Reese Witherspoon Four Christmases Press Conference
How did Seth Gordon guide the two of you?Reese Witherspoon: "His biggest strength is editing. He really knew that he could let us be as free as we wanted to be while we were shooting because being a documentarian, he knows how to cut footage. That’s all you do. So we were really confident he would find the story line with all the characters and all the set pieces."
Do you remember when you found out there is no Santa?
Reese Witherspoon: "That for me was in the second grade when Mary-Beth decided to get up and for show and tell told everyone there was no Santa Claus. The whole class burst into tears and she got into a lot of trouble and got sent home."
Did you believe her?
Reese Witherspoon: "Well no because she had to come back the next day and say it wasn’t really true. She was just really lying to hurt people’s feelings. Poor thing. It was a psychological mess."
How did you deal with the disparity in height between you and Vince?
Reese Witherspoon: "Well they couldn’t make Vince smaller. We tried. We tried to get him to take his shoes off. He’s 6'5" and I’m 5'2". We had a really funny scene, I don’t know if it’s in the film any more, where he rolls over onto me. We were in bed and then at the very end he rolls over and goes to sleep but he rolls over and lays on top of me. It was like a tree trunk had just landed on me. I kept going, 'Tim-berrrrr!' It was really funny."
"I stood on a lot of boxes and they had to build ramps that were about the same size as where I should be. It was a challenge, especially the kissing scenes. It was hard to get up there to kiss him, but we worked it out. And he had to pick me up for half the dancing. He’s actually holding me in the air so we can stay in the same frame. He’s a fantastic dancer, a very, very good dancer which you’d probably figure from Swingers. They were teaching us dance moves. I just couldn’t keep up and he was like, 'Oh, it’s a one-two cha cha cha.'"
Did you always want to be a mom or were you a little like your character in the film at some point?
Reese Witherspoon: "Well I understood, because before I had kids I’d never held a baby. I’d never babysat. I didn’t have any cousins. So the first time I held Ava was the first time I’d ever held a baby in my life. So I understand that kind of fear of not being a good mom. It took me a long time to feel really comfortable in the role of being a mother."
There’s a scene with a bouncy castle which you’re supposedly scared of because of something that happened in your childhood. Is there anything that happened in your own childhood which compares?
Reese Witherspoon: "Well after I had to shoot with the jump-jump for two consecutive weeks, I am very, very scared of the jump-jump. We were on that thing for two weeks on a soundstage with all those children, and of course one kid decided to eat too many Doritos one day and got on the jump-jump. And then the screaming and the evacuating because she threw up everywhere. It was disgusting. Major contamination. But then we had to get back on, the show goes on so we had to get back up there. And I threw out my shoulder throwing one of those 10-year-old boys to the side. It was fun for me. I don’t really get to do that physical comedy that often."
What about any phobias as a kid?
Reese Witherspoon: "No. I was that kind of kid who would jump off a bridge if someone told me to do it. I had a big brother who was like, 'Just do it!' I’d be like, 'Okay brother, whatever you wanna do.' I didn’t have a lot of fear. I have grown up and become very fearful."
What interests you about comedy?
Reese Witherspoon: "I enjoy it. I have a really good time. It means a lot to me when I get to have experiences where I meet young people and they say, 'You know, this is the movie that got me through a hard time.' Or, 'This is the movie I watch with my family.' That’s a big deal for me. I get tired of being labeled sometimes, but I’m so lucky. I’ve got to do Walk the Line and Rendition and Vanity Fair. I feel really lucky I’ve been able to go back and forth."
Was there a Christmas out of the four different houses you go to that you identify with?
Reese Witherspoon: "Probably the one where you have to go to church. We always had to go to church and nativity plays and all that kind of stuff. So growing up I did a lot of that."
What would you like for Christmas this year and do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
Reese Witherspoon: "Oh gosh… I don’t know what I want for Christmas this year. I don’t know. Someone to help me out with some stuff! [Laughing] I could really use some help."
You mean housecleaning help?
Reese Witherspoon: "No, I have a garden and that’s a lot of work. Sometimes I get tired of doing all that stuff. But I like it; it’s kind of nice."
So you want a gardener?
Reese Witherspoon: "Oh yeah, that’d be nice. [Laughing] I have a farm so I like chickens. I’d like an Araucana chicken. That’d be nice. It would lay blue eggs. And I know I’m going to get hounded this year for a horse. I have a feeling I know I’m going to have two little people pulling on my leg going, 'Can we have a horse? Can we have a horse?' And resolutions – not yet. Gosh, can’t we just get through Thanksgiving? [Laughing] So much pressure!"
Do your kids believe in Santa Claus and how would you feel if an uncle came to them and told him he didn’t exist?
Reese Witherspoon: "My kids believe in all sorts of things. We have all sorts of fairies for different holidays. Like, we have a Halloween fairy and on top of the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny… I think, 'How did this happen too that I also have to get more things?' Like the Halloween fairy. But, yeah, they still do and I don’t know. Kids find out that kind of stuff on their own."
But what if another grown up told them?
Reese Witherspoon: "What? Are you suggesting there’s not a Santa Claus? Is that what you’re saying? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t want to hear that anymore."
Page 3: On Kristen Chenoweth, Christmas Plays, and Joaquin Phoenix
