Reece Witherspoon Rendtion Interview

She’s cute and perky although she wasn’t that perky at the Rome International Film Festival. As soon as she hit town the paparazzi got into gear keen to get a photograph of her and new boyfriend Jake Gyllenhall together. They chased the pair all around town and in the end the two gave up and decided to enjoy the sightseeing paparazzi or no paparazzi. Reece Witherspoon was officially in town to promote her latest film Rendtion, (in which Gyllenhall also stars). In the film she plays the wife of an Egyptian national who disappears en-route to the US. Gaynor Flynn caught up with the petite actress at Rome and here’s what she had to say.

Gaynor Flynn: If I said to you can you explain the practice of Rendition how would you describe it?

Reece Witherspoon: It started in the 19990’s under the Clinton administration, and it was in response to the growing evidence of terrorist threats that came out of the Middle East. So the CIA developed a covert programme known as extraordinary rendition and what this allowed the CIA to do was to identify people of interest, apprehend them and them take them to some facility. They basically disappear off the face of the earth as far as their families are concerned. It’s horrendous.


Gaynor Flynn: What made you say yes to this film?

Reece Witherspoon: I thought it was really wonderful. I liked the idea of people living in isolation and I just thought the story was so far reaching and it was really well written. Then I met with Gavin Hood who had just won the Oscar for Tsotsi and he was just so passionate about the material and really articulate and I like the idea that he’s a South African living in the United States of America and I felt that he had a unique kind of stranger in a strange kind of land aesthetic. Particularly the idea of approaching the US government asking for something and trying to find a way to actually procure some results so that’s when I signed on to the piece.


Gaynor Flynn: What did you know about the practice of Rendition?

Reece Witherspoon: I never knew this went on and so I learned about it. And as the film progressed we heard about more and more cases and I was interested in the side of it told in Africa and the stories the families there had and how they’re treated like criminals basically and its so dehumanising.


Gaynor Flynn: So some people could see this as a patriotic, film did this worry you?

Reece Witherspoon: Not at all. One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence and I feel like our country is based on the questioning of government by the people for the people based on the pursuit of political freedom and religious freedom and those are two of the tenants our government was built on. I think its wholly American to question your government and to question actions particularly if they’re done in a way that’s unconstitutional I mean this was a practice put into law without representation by the people. It just feel through some sort of loophole and I think it’s important for the American people to be aware that that’s happening, there are laws happening that we know nothing about. It’s not constitutional.


Gaynor Flynn: But it hasn’t changed the law.

Reece Witherspoon: But it shouldn’t change civil liberties another point that my character in the movie brings up is the amount of privacy we’ve lost because of 911. Our government has access to our emails to our telephones, to wire tapping to all sorts of things and at a certain point it feels like the loop hole is just getting bigger and bigger.


Gaynor Flynn: Have you ever wanted to use your fame to speak out against what is happening?

Reece Witherspoon: I’m not a politician. I feel people are educated, people read a newspaper they form their own political beliefs. I’m not here to tell you how to feel about politics. I’m here for the right of human emotional perspective on something that I find interesting. And I thought this character was very moving in her desperation and her desire to keep her family in tact, that’s what I connected with. You know I don’t connect to preach my ideas and my beliefs, its not what I like....


Gaynor Flynn: Was it a difficult role to play?

Reece Witherspoon: Yeah it was very emotional role to play. Every story they were all so small but every woman I met with was very traumatic and it was a very pivotal moment in each person’s life so yeah it was intense.


Gaynor Flynn: Are films often cathartic for you? Do they allow you to escape or is it just a job sometimes?

Reece Witherspoon: Probably both. Sometimes it’s a job and sometimes it’s this great experience where you learn so much about yourself and sometimes it’s about processing what you’ve already been through every movie different.


Gaynor Flynn: Has the Oscar changed your life and your career?

Reece Witherspoon: Ultimately for me its given me a more international recognition because people all over the world see you in a way they haven’t seen you in certain things that and its opened up a lot of opportunities for me to work, I would never have been offered these kinds of roles.


Gaynor Flynn: Was it difficult to choose your next role after the Oscar?

Reece Witherspoon: Yeah, there was a lot pressure right after and a lot of people wanted me to do a really big movie, but I wasn’t sure. I just wanted to do something more sort of personal, I wanted something small and sort of real.


Gaynor Flynn: What about your production company?

Reece Witherspoon: We’re working on a lot of projects and we have Penelope coming out that’s starring Christina Ricci in February, I’m just working on a lot of projects mainly about young women and I’m producing another movie with two young women its fun with me.


Gaynor Flynn: Do you want to direct?

Reece Witherspoon: Maybe, when my children aren’t so small and very very needy.


Gaynor Flynn: How old are your children now?

Reece Witherspoon: My son is four and my daughter is eight.


Gaynor Flynn: How do you juggle being an actress and a mother? Do you have nannies? You’re a single mother now.

Reece Witherspoon: Yeah I’m a single mom and my mother helps out a lot and I do have a nanny that is very helpful but I don’t work that often, I really try and stay home with my children as much as possible this is the only film I’ve done in two years. I’m about to start a movie, I’m nervous. That’s going to be the longest shoot I’ll have been on since 2005.


Gaynor Flynn: Do they come with you to work?

Reece Witherspoon: Yes and I try to move jobs to where I live so they don’t have to miss school and things.


Gaynor Flynn: You started acting very young right? You wanted to be an actress from 7 but first role was at 14?

Reece Witherspoon: Yes 14.


Gaynor Flynn: Would you allow your daughter to start at such a young age?

Reece Witherspoon: You know whatever your children are interested in I think its important to support their dreams and I’m really an example of my parents not looking at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted to be an actor. They wanted me to be a doctor because they’re both doctors but they just really supported me and believed in me and made me who I am today.


Gaynor Flynn: But was it really a conscious choice at that age?

Reece Witherspoon: At seven? Yeah but I didn’t do a movie till I was 14 but I was mature, my parents had rules so I was only allowed to work in the summer and then I had to stay in school and then I had to go to college so they kept me very close to home.


Gaynor Flynn: Given the politics in this film, do you think its time for a female president in the U.S?

Reece Witherspoon: My daughter and I talk about that a lot. I think it’s exciting that there is a potential for that. I think women are incredible multi-taskers and they think about many, many different things at once so it would be great. This is going to be an interesting election with interesting possibilities.


Gaynor Flynn: What’s your life like in between films?

Reece Witherspoon: It’s just really about taking care of the kids and that pretty much wears me out. Then I have work and I have girlfriends I have a lot of girlfriends who I hang out with.


Gaynor Flynn: Do you work out?

Reece Witherspoon: Yeah I like yoga, I run, I go hiking. I’m very active, I like being outside so California is good, and it’s warm all the time.


Gaynor Flynn: It seems that you do less interviews than a lot of other actresses. Is that conscious, to try and stay out of the media?

Reece Witherspoon: I want to make sure that when I’m doing it I have a project. I don’t do magazine covers to feel good about myself now, it’s all about your work so when I have work so that’s why you don’t see as much of me.


Gaynor Flynn: You started so young, but you never went off the rails. What saved you do you think? Was it your approach to work, that work is work and this is my private life?

Reece Witherspoon: Probably I have a real sense of privacy and a big family which is very supportive that always encouraged me that if it doesn’t work out you have other possibilities in your life and they were never more interested in my career than I was so I see that sometimes, it seems like the mother or the dad is more interested in the career than the kid was which was weird.