Reese Witherspoon Opens Up About The “Bad Things” That Happened To Her As A Child Star

Published on March 18, 2020.

Reese Witherspoon candidly addressed the “bad things” that she experienced as a child star in a recent interview with Vanity Fair.

“Bad things happened to me. I was assaulted, harassed. It wasn’t isolated,” the Good Morning Show actress told the publication for its April 2020 cover story. “I recently had a journalist ask me about it. She said, ‘Well, why didn’t you speak up sooner?’ And I thought, that’s so interesting to talk to someone who experienced those things and then judge them for the way they decide to speak about them. You tell your story in your own time when you’re ready. The shame that she tried to put on me was unreal, and then she wrote about how selfish I was for not bringing it up sooner.”

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The 43-year-old actress, who helped lead the Time’s Up initiative in 2018, pointed out how the digital age has provided a new way to address and tackle these issues, adding, “There wasn’t a public reckoning 25 years ago when this stuff happened to me. There wasn’t a forum to speak about it either. Social media has created a new way for people to express themselves that I didn’t have. That’s the great strength in power and numbers.”

Witherspoon also addressed the lack of representation she would see on set growing up. She noted being “the only woman,” while “there would be 150 men” present. “Maybe there would be a couple of women in wardrobe. I remember when I was a kid I would find them and cling to them,” the Academy Award winner said.

The actress has been a driving force in pushing for more women in front of and behind the camera. In November 2016, Witherspoon founded her Hello Sunshine production company to create more content for women that’s also and produced by female talent, while also putting strong female characters as the lead. Through Hello Sunshine, the actress has produced films including 204’s Gone Girl and television series like Big Little Lies and The Morning Show.