Reese Witherspoon returns to comedy with a starring role alongside Vince Vaughn in the Warner Bros Pictures holiday movie Four Christmases. Directed by Seth Gordon (King of Kong), Four Christmases finds dating couple Kate and Brad having their Christmas day filled by having to take part in not just one or two family celebrations but four – yes, four – distinct events. As Kate, Witherspoon has to endure a stint in a jump house surrounded by unruly kids and having a baby vomit on her chest. Yuck.
Reese Witherspoon Press Conference
How do you prepare for the holidays?Reese Witherspoon: "There are many stages. First, there’s panic. I walked into Starbucks and they were playing Christmas music last week and I had an absolute panic attack. 'Turn it off, I’m not ready!' I think I have to get through Thanksgiving first, then it starts with the parties then the family. That’s when the family starts trickling in, then you finally get to get rid of the family and sleep for a few days. Then it’s New Year’s, then it’s all over."
Do you miss it when it’s all over?
Reese Witherspoon: "Nah, I’m not a look-back kind of person. I’m a go-forward gal."
What’s your idea of a good holiday movie and what about reports that you and Vince Vaughn didn’t get along?
Reese Witherspoon: "First of all, I don’t know where all that came from. Every costar I ever worked with I'm either having an affair, about to get married to him, we’re having a baby or we absolutely cannot stand each other."
And it’s always true.
Reese Witherspoon: "Well, always. Because that’s how you feel about everybody now, right? You can’t just get along with people and work with them. There has to be some sort of drama. But, no, we got along great. We were very good friends and were very much partners on this movie. We decided to produce it together and we rewrote the script together. Every day was like, ‘How are we going to do this? What are we going to do now?’"
"My idea of a holiday movie? My family always went to movies on Christmas Day so whatever movie was coming out: The Godfather, Elephant Man. Your typical cheerful holiday fare. It’s fun to go to a movie on the holidays and it’s nice to be part of a movie that at least grownups and teenagers can see. My kids are looking forward to a lot of movies, mainly Bolt. And Wall-E is playing on DVD at my house on a loop every day."
How would you describe this to people?
Reese Witherspoon: "It’s all about a couple who avoids their families at the holidays and through a series of circumstances have to go home to all four families and they have to face that horrible fear of bringing home their significant other to really meet every humiliating memory you have of your past. Everyone avoids it; it’s a natural human instinct to avoid it, so it’s sort of that comedy about having to really deal with it."
You’re part of a divorced couple. What sort of compromises do you have to make with Ryan Phillippe for your children?
Reese Witherspoon: "I think the most important thing is the children. What do they want, what makes them happy, what makes them feel comfortable? I think just to bear that in mind and that the most important thing is to be a grown-up about it and not let any kind of feelings affect how you deal with your children. I think that’s the most important thing. I’m very lucky. We raised our kids just to be happy and it’s all about them - what do they want?"
How do you divide up what they do with each of you over the holidays?
Reese Witherspoon: "I don’t know. It’s not that formal. There’s a lot of communication and a lot of just being very open about things. There’s nothing contentious about any of it. It’s all very go with the flow and whatever happens in the moment."
It’s interesting that your and Vince’s characters want to be together but not get married and have children.
Reese Witherspoon: "It is interesting. And, first of all, that’s a very modern idea - that we’re going to be together but not be married and never have children. It sounds like something people theorize about, but is very difficult to do. People grow and evolve and change and it’s sort of interesting to see how this relationship in the movie has to grow. I think the most important thing we really worked on was finding that place of being comfortable in the uncomfortable. Not knowing where things are going to go and still feeling okay about that. We really worked hard on trying to find that in words and scenes."
Can you talk about your development process with Vince and director Seth Gordon? So much seems like it was off the cuff.
Reese Witherspoon: "It does, but that’s not entirely true. We knew every day what we were shooting. We worked on the script for four months for five or six hours a day before we ever went on set. We broke it down, threw scenes away, started over. By the time we got to shooting, we really knew what we were doing. Seth was there the whole time and Vince. That kind of gave me a taste of what the improv situation was going to be because Vince is so smart and funny. Off the top of his head, the funniest person I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. Also when you’re working with that kind of person it’s important to create a space where they feel free to do whatever they want to do. It was a challenge for me to stay there and keep up with him. And he taught me a lot about improv and ad-libbing, and I feel really a better actor for that experience."
Page 2: On the height difference between she and Vince Vaughn, the bouncy castle, and comedy movies
