By Christina Radish

Reese Witherspoon at the premiere of "Four Christmases" held at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on November 20, 2008.

Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about what Christmas means to her and her family.

MediaBlvd Magazine> What made you want to do a Christmas film?

Reese Witherspoon> I just thought this was a different kind of Christmas movie. I’ve never really seen someone have to deal with a blended family, and how they have to go to a million different places. I hear people complain about it constantly, but I’ve never seen a movie about it. And, I was excited to work with Vince. He has a different kind of comedy that’s renegade and crazy. He always has crazy ideas, right in the moment, and it’s just fun to be part of that energy. I knew it would be original and interesting.

MediaBlvd> What does Christmas mean to you, personally?

Reese> I go to church on Christmas Eve, and I like to hear the music. For me, it’s just about family and togetherness. It’s about a lot of cooking and playing games and seeing my friends, but it’s mainly about kids. It’s all about them enjoying their day and doing what they love to do. It makes it so much better, when you have everyone around you and you can see the joy that they have. There are a lot of different traditions, and we tried to explore each one of those traditions in the film. We had family photos and playing games, and all kinds of stuff that people mark as traditions in their family.

MediaBlvd> How do you prepare for the holidays? Do you freak out and go crazy with preparation?

Reese> There are many stages. The first is absolute panic. I walked into Starbucks and they were playing Christmas music last week, and I had an absolute panic attack. I was like, “Turn it off! I’m not ready! I have to get through Thanksgiving first.” It starts with the parties, and then the family starts trickling in. And then, you finally get rid of the family and you get to sleep for a few days, and then it’s New Year’s. Then, it’s all over.

MediaBlvd> How did the development process work with director Seth Gordon and Vince Vaughn? What was it like to work with Vince when so much of what he does seems like it’s improv?

Reese> Yeah, it is. Well, that’s not entirely true. We knew, every day, what we were shooting. We definitely had a script and we worked very hard on it for four months, every day, for five or six hours a day, before we ever went on set. We really worked on the script and each scene, and broke it down and threw scenes away and started over, so that, by the time we got to shooting, we really knew what we were doing. And, Seth and Vince were there the whole time. That gave me a taste of what the improv situation was going to be. Vince is so very smart, funny, and on top of it, off the top of his head. He’s the funniest person I’ve ever worked with, in my entire life. But, it’s so important, when you’re working with that kind of person, to create a space where they feel free to do whatever they want to do, and you know that you can stay there with them and keep up with them. That was good. It was a challenge for me, and I had to really keep up with him. He taught me a lot about improv and ad-libbing, and I really feel like a better actor for that experience.

MediaBlvd> How did Seth guide the two of you through that?

Reese> Seth’s biggest strength is editing. He really knew that he could let us be as free as we wanted to be when we were shooting because, being a documentarian, he knows how to cut footage. We were really confident that he would find the storyline with all the characters, all the set pieces, and all the funny parts.                         

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with someone as tall as Vince?

Reese> They couldn’t make Vince smaller. We tried. He’s 6'5" and I’m 5'2", so he’s over a foot taller than me. We had a really funny scene where we were in bed and then, at the very end, he rolls over on top of me and goes to sleep. It was like a tree trunk had just landed on me. It was really funny. But, I stood on a lot of boxes and they had to build ramps that were about the same size as where I should be. It was a challenge, especially for the kissing scene. It was hard to get up there to kiss him, but we worked it out. And, he had to pick me up for half of the dancing. If you saw our feet, he’s actually holding me in the air, so that we can stay in the same frame. He’s a fantastic dancer. I couldn’t keep up.                                     

MediaBlvd> What was your reaction to the reports that said you and Vince weren’t getting along while you were making this movie?

Reese> I don’t know where all that came from. Every co-star I ever work with, I’m either having an affair with him, I’m about to get married to him, we’re having a baby, or we absolutely cannot stand each other. That’s how you feel about everybody you know, right? You can’t just get along with people and work with them. There has to be some sort of drama. But, no, we got along great and we were very good friends. We were very much partners on this movie. We decided to produce it together and we re-wrote the script together. Every day was like, “How are we going to do this? What are we going to do now?”                            

MediaBlvd> What was Kristin Chenoweth like to work with? Has anyone ever told you how much you two look like?

