Time interviewed Reese Witherspoon for their series 10 Questions for...
Self-study activity:
Watch the interview and answer the questions below.
The activity is suitable for strong intermediate students.
1 What charity work is Reese involved with?
2 What happens every three minutes?
3 Apart from fundraising, which other factor does Reese mention as being important?
4 What is dangerous territory?
5 What different elements does an actor put in a movie?
6 Why do people go to the movies?
7 What film was really successful?
To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.
Reese Witherspoon is an Academy Award winning actress, a mother of two and a woman who has been romanced on screen by both Wilson brothers.
Reese, welcome.
Thank you.
So you’re the honorary chair of the Avon Foundation and one of its big issues is breast cancer. Is there something that we're not doing in the fight against breast cancer?
There's so much that's being down there, so much research and the progress that has been made that as with anything that is, you know, a global epidemic, I think it needs to be dealt with continually. And we talk about every three minutes a woman is diagnosed worldwide. I think it's still a situation where we have to, you know, create research and funding is always necessary and education.
Being an advocate and being in movies and also probably donating to causes, which do you find to be for the celebrity the most effective way of… affecting change?
Fundraising is utmost importance, especially when you’re talking about new technologies and new sciences and education. But, you know, it's wonderful to see my colleagues making movies about breast
cancer, you know, and really showing the psychological parts of it that are so important for women to understand and families to sort of talk about.
You said once that, this is a quote, the battles we face in this business aren’t financial but they’re moral. I wonder how much those two things are intertwined, that the reason people suspend their morals is because there's so much money on the line.
Well, I think certainly when you talk about any amount of money, I mean, there's there's morality involved and… , you know, I think every day you make choices that you have to live with for the rest of your life and I think, you know, it's just like any other life situation, you just have to make choices that I, you know, hopefully reflect your true character. And I hope to be doing that many, although it's always dangerous territory to be talking about morals and character.
Meaning?
It's really the sign a fall to come usually.
You've made some incredibly successful movies and you've made some that were disappointing in the box office. Do you feel differently about that afterwards?
Yeah, of course, when movies are disappointing it's more than just the financial sort of disappointment. It's, it's a real emotional experience ‘cos you, you know, carry that with you and you put a lot of effort and energy and the movie and all the people worked with and… but it makes all the successes that much better. Yeah, I've had disastrous Saturday mornings, it’s really like, oh, really, that really is not gonna do well, so it’s right.
Can you ever tell?
I'm really bad at that, I don't I can’t ever prognosticate what, what people are gonna like or not like, though. I just try to go with what I would want to see and, and trying to bear in mind, you know. People have very difficult lives, they wanna go and enjoy themselves at the movies. Sometimes it's easier just go to a movie and not think for a while.
Did you ever think Legally Blonde would take off as hugely as it did?
No, I had no idea it was going to be so successful. I really loved that character I loved Elle Woods so much. She’s just really interesting. One of those sort of great innocence in the world, you know.
