “pretending to be a transfer student,” she says. “It was really interesting, because I was escorted by a girl very much like my character — president of the student council, captain of the volleyball team and head cheerleader — a total overachiever. The experience helped me to get back in the mind-set of teenagers and empathize with their problems. I was amazed at how busy students are now, running around at a hectic pace doing all these different activities. The girls wake up very early and do their hair and make-up to make sure they look perfect. Going back to school was always kind of a vacation for me, but these kids are having high school ‘careers.'”

‘Best Laid Plans’ (1999)

Josh Brolin plays a newly-rich man who returns to his home town, is seduced by Reese’s Lissa and finds himself being extorted when she claims she’s underage. Things get worse from there. “I think what was really appealing about the script to me,” Reese reflects, “was it’s such a different tone for a movie based on people sort of my age and you don’t see a lot of these sort noirish kind of twist and turning scripts for people who are in their early twenties.”

‘Little Nicky’ (2000)

In a perfect world, he’d be happy to head-bang in his room all day to heavy metal music. But no, his mom is an angel, his old man is the devil, and like all good fathers, he insists that Nicky (Adam Sandler) get involved in the “family business.” Nicky could think of 666 things he’d rather be doing than corrupting souls or spewing evil, but when his father’s command over Hades is threatened by his bullying older brothers, it’s up to unbalanced Nicky to restore the balance between Good and Evil on earth. Reese plays the character of Holly.

‘American Psycho’ (2000)

Christian Bale (who would go on to play a psycho of a different sort as Batman) portrays a businessman in New York City circa 1987 who, it turns out, is a serial killer at night. Reese plays his fiance.

‘Legally Blonde’ (2001)

Elle Woods (Reese), a fashionable sorority queen, is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school and while she’s there, she eventually discovers that there is more to her than just looks. As it turned out, casting Elle was a breeze, because the filmmakers were convinced from the beginning that there was only one choice. “Reese has all the beauty, intelligence, comedic brilliance and, of course, the natural blonde-ness to get to the heart and pathos of this character,” says producer Marc Platt.

Adds director Robert Luketic, “She is just incredibly talented, and it was very impressive how she threw herself into the role. She hung out in Beverly Hills watching girls eat lobster salad and having spa days, and she just nailed it in a way that captures the uncanny ability of this character to charm.”

Like everyone who came in contact with the character, Reese quickly developed a soft spot for Elle Woods and her buoyant battle to be taken seriously. “What I love about this story is that it really questions your perceptions,” says the actress. “It’s so easy to jump to conclusions about people in life, and I was really interested in exploring the difference between how a person looks externally and who they really are inside.”

Elle Woods also represented something else to her: empowerment. “I think this is really an empowering movie,” she says. “Everybody has a moment in their life when they stop believing in themselves, but Elle proves with her own special spirit that anyone can overcome their fears and succeed on their own terms, whatever those might be. Some people might succeed because they know about Plato and Socrates, and other people succeed because they know about Porsches and Clinique. The point is to use what you have and believe in yourself.”

She also learned something interesting: “Actually, maintaining that sort of bubbly energy all the time is hard work. Elle never takes a break from staying up! We decided to create Elle as a person who has a real, unbreakable innocence. She basically believes people are good and the world is good, and that never changes throughout the movie. I really like that and I wanted to impart it in a big, colorful way.”

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ (2002)

In 1890s London, two friends use the same pseudonym (“Ernest”) for their on-the-sly activities. Comedy erupts from there. For Reese, learning an accent — and being surrounded by actors like Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O’Connor and Judi Dench — was a daunting experience. “I was petrified!” she told United Press International. “I was terrified. I worked really hard. I spent six weeks, three hours a day, every day, working on my accent and I was still scared to open my mouth.” And as for being the lone American on the set, “It was really intimidating. Really scary. But I couldn’t ask for a more supportive and wonderful cast. Rupert was hysterical, even though he gave me a hard time. What didn’t he do to me! He would just berate me for what an American I was! He’s so funny. He was really great. I was so scared we wouldn’t get along. I just didn’t know. But, we were just fast friends in a few days.”

‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (2002)

Melanie Smooter (Reese) is a New York City socialite who has actually reinvented herself from her southern roots in Alabama. Now she has to return back to the life she left behind to obtain a divorce from her husband after seven years of separation.

