"When women are the architects of the story, the stories change." Both on screen and off, she has used the world of film to empower women. This is Reese Witherspoon.
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00:00And I dread reading scripts that have no women involved in their creation because inevitably I get to that part
00:05Where the girl turns to the guy and she goes, what do we do now?
00:10Now, do you know any woman in any crisis situation?
00:23Any woman in any crisis who has absolutely no idea what to do
00:31I
00:45Believe ambition is not a dirty word. It's just believing in yourself and your abilities
01:00My mom really wanted me to be a pediatric
01:04Cardiologist, so sorry mom
01:07My dad really wanted me to be the great American novelist. So sorry dad
01:14But as it turns out as a result of this career I have been a doctor a Harvard Law School
01:21graduate an Olympic athlete
01:31I
01:44Just figured out I was kind of good at it when I was young and I just liked being funny and I liked making people
01:49laugh and entertaining people and it just
01:53you know, I worked worked like a dog to go into the business and
01:58And just sort of, you know worked out that way
02:08I remember when I was 18 years old and I was applying to colleges and I had this male college counselor and he said don't even
02:15Bother applying to Stanford sweetie. You're your SAT scores aren't good enough and I just don't aren't gonna want you
02:20But I did it anyway, and I got in
02:27You
02:29You
02:31You
02:55You think this girl is certainly
02:57Not very smart because of the way she speaks the way she looks and then
03:00She just turns the tables on everybody and becomes smarter than everyone and I just love that
03:08It was great to be in the executive producer because I got to work really closely with the screenwriter on the script and put a lot
03:15of my own ideas into it and
03:17You know, I thought it was really important if I was gonna do a sequel of this movie to make it very socially responsible
03:27You
03:46Singing was terrifying for me. I never sung professionally and
03:51Had a lot of fear of it
03:54Because very early on someone told me I wasn't a very good singer so
03:58You know, you got to be careful what you tell little kids. They really believe you
04:23You
04:54You
04:59It was time to turn to myself and say what are we gonna do now?
05:02Okay, Reese. What are we gonna do now? And the answer is really clear my mother who's here tonight
05:08Very strong smart southern woman said to me if you want something done, honey, do it yourself
05:24You
05:34You know, my daughter really motivates me as well because I want you know, I want her to have role models on film
05:39I want her to see real diverse interesting complicated women on film so that motivates me every day
05:53You
06:07This film from beginning to right to this moment has been my baby and
06:13It's my first movie. I produced and I'm just so
06:17Thrilled that not only you know to get these wonderful nominations, which will hopefully help more people see the film
06:22But that the movie is doing so well
06:24Like people are very hungry for these kinds of films and I'm just really proud of it and how it turned out
06:52You
07:16When women are the architects of the story the stories change and you see things differently
07:21So we need to see here stories from different types of people different every type of person and I think that's been going on too
07:27Long the same people telling stories over and over again, and it feels like it's changing. It really does
07:34You
07:50We are more united as an industry than we have ever been men and women determined to
07:57Change our own industry, but also shine a light on other industries
08:04You
08:34You
08:51I'm enormously proud to be producing these shows and bringing these opportunities to the to these wonderful talented people
09:04You
09:34You