Reese Witherspoon covers the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter. I think she agreed to the cover story mostly to promote The Morning Show, but you know Reese – she’s got a million other projects going, and she mentions them all. While Reese is a producer and star of The Morning Show, I’ve seen a lot of commentary about how she’s one of the weakest parts of the show, and she sort of miscast herself in the role. While Reese got a Golden Globe nomination for it, the SAGs ignored her. I kind of wonder if Reese just Big Little Lie’d herself: producing a female-ensemble project in which she’s the least interesting part. If she’s doing that on purpose, props to her for being so ego-free. But I don’t think she’s doing it on purpose! Anyway, you can read the full THR piece here. Some highlights:

When a magazine made fun of her and “the domestic divas” for their side businesses: She wondered: Where was George Clooney and his tequila? Or Mark Wahlberg and his burger joints? “What? Men are entrepreneurs but how dare we be anything more than actresses? We, as women, are expected to stay in our lane — that was the inference, and I had sleepless nights over it. I remember calling one of these other women going, ‘What are we doing about this?’ ”

On the Rolling Stone review of ‘The Morning Show’ which noted her $2 million-per-episode paycheck: “There seemed to be a resentment, as if we weren’t worth it or it was bothersome, and I thought, ‘Why is that bothersome?’ I guarantee these companies are real smart, and if they agree to pay us, they’re doing it for a reason. They probably had a lot of lawyers and a lot of business people decide on that number because they knew that they were going to make more than that back. Does it bother people when Kobe Bryant or LeBron James make their contract?”

Spending months auditioning for Legally Blonde: MGM would require convincing, too. Witherspoon’s indelible performance in Election had put her at risk of being typecast. “They thought I was a shrew… My manager finally called and said, ‘You’ve got to go meet with the studio head because he will not approve you. He thinks you really are your character from Election and that you’re repellent.’ And then I was told to dress sexy…. And you’re 23, you have a baby at home, you need the money and you’re being told that by people who know what they’re doing. It’s funny to think of all the things we were told to do back then because now you’re thinking, ‘Oh God, if somebody told my daughter to do that, she’d be like, I really hope you’re joking.’ ” Witherspoon persevered. She endured multiple rounds of auditions for Legally Blonde, at one point meeting with executives in character (complete with a Southern California accent) to show that she could ace the part. “I remember a room full of men who were asking me questions about being a coed and being in a sorority even though I had dropped out of college four years earlier and I have never been inside a sorority house.”

The difference between her pitch meetings and men’s pitch meetings: “I was in this position where I was making studios a lot of money, and I had for years and years, and they didn’t take me seriously as a filmmaker. Somehow, they didn’t think that 25 years of experience could add up to some inherent knowledge of what movies work and how to keep them on budget… And you think about the kind of guys who come out of Sundance and get gigantic jobs off of one, like, ‘Oh, I see the potential.’ “

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

That last part was amazing. It was a whole-ass subtweet of Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. I think about this quote from Late Night director Nisha Ganatra all the time: “I knew all about the power of holding the door open behind you instead of slamming it shut and saying, ‘Thank God I got in.’ Steven Spielberg saw himself in [Colin Trevorrow] and hired him. That didn’t happen for me. There was no Indian female Spielberg saying, ‘Here, plucky young one: Take care of my billion-dollar franchise.’” That’s what Kathleen Kennedy has done with Star Wars too – she just keeps hiring these fresh, know-nothing white bros to helm these enormous franchise films and it keeps blowing up in her face. It’s true what Reese says too – she’ll be second-guessed to death for wanting to produce a mid-budget TV show for premium cable, but HBO would hand off hundreds of millions to Weiss and Benioff to f–k up Game of Thrones. The ingrained misogyny of Hollywood in a nutshell.

Honored to be included in this year's 'Women in Entertainment' roundup among so many extraordinary female trailblazers! 💫 Change happens when passionate people dedicate their time & energy to going beyond status quo. These individuals are doing just that. Thank you, @THR! pic.twitter.com/qgrwxt692j

— Reese Witherspoon (@ReeseW) December 11, 2019

Photos courtesy of THR.