“Being in Sweet Home Alabama was a huge turning point in my life. It was when the world realized that I was a Southern girl through and through, and that I was proud of where I came from,” Reese revealed on her official website. “To this day, whenever I walk into a bar someone puts ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on the stereo. It always makes me feel right at home!”

‘Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde’ (2003)

Reprising her popular role of Elle Woods, this time Reese is heading to Washington, DC to join the staff of a representative with the intent of passing a bill to ban animal testing.

“In the first movie, I loved that Elle so enjoys being a woman,” says Reese. “She loves being girly, she loves her shoes, her nails, her hair. But she also has real ambition, real drive, real smarts. People really connected with her. They understood who Elle was, so we needed to raise the stakes and put her in an even more complicated and difficult scenario.”

“We wanted it to be even better then before,” says producer Marc Platt. “Reese and I both felt a great sense of responsibility and obligation to Elle because of the way the character is viewed, especially by young people. They love to laugh at her, they love to see what she’s wearing, they love her dog, but they also love to root for her. And they’re really inspired by her. It was important to us to live up to that standard.”

In addition to reprising her role, Reese also served as executive producer. “It was a real treat for me to start working on the sequel even earlier in the process,” she says. “I wasn’t involved in pre-production on the first film, so that was really exciting.”

‘Vanity Fair’ (2004)

And it’s back to Victorian London with Reese as Beck Sharp, who, despite growing up poor, defies her background and ascends the social ladder. Reese comments, “As Americans, we have a different sense of world history, so I’ve learned a lot on this movie. The colonization of India brought up an entire class of people in Britain, making people very rich. The culture was manipulated in order for people to gain.”

‘Walk the Line’ (2005)

A look at the life of country music legend Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), including his love affair with June Carter (Reese). Of making the film, Reese told thoughtco.com, “At first it kind of felt like [I was ] lost and set adrift. First of all, I didn’t know I was singing. I signed up to do the acting bit. That would have been in a completely different contract. [Joaquin] and I went into that with a lot of trepidation, particularly him. He was playing an icon that had such a recognizable voice. And me, I am just a perfectionist and totally afraid of stinking (laughing). So we went into it and I was just determined to get the right coaches and the right people.

“But the singing part was easier for me than the autoharp part. Playing the instrument was really difficult for me. I had never played an instrument. I don’t know how that even happens to people. Also, recording the album … You think you are a good singer when you are in the car … you can sing along. But then when you go in and you actually sing into a microphone for four hours straight … But the live performances in this movie were the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You can’t imagine how nerve-wracking it is to be on stage in front of an audience and have to sing when you’ve never professionally done so. But it was also a lot of fun learning to adapt and dive into something so completely outside the comfort zone.”

Reese won the Academy Award for Best Actress for this film.

‘Just Like Heaven’ (2005)

A lonely landscape architect (played by Mark Ruffalo, better known as the Hulk in the Marvel superhero films) falls for the spirit of the beautiful woman who used to live in his new apartment (Reese). “Obviously I read a lot of romantic comedy scripts,” she comments. “But for me, this one just had a really nice spiritual message about how important it is to nurture yourself. I think women are natural caretakers. They take care of everybody. They take care of their husbands and their kids and their dogs, and don’t spend a lot of time just getting back and taking time out. So I like that quality and I like that sort of It’s a Wonderful Life quality where she gets to see her life for what it was and go back and have another opportunity. I think the second chance element was what really interested me about it and the idea of what happens when you don’t nurture your spirit. Could it leave you? Could it move on to something else? I thought that was a really interesting idea. It’s fun to do a comedy and hook people in and then hoodwink them into watching a serious movie. I like to lead in with the comedy and then hit them over the head with a drama.”

‘Penelope’ (2006)

A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with “one who will accept her as one of their own.” Although Reese considered playing the character of Penelope, she shared with seventeen.com, “I got busy with other commitments and the movie had to go forward, so then we decided to cast it. I always knew I wanted to be in it in some capacity. And it was fun for me to get to play a smaller character.” And, as producer, casting Christina Ricci in the role she added, “I was so excited because, well, it’s great when you have this hot script in your hand, and you’ve got this great character. Christina was my first choice and she and I sat down for lunch and I was like, ‘She’s not gonna want to do this. She has to wear a pig nose.’ But she just came in and said, ‘No, I’m excited, I want to do this!’

