Reese Witherspoon Was Told Never to Take This Job (Try Not to Eyeroll)

Despite having firsthand experience being a mother, Witherspoon told the Times that she was given “ironic” advice to not play one in her films. “I was always being told by people in the industry: ‘Don’t play a mom. It’ll make you seem old,’” she explained, adding, “And I was like, ‘But, I am a mom.’ There was so much about our business that desexualized you, so you couldn’t be a movie star if you played a mom. And thank goodness, that’s sort of going by the wayside."

She continued, “But that was a big part of when I was in my 20s and 30s: Don’t play a mom. No men will desire you, or nobody will want to go see that movie, because nobody wants to see a movie about a mom. There was so much I didn’t know. And maybe that naïveté was good, because it’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll just do that and have a career.’” 

Recalling that time period, she told the publication, “I wasn’t going to beg for parts; parts were coming to me. And that almost made it scarier, because I wasn’t picking and choosing what I would reach and strive for. It was more like, what will I not do?”

Things eventually changed for Witherspoon, as she was able to take on projects such as 2017’s Home Again and the 2020 miniseries Little Fires Everywhere, where she could bring her real-life motherhood experiences to the forefront.

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