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Reese Witherspoon is known for choosing her
roles carefully. In a business that often focuses on (high) salaries,
this actor opts for artistic value, and she’s earned audience
and critical respect for her trouble.
The photogenic Witherspoon began appearing in commercials and taking
on modeling jobs at age seven until, at age 11, she won a 10-state
talent search and left her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, to accept
a significant part in 1991's The Man In The Moon. She was immediately
cast in the 1991 TV movie Wildflower, then Desperate Choices: To Save
My Child (TV - 1992), Jack the Bear (1993) and SFW (1994).
Education subsequently became Witherspoon’s priority as she
entered Stanford University to major in English literature. Until
that time she had studied mostly via correspondence on film sets.
Films won out, when two years later, in 1996, the Stanford degree
was put on hold for Fear, Freeway (for a Catalonian International
Film Festival Best Actress award), and Overnight Delivery. High profile
roles in Twilight (1998), Pleasantville (1998 - Movieline Young Hollywood
award), Cruel Intentions (1999) and Best Laid Plans (1999) followed.
Witherspoon briefly returned to television to make a guest appearance
on the primetime comedy, Friends, but it was another return, this
time to modeling, that made her “very big” in Hollywood
when her six-story high image in a GAP advertisement graced Sunset
Boulevard. Literal largeness aside, the actor’s most recent film
role, in Election (1999), has earned her by far the most acclaim --
the National Society of Film Critics’ Best Actress award, a Golden
Globe nomination, a Los Angeles Film Critics’ award nomination,
an Online Film Critics’ Society award, a National Society of
Film Critics’ award, and an Independent Spirit award.
Busy with all of that on-camera, 1999 was a banner year off-camera,
as well, as Witherspoon wed fellow actor Ryan Phillippe and gave birth
to daughter, Ava. The couple appeared opposite one another in Cruel
Intentions, but first met in 1997 at Witherspoon’s 21st birthday
party.
Coming up are opportunities for Witherspoon to take her career to
yet another level. There are acting roles, of course, (in Desert Blue
and American Psycho) and she is slated to not only star in, but produce
Slow Motion. Her hope is to one day be a screen writer. Moviegoers
can look forward to an eclectic and high caliber mix from this likeable
star. She knows how to pick ‘em. Reese
Witherspoon Personal videos and photos - Click here!
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