“Christina is fearless,” she adds. “That’s what I’ve always loved about her. She always plays a very intelligent woman, but also very sharp, very witty. And we’ve grown up auditioning together, and we’ve known each other for years, and sitting in the waiting room, waiting to get cast, or not cast in movies, we made a friendship. So it was great to finally have that collaboration we had talked about for so many years.”

‘Rendition’ (2007)

Definitely a change of pace role for Reese, who plays the pregnant wife of an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who the American government takes into custody, believing he is linked to a terrorist.  For the role of Isabella El-Ibrahimi, who seeks answers to her husband’s unexplained disappearance, the filmmakers pursued Reese. “Obviously Reese is a real all-American girl next door,” says producer Steve Golin. “I think she is someone everyone can relate to … if this scenario can happen to Reese, it can happen to anyone.”

For her part, Reese was instantly attracted to the material. “I liked the idea that the different story lines all lead to similar situations, but not in the way we have seen in other recent films that have multiple interwoven stories. The interesting element to me was that each person’s story is about isolation. It isn’t about connection. It’s about how we are singular in the world. I was also drawn to the role of Isabella because I have a lot of curiosity about what it must be like to be living as part of a Muslim family in America. We have a lot of ideas about certain religions, and a lot of fear has been propagated. I was interested in dispelling some of that fear.”

She researched her role by meeting with Muslim Americans. “I also found communities on the internet and read books,” she adds. “It’s fascinating to me that in this country we have so many different kinds of people and as many different religions. It’s part of the real beauty of America that people are allowed to practice religion without prejudice. But, then again, since 9/11, it has clearly been a more difficult situation for some families.”

‘Four Christmases’ (2008)

In a nutshell, a couple (Reese and Vince Vaughn) attempts to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas. Needless to say, chaos ensues. Reese acknowledges, “The truth is, people tend to evaluate their own relationships in comparison to that of their parents, and that can be a daunting prospect in many ways.”

Of her co-star, she adds, “Vince is a force of nature. You just let him do his thing and hope you can react around him. He’s extraordinarily good at being funny, but it’s not all for laughs; he never loses sight of where the character is going and the level of emotion involved. I had a lot of fun bouncing ideas around with him and the other actors, watching the story grow and develop. Sometimes we’d feel that we really pinned down a scene and then someone would think of another angle and we’d go back and add more, kind of layering things on top of each other and seeing what works. It was great to see people so inspired and excited about a project.”

‘How Do You Know’ (2010)

How Do You Know is a comedy about four people in transition in life. Reese plays Lisa Jorgenson, a woman who finds the entire life she knew slipping away. The part was written for her by writer/director James L. Brooks. “Jim first called me and said he was thinking about his next movie and he’d like me to play the lead character,” she says. “I was honored and thrilled, because I’m such a huge fan of his work. I thought we were just going to have lunch, and then he said he wanted to write a movie for me. It was just unimaginable to me that he could think of me in that way.

“So we talked about his ideas a bit, and slowly after that he started sending me scenes and different things he had written as he did the research. It was a great experience, because when I finally got to read the actual, full-length script, I’d already known the character. I was excited to see where he was going to take her and where she was going to end up.”

‘Water for Elephants’ (2011)

The setting is the 1930s  and a circus, where a former veterinary student named Jacob (Robert Pattinson), falls in love with the ringmaster’s wife, Marlena. “Marlena,” details Reese, “was an orphan who was working as a seamstress in a dress shop where August [the ringmaster] discovered her when his circus visited her town. He became iinfatuated with Marlena, invited her to come along with the circus and became a kind of Svengali, training her as a horseback rider and performer. It’s a wonderful story of love, hope, redemption, second chances and finding happiness. I got so pulled into this world.”

‘This Means War’ (2012)

A pair of CIA operatives (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) wage an epic battle against one another when they discover they are dating the same woman (Reese). “Well, I was a single girl when we made the movie, so it wasn’t much of a stretch,” she notes. “This wasn’t a hard job to make. It was made very easy by [director] McG’s enthusiasm, and by having two amazing men in this movie that are very talented actors and very funny in their own right.”

‘Mud’ (2013)

Two young boys encounter a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey)  and form a pact to help him evade the vigilantes that are on his trail and to reunite him with his true love (that would be Reese’s Juniper). A champion of Southern stories, she found Mud irresistible, and looked forward to finally making a film with Matthew, her longtime friend. This also marked her first trip back to Arkansas since she starred in Walk the Line.

