Reese Witherspoon Is Over Playing The “Girlfriend”

Reese Witherspoon gets just as annoyed seeing talented actresses in lame "girlfriend" roles as you do. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she described how one "awful" script for a "dumb comedy" was the catalyst for her to further her producing career. She said: "It was just a terrible script, and this male star was starring in it, and there was a girlfriend part. And I was like, 'You’ve got to be kidding me. No, I’m not interested.'" Depressingly, other high-profile actresses were. "They said, 'Well, this actress is chasing it, that actress is chasing it.' Like, three Oscar winners and two huge box-office leading ladies," Witherspoon said. "And I was like, 'Oh, that’s where we’re at? This is where we’re at? You’re fighting to be the girlfriend in a dumb comedy? For what?' And by the way, two Oscar winners did it. I was like, 'I’ve got to do something.'" Witherspoon's exasperation led to a conversation with her husband, who asked about her plans to combat the issue. "He's like, 'You read more books than anybody I know. In your free time, why don't you buy some of the books and turn them into movies?'" Witherspoon's company, Pacific Standard Films, produced Wild and Gone Girl. Witherspoon obviously doesn't name any names, but her "dumb comedy" anecdote has enough specifics to have people trying to figure out what movie she's talking about. (She also noted that the incident happened "about four years ago.") Yesterday on Twitter, Vulture's Kyle Buchanan put out a call for guesses. He settled on the proposed A Million Ways to Die in the West, Seth MacFarlane's noxious 2014 comedy which starred Oscar-winner Charlize Theron (in a girlfriend part). Complicating the theory is that Theron is the only Oscar winner in the cast. Liam Neeson is a nominee. MacFarlane and Neil Patrick Harris are Oscar hosts. For more potential culprits — including the Tom Hanks-Julia Roberts movie Larry Crowne — check out the comments section of the article. Witherspoon is on EW's Beyond Beautiful cover, alongside Eva Longoria, Elizabeth Banks, and Kerry Washington.