Reese> Yeah, I used to get stopped, all the time, by people who would say, “Are you on The West Wing?,” and I’d be like, “No, I’m not on The West Wing.” And then, my girlfriend told me, “Oh, there’s a girl who looks just like you on The West Wing, and she talks just like you.” I was like, “Really?” Then I ran into her at an awards show and I met her, and I realized I had seen her in Wicked, and all this stuff, and I was like, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we got to play sisters?” And, it turns out that she’s just the sweetest, nicest little country girl from Oklahoma. She’s just wonderful. So, this came up, and  we called her and asked her to do the movie, and she said yes.  We lucked out because she was very busy at the time.

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with two actresses as great as Mary Steenburgen and Sissy Spacek?

Reese> It was so fun! Jon Voight and Robert Duvall were great too. I have the biggest crush on Robert Duvall. He’s such a great Southern guy. He was so great in The Apostle. Sissy Spacek and I talked about playing country singers. There were a lot of Oscars on the set. We should have had Bring Your Oscar to Work Day. That would have been really funny.

MediaBlvd> What is your idea of a good holiday movie?

Reese> I don’t know. My family always went to the movies on Christmas day, so it was just whatever movie was coming out, like The Godfather or Elephant Man, and cheerful holiday fare like that. It’s fun to go to the movies on the holidays, and it’s nice to be part of a movie that you know the grown-ups can go see, along with the teenagers. My kids are looking forward to a lot of movies. They’re very excited about Bolt. And, Wall-E is playing on DVD at my house, on a loop, every day.

MediaBlvd> How would you describe this film to people?

Reese> To me, this is a film that is about a couple who avoids their families at the holidays and, through a series of circumstances, they have to go home to all four families and face that horrible fear of bringing home your significant other to meet every humiliating memory that you have of your past. There’s a natural human instinct to avoid that. It’s a comedy about having to really deal with that.

MediaBlvd> This movie is also about divorced couples and parents. Being divorced yourself, what compromises have you made with your ex-husband to make the holidays nice for your children?

Reese> The most important thing is the children. It’s about what they want, what makes them feel comfortable, and what makes them happy. You just have to bear that in mind. The most important thing is to be a grown-up about it and not let any feelings affect how you deal with your children. I’m very lucky, in that we raised our kids to just be happy. It’s all about them. There’s a lot of communication and a lot of just being very open about things. There’s nothing contentious about any of it. We just go with the flow, whatever happens in the moment.

MediaBlvd> A lot of people will be able to relate to a couple who can’t commit to each other. What do you think singles and couples will learn about love from watching this film?

Reese> First of all, it’s a very modern idea that we’re going to be together, but not be married and never have children. It sounds like something people theorize about, but it’s very difficult to do because people grow and evolve and change. It’s interesting to see how the relationship in this movie has to grow. The most important thing, that we really worked on, was finding that place where we could be comfortable in the uncomfortable. It was about not knowing where things are going to go, but still feeling okay about that. Then, we really worked hard on trying to find that in the scenes.

MediaBlvd> The philosophy of this film is that the right thing for a couple to do is to get married and have kids. Do you agree with that?

Reese> I think the message is more that it’s important to stay open to whatever your relationship evolves into. I don’t even think we say at the end that we’re married. It’s very open. So many people, and I’m guilty of this too, have a certain idea of what they think marriage is, with kids and the whole life, and things don’t always work out that way. You have to be open to whatever comes your way in life. Life and love and relationships take all kinds of shapes, and it’s not necessarily the one you recognize.

MediaBlvd> Does that mean you would or wouldn’t ever get married again?

Reese> I don’t know. I don’t think about it much.

MediaBlvd> What is the most important aspect to having a good relationship?

Reese> In this movie, my character and Vince’s character learn that it’s important to have honesty, openness and communication. You can’t have a relationship without those things.

MediaBlvd> When you were a little girl, did you always want to be a mom? Was there ever a time when you thought you might not want to be a mom?

Reese> Before I had kids, I had never held a baby and I had never babysat. I didn’t have any cousins, so my daughter, Ava, was the first time I’d ever held a baby in my life. I understand that fear of not being a good mom. It took me a long time to feel really comfortable in the role of mother.

