Reese Witherspoon Admits She ‘Burst Into Tears’ Over ‘Offensive’ Caricature

Reese Witherspoon, along with several other well-known Hollywood faces, have become successful in more than one area in life and while Witherspoon is famously known for her role as Elle Woods in the , she’s also a very successful businesswoman and mother. Recently, she opened up about her frustrations towards a tone-deaf 2015 Time article that recognized Witherspoon, Jessica Alba, Blake Lively and more, for being successful businesswomen but in a rather disrespectful way. 

During an interview on the We Are Supported By podcast, she discussed her thoughts on the article, admitting she burst into tears after seeing it because of the contemptuous way it stereotyped women versus men. “I had started a clothing business. Gwyneth was really growing Goop. Blake Lively had a business, Jessica Alba had a business and they did a caricature cartoon of all of us,” she explained according to Too Fab. “We were in ballgowns and they stuck our heads on, and Jessica was holding an iron, and I was holding a vacuum cleaner. The whole thing is so offensive that I burst into tears.” 

The title of the story was “Hollywood’s New Domestic Divas.” Despite the magazine apologizing for their offensive photos, Witherspoon revealed that she felt by the time they got around to it, the damage was already done. “I’m not even talking about 10 years ago. I’m talking about 2015 when we decided, OK, we’re going to be entrepreneurial, take a swing, invest our own money, our own time, or our own reputation and try to do something that George Clooney has done, Robert De Niro has done — and getting lampooned for it,” she explained, adding how many are often faced with “staying in their lane.” She admits that kind of message to little girls is not only divisive but harmful. “If you’ve had success in one area, you can’t have success in another,’” she said of the sexist impact on younger girls and women. 

However, there is an upside despite the negativity and harmful rhetoric. “There’s several women who’ve said acting is not for me: ‘I don’t want to be an actress anymore. I want to do things that are entrepreneurial and want to have a different kind of life for my family,’” she explained. “Media can be so punishing and I think it’s a great thing that we have other ways to get other information [online]. It’s wrought with misinformation and all sorts of complications but there’s a lot of good that came out of it too. Women talking more about art, politics, culture, finance, so important.”

While Witherspoon has her own clothing store in Nashville for the brand Draper James, she also started her own production company, Hello Sunshine, producing a numb er of projects, including The Morning Show on Apple TV+, which premieres its anticipated second season this month.