There are few stars with a voice as familiar as Reese Witherspoon’s. Speaking over the phone from LA, she is warm and polite, her Southern accent just as it sounds on screen.
However she’s talking to me not about her new projects (she is one of the most successful actors and producers in Hollywood), but as global ambassador for skincare range Biossance, which she signed up to after trying the products. And as we speak, it’s clear that her approach to beauty is more than skin deep.
‘I’ve always felt beauty and skincare is a big part of self-esteem,’ she says. Born in Louisiana and raised in Tennessee, Reese, 45, now lives in California with her talent-agent husband Jim Toth, their son Tennessee, 11, and her children Deacon, 18, and Ava, 22, from her first marriage to actor Ryan Phillippe.
She puts down much of her attitude to her upbringing. ‘As a child, I remember watching my mother getting ready for work every morning and thinking how beautiful she was. She always had red lipstick on, which I thought was so glamorous,’ she recalls. Reese’s mother Betty was a huge influence.
‘I grew up with a very strong mother and a very strong grandmother. My mom always taught me, when you put yourself together and take care of yourself, you present more confidently to the world.’
Indeed she does. Named by Forbes as one of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2019, she sold her production company Hello Sunshine last summer for a reported $900 million, having proven that female-led stories work.
An avid reader, who studied English literature at Stanford (she left early to pursue acting), Reese was behind (and starred in) hit TV series including Big Little Lies and most recently, The Morning Show, alongside Jennifer Aniston.
In that, Reese plays news reporter Bradley Jackson, who is plucked from relative obscurity to co-host a breakfast show alongside Aniston’s experienced anchor.