To get ready for her role, Reese studied photographs of girls and women at motocross events, noticing their dress, hairstyles, tattoos, makeup, and attitude. “[Juniper’s] got something magnetic about her,” she says. “She is able to get things to go her way whenever she wants, so I tried to find pictures of women like that. But honestly, trying to find characters that are reflective of this character in movies or in contemporary literature is difficult. I think that is part of the reason why I was interested in making this film, because there aren’t a lot of authentic Southern filmmakers. I think this will be interesting for people to see how a lot of this country lives.”

Like McConaughey’s Mud, Witherspoon’s Juniper relies heavily on the two boys in the film. Most of Witherspoon’s scenes include Lofland and Sheridan. On working with Tye Sheridan, Witherspoon says, “He is remarkably composed for such a young man. He is very thoughtful, he is very quiet, and I think he is incredibly talented. He is just very natural, and it’s a pleasure to work with him. He brings a lot of dignity to the role.”

On Juniper’s distant romance with Mud, Witherspoon says, “I think that’s one of the best parts of the script, that it’s a relationship that is discussed between lots of different people, but not between the two people who are having the relationship, so you don’t know what the nature of it is and you’re kind of left to figure it out for yourself. Most relationships, I would say, are indecipherable and really it’s the perspective of the people around you that inform it. And I think that’s how we piece together what’s happening in their lives.”

‘Devil’s Knot’ (2014)

The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a Satanic ritual. Reese plays Pamela Hobbs, the mother of victim Stevie Branch. “I actually got to spend some hands-on time with the woman that I’ve portrayed in the film,” explains Reese, “and once I met her, I knew I had to play her in the film. She just got into my heart and is a wonderful woman and her story has never really been told. I felt it was important, because so many documentaries have been made, but this one really showcases a different side of things; this crime that happened and the unfortunate things that happened afterwards. But for me as a mom, I really related to her feelings of loss and confusion. She’s a beautiful person and she really deserved to have her side of the story told.”

‘Gone Girl’ (2014)

With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent. Rosaund Pike played the lead in the film rather than Reese, who told Vulture.com, “Well, when I optioned Gone Girl [as producer], I just thought Gillian Flynn was an incredible writer. I’d been attached to another piece of material that she was doing, and I thought she had such unique female characters — not necessarily likable, a little rough around the edges, and with these inner mysteries tugging at them. When I optioned the book, I didn’t know what we were going to do with it, and then when director David Fincher became involved, it was a dream come true. He is truly an American master, and he said to me, ‘I want a certain type of woman for the lead,’ and it was very clear from the beginning that I did not fit his vision for who she was gonna be. [Laughs.] But that said, it’s creating a woman on film that has never been seen before, and I’m so excited for Rosamund.”

‘Wild’ (2014)

A chronicle of one woman’s one thousand one hundred mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy. It also scored an Academy Award nomination for Reese. As to how different this film was to others she was known for, she told vulture, “You have to understand, for someone who’s been doing this for as long as I’ve been doing it, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, finally!’ Finally, it’s so exciting to be honest about things. I developed it with my own money and an incredible producing partner, and then we went to the studios afterwards, because I did not want to hear, ‘We don’t want to see Reese doing that’ or ‘We don’t want to include the sexual scenes.’ Not that studios are bad — it’s just that sometimes when things go through too many filters and too many notes, they become distilled into something they weren’t from the beginning.

“The ideas of what a woman can and can’t do on film have really changed, and I think that’s in great part thanks to wonderful female writers like Lena Dunham, who tell very honest stories and explore female sexuality without shame. Just recently, I saw Jenny Slate in Obvious Child — so great — and I love characters like that who are that unapologetic and realistic. Even Bridesmaids changed the landscape of what we can see a female lead doing in a film. I’m just excited to be a part of it. I’ve never seen a film like Wild where the woman ends up with no man, no money, no family, no opportunity, but she still has a happy ending.”

‘The Good Lie’ (2014)

A group of Sudanese refugees, given the chance to resettle in the U.S., arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, where their encounter with an employment agency counselor forever changes all of their lives. Enthuses the actress, “We see their acclimation to America partly through her eyes. As much as it was an incredible opportunity for the Sudanese to start a new life in America, it was also a challenging and difficult cultural adjustment for a lot of them, who were still dealing with the trauma of their early life.