MediaBlvd> There is a scene in this film where Vince’s character tells the news about Santa Claus to the kids. When did you find out that Santa Claus wasn’t real?

Reese> I was in the second grade when Mary Beth decided to tell everyone, in front of the entire second grade for show-and-tell, that there was no Santa Claus, and the whole class burst into tears. She got in a lot of trouble and got sent home.

MediaBlvd> Did you believe her?

Reese> No. She had to come back the next day and say it wasn’t really true, and that she was just really lying to hurt people’s feelings. Poor thing. It was a psychological mess.

MediaBlvd> Do your kids believe in Santa Claus? How would you feel if someone spoiled it for them, like in the movie?

Reese> Yes, my kids believe in all sorts of things. We have all sorts of fairies for different holidays. We have a Halloween fairy, and then there’s the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny. I’m like, “How did this happen that I have to get more things?” Kids find out that kind of stuff on their own.

MediaBlvd> When you were a child, were you afraid of anything in particular?

Reese> No. I was that kid who’d jump off a bridge, if someone told me to do it. I had a big brother who was like, “Just do it!,” so I would be like, “Okay, brother, whatever you want.” I didn’t have a lot of fear. I’ve grown up and become very fearful, which is a good thing.

MediaBlvd> There a scene in this film where the family has a $10 Christmas budget. How would your family respond to that? 

Reese> Wouldn’t that be great? In my family, everybody always got one gift, whether it was chocolate or flowers. It’d be like the nicest little chocolates you could get, but that was all you got. Or, you would get one really nice toy, but it was beautifully made. It was always about the quality of things, not the quantity. I like that.

MediaBlvd> In the scene at the church, your character gets stage fright? Have you ever had stage fright?

Reese> Yes, I get very bad stage fright. I’m really bad at those luncheons, where you have to talk. I’m terrible at it. Even at awards shows, I’m so nervous that my knees and elbows are sweating. I’ll sweat in abnormal places. You basically have to just push me on the stage. But, I’m getting a little better at it.  

MediaBlvd> Have you ever had more than one Christmas in a day?

Reese> I don’t know that I’ve ever done that. It was always pretty standard. We’d be at my family’s house, and then we’d go out to my aunt and uncle’s house.

MediaBlvd> Of the four different Christmases that your characters go to in the movie, was there one that you most identified with?

Reese> Probably the one where they had to go to church. We always had to go to a lot of church. There was a lot of church and nativity plays, and all of that stuff. Growing up, I did a lot of that.

MediaBlvd> What do you want for Christmas this year?

Reese> Oh, gosh. I don’t know. Someone to help me out with some stuff. I could really use some help. have a garden, and that’s a lot of work. I get tired of doing all that stuff, but I like it. It’s nice.

MediaBlvd> Seth says you are a very powerful person. Do you feel powerful, emotionally and spiritually?

Reese> I have no idea. I’m just very clear. I’m not wishy-washy. I tell people exactly how I feel about things. If I’m mad at you, you’ll know within a minute. There’s no ambiguity. It’s nice to be in that place. I’m getting older and I don’t feel as fearful of people’s ideas of who I am. I’m just able to express myself better. 

MediaBlvd> What attracts you so much to comedy? 

Reese> I just enjoy it. I have a really good time, and it means a lot to me when I get to have experiences where I meet young people and they say, “When I was going through a hard time, this is the movie that I watched with my family.” That’s a big deal for me. I get tired of being labeled sometimes, but I’ve been very lucky.  I’ve gotten to do Walk the Line, Rendition and Vanity Fair, which are different kinds of movies, so I feel really lucky that I can go back and forth between stuff.

MediaBlvd> How do you feel about the power you have in Hollywood to get movies made?

Reese> People say that, or they tell you that you’re on a list, and it’s just wonderful. It’s very nice, but I don't know what it translates into. I’m very lucky that I get the opportunity to play great parts and work with great directors. That’s the best part about it. It really creates opportunities for me that I didn’t have before.

MediaBlvd> How do you get everything done in your life?

Reese> I just try not to look too far in the future. I try to take it day-by-day and week-by-week. It gets terrifying and daunting, if you look at the big picture. That’s a lot. So, I just try to keep it simple.