An honor for Witherspoon
Actress gets American Cinematheque Award as friends, colleagues reminisce with her.
“All Reese, all Reese, all Reese!”
Matthew McConaughey had it mostly (all) right Friday night in twisting his trademark catchphrase as he presented Reese Witherspoon with the American Cinematheque Award at the annual fundraiser for the nonprofit group.
The bulk of the ceremony, which also honored Dream Works Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, was devoted to the 39-yearold Witherspoon and the nearly 50 movies she has headlined or produced in a career dating to her 1991 debut in Robert Mulligan’s lovely coming-of-age story “The Man in the Moon.”
Here are 12 things we learned about Witherspoon from friends and colleagues:
1. Witherspoon will soon reunite with “Election” writer-director Alexander Payne for “Downsizing,” co-starring Matt Damon. Payne says he receives more compliments about “Election,” in which Witherspoon played a ferociously precocious high school student running for class president, than any other of his movies.
“Even Barack Obama told me it’s his favorite political film,” Payne said.
2. Sofia Vergara calls Witherspoon, her “Hot Pursuit” costar “my little pony.” She didn’t say why.
3. When country music singer Kenny Chesney thinks of Witherspoon, he thinks of the song “Wild Child,” which he performed at the tribute. But he didn’t explain whether it was because she starred in a movie called “Wild” or because Witherspoon reminds him of the song’s lyrics, (“a spirit that can’t be tamed, a calico pony on an open plain”). Wait ... there’s that pony thing again!
4. Kate Hudson first met Witherspoon at the premiere of “Man in the Moon,” where she watched the young actress work the after-party “like a seasoned politician.” (Witherspoon did the same thing at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on Friday, graciously welcoming dozens of the 800 in attendance.)
5. The words Hudson heard most early in her career: “It’s between you and Reese” or “Well ... Reese has the offer. But if she passes, it might come to you.”
6. Witherspoon will not let guests get away with singing just any old Christmas song like “Frosty the Snowman” at her annual holiday party. “No,” Hudson says, “it’s ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’ ”
7. Apparently, Witherspoon’s husband, CAA agent Jim Toth, can’t sing. Or, at least not well. He’s not allowed to participate in “Twelve Days.”
8. Witherspoon yells at Laura Dern, who played her mom in “Wild,” for not being on social media more. And for using brown lipstick.
9. Dern’s mother, actress Diane Ladd, and Witherspoon’s mom, Betty (who sat next to Reese at the Cinematheque event), are tight. Dern believes Witherspoon has an innate desire to take care of other people because she “grew up in a home of healthcare providers.”
10. Music man T Bone Burnett had a feeling Witherspoon would win the lead actress Oscar for playing June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line” when he heard her let out an “actual bloodcurdling scream” in frustration after wrestling with the classic Carter family song “Wildwood Flower.”
“All the birds flew away,” Burnett remembered.
11. Robert Downey Jr. would very much like to order the Bessie Bow table runner from Witherspoon’s clothing and home store Draper James, but he can’t get his credit card to work.
12. Two of Witherspoon’s three children — 16-year-old Ava and 12-year-old Deacon — can’t get enough of a 1991 “Entertainment Tonight” video in which Reese talks about how much fun it will be to go to the video store in 30 years and rent “The Man in the Moon” and watch it with her kids.
“I thought that was the best moment of my life,” Witherspoon said from the stage. “I was wrong about that. Some days I still can’t believe that I get to do this, that I get to be a storyteller in this world. It is the greatest privilege of my life.”