‘I had no idea that so many people were having harassment issues’
Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington talk to Kerri-ann Roper about Amazon’s Little Fires Everywhere
Reese Witherspoon is talking about how much power there is in partnership – specifically between women. And frankly, it couldn’t be a more apt conversation to be having.
The actress, 44, and another Hollywood power hitter, Kerry Washington, have teamed up to star in and produce Little Fires Everywhere, the Amazon Prime Video series based on author Celeste Ng’s acclaimed 2017 novel.
Like the book, the TV adaption is set in the late 1990s in the quiet Ohio town of Shaker Heights, where author Ng grew up.
It begins with the home of Witherspoon’s character – Elena Richardson – burning down in a suspected arson, one of several small fires sparking a story that explores class, race, privilege and motherhood.
Scandal star Washington, 43, stars as mysterious artist Mia Warren, whose world collides with the ordered Shaker Heights existence in much the same way a painter’s oils mix with water.
“I think the themes of motherhood drew me to the material and the idea of getting to explore different kinds of mothering in one piece was really appealing,” says Witherspoon virtually via a Zoom interview.
Washington is also on the video call, and the chemistry between the two is palpable.
“Also getting to work with Kerry on this project was really a beautiful experience to be able to – just, thinking about being able to have conversations about things that are part of our everyday life that we are now making art about. I feel very grateful to have a partner like Kerry, to be able to have discussions and conversations,” Witherspoon says.
“One thing Kerry said to me in the very beginning of our creative journey together was, we have to be able to have difficult conversations with each other. And it was a beautiful time, to have this group of diverse women all having conversations in a safe, soft place.”
The matter of “tough conversations” is something Washington also addresses openly.
She says: “One thing we learned early on was that in order for us to be able to have tough conversations, it meant that we had to be willing to say the wrong things at times, that we weren’t going to do it perfectly. And I think that’s one of the things I really love about this material, these characters are very imperfect.”
Throughout their careers, both have always championed female empowerment.
So asked if they think it is finally the right “moment” to talk about real women with real issues – they are unequivocal in their yes.
“I think there should never have been a moment where we were forced into a false identity as women,” says Washington.
“I think the themes of motherhood drew me to the material”
“We’ve spent so much time historically being told what women are supposed to look like and how we’re supposed to act, how we’re supposed to behave.
“We’ve been taught to be good and to be nice as opposed to being taught to be authentic and real. And so whenever we now as producers – for Reese and I
– to have the opportunity to tell stories about women’s authenticity, not what we’re supposed to look like, but who we really are and what we’re really going through, it’s so liberating because we can reject these false ideas that are put on us.”
As a mother-of-three, Witherspoon reflects on the conversations she’s had with her 20-year-old daughter, Ava.
“I think it’s important we are telling stories that our daughters and other people’s daughters are going to grow up and see a better, more accurate reflection of what the female experience is,” she says.
Their upcoming peer group will also have the Time’s Up and Me Too movements
– both global movements against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry – as a frame of reference.
“So many of us had been previously silo-ed. We were often the only women, the only actress in a film on a project, on a set, and we were often told things about each other – that one’s difficult, that one’s crazy, don’t spend time with that one she really has a temper,” says Washington.
“Whatever these myths we were told about each other, the Me Too and Time’s Up movements allowed us to come together as a community of women and those myths started to dissolve. And we started to realise that we actually really liked each other, and many of us wanted to work together, and to build power together and to tell stories, narratives.”
Witherspoon says numerous conversations were massive eye openers for her, adding: “I had no idea that so many people were having harassment issues, discrimination issues, it really opened my eyes and made me even more incentivised to work with other women.”
A little bit like Little Fires Everywhere.
● Little Fires Everywhere is on Amazon Prime Video now