ADVERTISEMENT

ACHIEVEMENT: AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE AWARD
GLOBAL FAN BASE
Reese Witherspoon
signs autographs
at the Bafta
awards in London
earlier this year.
RICHARD YOUNG/REX SHUTTERSTOCK
Standard Bearer Reese Witherspoon
tackles new challenges with onscreen roles,
behind scenes biz leadership By Thelma Adams
WITH THE RISING buzz
about female superheroes,
let’s praise the plain
old Hollywood heroics
of Reese Witherspoon,
who’s being honored Oct. 30 by the American
Cinematheque. The brainy blonde
was ahead of the gender equality curve,
founding her own movie company, Pacific
Standard, and developing female-driven
projects with partner
Tipsheet Bruna Papandrea. Given
WHAT:
American the New Orleans native’s
Cinematheque Type-A personality, it’s
Award
no surprise that her
WHEN:
Oct. 30 company’s first two films,
WHERE: “Wild” (in which she
Hyatt Regency starred) and “Gone Girl,”
Century Plaza,
Los Angeles earned three Oscar nominations
— with Wither-
WEB:
Americancinematheque.comspoon
nabbing one for
ball
actress.
With these two films,
Witherspoon, an avid reader, solidified
the bridge between chick lit and chick
films that had already been established
by YA super-hits “The Twilight Saga” and
“The Hunger Games.” And, like the heroines
in these post-feminist movies, Witherspoon
wasn’t going to go all damsel-in-distress:
if there weren’t enough
challenging female roles, she would build
them herself.
It’s an action that would please Tracy
Flick, the overachiever stereotype of
a future D.C. player in Alexander Payne’s
1999 classic, “Election.” In this literate,
dark comedy about the rough road to student
body president as political metaphor,
Witherspoon planted the seeds for a
thoroughbred career: intelligent, literate,
beautiful — and not afraid to bust balls.
Another Witherspoon touchstone was
the beloved “Legally Blonde” movies. Her
Elle Woods is underestimated by almost
everyone she encounters — the fools can’t
see beyond her curtain of golden locks
and girly wardrobe. But Woods owns her
beauty and fashion obsession. Woods
turns that combination into something
powerful and takes it all the way to court.
Dumb blonde? Hardly! RIP stereotype.
She could also “Walk the Line” in a
different direction. Preppy mama Witherspoon
and method monster Joaquin
Phoenix make a moving duet as June Car-
1
2
Reese’s Pieces
Actress has turned in
many enduring characters
.
› “Walk the Line” (1)
(2005)
$186 million worldwide
B.O., plus Oscar
for Witherspoon
› “Legally Blonde”
(2001)
$141 million worldwide
B.O. and cultural
touchstone
› “Election” (2)
(2000)
Iconic comedy
performance
ter Cash and Johnny Cash. She nabbed an
actress Oscar (he got an actor nom) as a
Southern singer etching out a career in a
chokingly male-dominated business while
married to a musical genius who also
happens to be substance abuser.
Witherspoon takes surprising leaps
— and always sticks that landing. Take
“Wild,” in which she played sex-and-drug
addict Cheryl Strayed on her 1,100-mile
trek to recovery. This was dark territory
for Witherspoon, but that mood chimed
with the malevolent mystery she produced
that same year: “Gone Girl.” Gillian Flynn’s
bestseller became a Ben Affleck-Rosamund
Pike hit, grossing $368 million
worldwide, and $168 million domestically.
(But though Witherspoon has the sunny
looks of an ad-ready Breck girl, early roles
included edgy indies such as “Freeway,”
and memorable turns in cult classics “Cruel
Intentions” and “American Psycho.”)
In “Wild” and “Gone Girl,” the first two
films produced by Pacific Standard, Witherspoon
loosened up (a bit — she’ll always
be Type A), revealing her struggle and her
triumph by seizing the means of film production
and making a path for her talent,
and that of female authors like Flynn and
Strayed.
The canny powerhouse is rising as a
key player at 39, just when old Hollywood
would have been calculating her sell-by
date. Like Tracy Flick, she is taking no
prisoners — and gathering well-deserved
kudos.
95