“It’s rare to be part of a film that crosses so many cultural lines,” she continues. “This story brings those lines together and finds the common humanity in them, while exploring things like isolation, perseverance and the importance of family. It raises a lot of good questions, and I think director Philippe Falardeau was able to get them all on film, which made it such a rich, rewarding experience for us.

“It proves as much a transformative experience for her as it is for them,” she adds regarding events of the film. “Carrie is very much a loner. She lives alone, eats alone … she’s one of those people who would rather not engage. Suddenly she is responsible for these people’s livelihoods, and she doesn’t understand their sensibilities or their way of doing things. It’s not easy. But the more she learns about them and gets drawn into their lives, it really opens her up in a way she’s never known before, and those relationships can really blossom and grow.”

‘Inherent Vice’ (2014)

In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.” Reese, in a supporting role, plays Deputy D.A. Penny Kimball. On reuniting with Joaquin she says, “I was excited to work with him again in these two very different roles. Joaquin always transforms himself in such an authentic way, and there’s something both hilarious and moving about Doc — which Penny seems to see in him, despite their obvious differences.”

On Paul Thomas Anderson’s directing style she adds, “It’s a one-of-a-kind experience. He’s so tuned into this world and he’s got such a great sense of humor. He keeps things feeling very alive, yet relaxed and open, which is a pleasure for actors.”

‘Hot Pursuit’ (2015)

An uptight and by-the-book cop (Reese) tries to protect the outgoing widow of a drug boss (Sofia Vergara) as they race through Texas pursued by crooked cops and murderous gunmen. Both actresses not only star in the film, but also serves as producer and executive producer, respectively.

“I was interested in directing this movie because I love Reese and Sofia,” says Anne Fletcher. “I instinctually understood the visual opportunity for comedy in their physical pairing and felt the brilliance of their chemistry, which I knew would be there. Putting those two together just seemed like a lot of fun to me.”

The story also appealed to both actresses, who saw the comic possibilities of working together, even though they’d never met. Reese states, “Sofia is so interesting to watch and has a great sense of comedic timing and relatability. We are a complete mismatch physically; it was clear to me the second we met that we would make a good pair, because not only did we have a great rapport, but she’s so tall and composed, next to her I felt short and funny. I knew we could play with that.”

“I wanted to do this role because I wanted to work with Reese,” Sofia agrees. “I thought we’d make a good combination, the way that I am and the way that she is and what we could both bring to the movie. It was also the first time that I was going to be an executive producer on a film and Reese has experience doing that, so I thought it would be nice for me to work with her for that reason also.”

‘Home Again’ (2017)

Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her. “I love the script,” conveys Reese to refinery29. “I thought Hallie [Meyers-Shyer] wrote a beautiful story about a woman at a crossroads in her life, wondering if she’ll ever find love again or if she’ll be able to be a good mother,” Reese details. “I think she’s just really trying to figure out if she should stay in her marriage or if she should move on. I think it’s a lot about finding yourself back in your hometown and your old family house and all the funny stuff that happens around that.”

“I think it’s a modern comedy. It has a lot to do with where women are now. I don’t think it’s about creating false feelings about romance or the need to be in a relationship. I don’t want to give away the ending, but you realize her romantic relationship does not define her. So, it’s hard to say it’s a romantic comedy. It’s definitely a modern comedy with some romance in it.”

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ (2018)

After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him. In describing her character, a star who gave up her existence in order to fight the darkness, Reese says, “Mrs. Whatsit is the youngest of the three Mrs.’s … she’s only two billion years old. This is her first mission as a guide traveling the universe fighting for light and goodness in people and humanity, but she is new to Earth and not used to being in a human form and is very curious.

“She is innocent, almost childlike, and desperately wants to impress Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, but she doesn’t understand how things work, so she is always playing with things. And sometimes she says things out loud, not realizing people can hear her, and sometimes they are inappropriate.”

‘Big Little Lies’ (2017-)

The apparently perfect lives of three mothers of first graders unravel to the point of murder. “I thought the book was really well plotted,” Reese to Vogue of the HBO series she produces along with, among others, costar Nicole Kidman. “I loved all the characters, I thought they were really dynamic women and very truthful in their struggles and the way that they communicated with each other. I thought it was a unique opportunity to have five really talented, diverse women on screen together, which is something that doesn’t happen that often.”

Expect season two of the series to premiere on HBO this June.