Reese Witherspoon Analyzes “Walk the Line:” “I think there are a lot of different stories going on. Johnny Cash’s story of struggle and overcoming his impoverished background and different challenges [like] his drug challenges and addiction. I think that is really remarkable.
I think everyone really likes a story where you see a guy go from nothing – or a girl – and accomplish things we don’t feel capable of doing ourselves. But also the love story thing… I really like in this film that it is realistic and portrays sort of a real marriage, a real relationship where there are forbidden thoughts and fallibility. And it is about compassion in the long haul, not just the short easy solutions to problems.”
Reese Witherspoon on Capturing June Carter Cash’s Spirit in “Walk the Line:” “Well, the thing I really like about this film is I think she's a multi-faceted woman. I don't think that she is just sort of the supportive wife. I think she goes through a lot of indecision through the process of ultimately committing to him, and I think that's more realistic for a woman.
Witherspoon feels June Carter Cash was a woman ahead of her time. “I think the really remarkable thing about her character is that she did all of these things that we sort of see as normal things in the 1950s when it wasn’t really acceptable for a woman to be married and divorced twice and have two different children by two different husbands and travel around in a car full of very famous musicians all by herself. She didn’t try to comply to social convention, so I think that makes her a very modern woman. Really, a woman who set a pace for someone like myself and created opportunities for someone like myself to be a working mother and be an artist. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to be her.”
Reese Witherspoon on Getting Input from June Carter Cash’s Children: “Well I was informed upon meeting one of them that my boobs weren’t big enough, so I ran immediately to the costume designer and was like, ‘I don’t think my boobs are big enough!’ He said, ‘I think we’ll be okay.’ But as far as accuracy, I think we are a little off there.
They just talked a lot about her personality and how she could just as easily have dinner with the man who pumped gas at the gas station as she could with the Queen. She was an amazing sort of person to be so open-minded about humanity.”
Reese Witherspoon’s Favorite June Carter Cash Song: “One of the songs that is not in the movie that I like is ‘Long-Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man.’ I think they have a great relationship on that song. It used to be at the end of the movie. I don’t know if it is anymore.”
Reese Witherspoon Reflects on Her Career: “I just feel lucky to work. I feel like I am in such a rare position that I have gotten to get this far in this business as a woman and that I still am presented with challenging roles with great writers and great directors and great co-stars. These roles come along so infrequently. My husband and I talk about it all the time. Maybe every five years you get to see a role that really you are never going to read anything like it again ever in your life. So you just have to keep looking for that and hoping it comes your way. You’ve got one role and 25 actresses that want it, you know?”
Reese Witherspoon on Staying Grounded: “Basically I know my grandmother would be mortified if I did anything less. I grew up with a lot of emphasis on how to carry yourself. I don’t know. You just kind of are who you are in life, don’t you think?”
Up Next: ”There is a movie I am working on for Paramount called ‘The Reckoning’ about a New York Times photojournalist that goes to Cambodia to look for MIA soldiers from the Vietnam War.” Witherspoon said she’s not sure if any of the film will be shot in Vietnam. “We are trying to get it going now. I have no idea about the logistics yet,” said Witherspoon.
Witherspoon’s also keeping busy as a producer. “I am producing a film for my company called ‘Penelope’ that Christina Ricci and Hayden Christensen are going to star in. I am going to do a role in that. That is going to be next year. It is a fairy tale about a girl who has a curse in her family. [The character played by Christina Ricci] has a pig face. It is sort of a family curse and in order to get the curse off her family, she has to go through this process. I play her quirky best friend.”
