Reese Witherspoon Calling Out A Common Trope In Scripts A Decade Ago Is Going Viral. Now She’s Reflecting On How Being ‘Irritated’ Fueled Her Producing Success

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It’s no surprise that Reese Witherspoon embodies what it means to empower women. Through her most compelling roles, she portrays strong characters who know their goals and don’t rely on men to mold them into their best selves. Around a decade ago, the Academy Award-winning actress voiced her discontent with a prevalent script trope that has since gained popularity online, hinting at frustration as the catalyst for her success in producing films.

It’s evident that Reese Witherspoon rarely overlooks parts in a script that could be perceived as disrespectful towards women. This is underscored by a viral TikTok video with over 913,500 views, which features the Legally Blonde actress’ speech from Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards in 2015. In her speech, she expressed her deep dislike for a frequently used trope in female characters that really bothered her deeply.

What should we proceed with here?!” In films or real life, this question often arises. Let me assure you, it will be repeated in the text ahead. […] Can you think of any woman who finds herself in distress and is utterly clueless about how to respond? I’m talking about women who are told what to do in times of crisis, even young children. It’s hard to imagine a woman not knowing what steps to take when she’s in trouble.

The award-winning Golden Globe performance left a lasting impact, making me perceive the dialogue differently now. This shift is beneficial since it highlights the sexism prevalent in older films, where women were often relegated to supporting roles as love interests or damsels in distress while men took center stage as heroes. Today, we have an abundance of powerful female leads breaking barriers and shining on the big screen, making such outdated portrayals less acceptable.

Despite Reese Witherspoon’s Glamour Women of the Year speech being from about a decade ago, it still doesn’t mean the Man In the Moon actress doesn’t think about that moment. To promote her new LinkedIn page about what she learned in storytelling, the Pleasantville actress posted an Instagram video that now has 1.4 million views throwing back to moments in 2024 when she spoke of female empowerment. Here’s what she said in an episode of Melinda French Gates’ “Moments That Make Us” series:

I strongly believe that women should be recognized as thrivers, for we truly are. What continually amazes me is women’s ability to endure and bounce back from adversity. Often, the women portrayed in scripts were merely depicted as someone’s wife or girlfriend, rarely given leading roles. This began to frustrate me greatly. There isn’t a woman out there who hasn’t had to save herself at least once in her life.

Luckily, Reese Witherspoon channeled her annoyance into establishing her own production company, Hello Sunshine, which focuses on producing films featuring women as strong survivors. This initiative to produce movies geared towards women was sparked when she encountered a script containing offensive stereotypes about two women fighting over a man who made light of female anatomy with numerous “boob jokes.

Following the realization that numerous studios were neglecting productions featuring leading female characters, Reese Witherspoon opted to proactively establish Pacific Standard (later known as Hello Sunshine). Despite initial challenges, teamwork was instrumental in refining a business strategy that ultimately propelled her films to unprecedented triumphs. To delve deeper into this journey, take a look at the complete Instagram video of Witherspoon below:

A post shared by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon)

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Following the observation that many female characters often depend on men for assistance, Reese Witherspoon took action by establishing her own production company, Hello Sunshine, with a focus on portraying women as independent entities with their unique missions. Examples of this can be seen in projects like “Wild”, where she played a self-reliant hiker healing herself, and “Where the Crawdads Sing”, which depicts a young woman raising herself in a marshland. With more empowering films for women on the rise, it’s crucial to have more of them making an impact in theaters. Mark your calendars, as Hello Sunshine’s “You’re Cordially Invited” will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting January 30th, 2025.

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2025-01-24 16:37