美国国家公共电台 NPR With Wallpaper, 'Whiskey' And Women, Reese Witherspoon Celebrates The South

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Reese Witherspoon may be a big-time Hollywood actress living the California dream, but she hails from Nashville, Tenn. And she has got Southern in her soul. Witherspoon has a new book out about some of her favorite Southern traditions, recipes and decorating tips. In between, there are stories about her life and upbringing. She titled the book "Whiskey In A Teacup," something her grandmother used to say.

REESE WITHERSPOON: Southern women are like whiskey in a teacup. You know, they're beautiful and presented well on the outside, but they can be fierce and very strong on the inside.

MARTIN: Witherspoon shares her grandmother's love of wallpaper, decorative¹ dinner plates, and she's got an entire chapter on monograms³.

WITHERSPOON: I just - I think it's so beautiful. It's such an art, and it's something that I was raised with. And then when I moved to California, nobody did it. And I was so confused why everybody didn't have monograms on their towels and their sheets and their cups and their plates.

MARTIN: You're like, I have no idea whose teacup this is because there's not a monogram² on it.

WITHERSPOON: Exactly.

MARTIN: Do you monogram your kids' stuff?

WITHERSPOON: Oh, yeah. I mean, to a point where my daughter had to eventually say to me - Mom, stop putting my initials on everything. But I don't know why we do that. I mean, maybe it's just so people don't steal our stuff. I don't know.

MARTIN: What's the biggest misperception about Southern women?

WITHERSPOON: I will say, like, the grace and charm with which they behave is very genuine. When I moved out to California when I was 20, I think people thought I was being fake because I was so friendly.

MARTIN: Right.

WITHERSPOON: And I had a long time trying to make friends because I think people thought I wasn't being genuine. But that enthusiasm over meeting people and genuine interest in other people is just that. It's very real.

MARTIN: You have made an effort in your career, in the last several years, to do your part in making sure that strong women are at the center of films, that there are more perspectives from strong women...

WITHERSPOON: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...That they are the storytellers. I wonder if in this moment - now that we're, you know, a year-plus after the #MeToo movement got the kind of national and international notoriety that it has, have you noticed a systemic change happen yet?

WITHERSPOON: I wouldn't go all the way to systemic. But I have noticed great change, which is so encouraging. I mean, the amount of female directors that are so gainfully employed at this point - honestly, someone said to me the other day, we're running out of female directors because people are seeing this absence of female authorship and are trying to right the ship and correct themselves and hire more women to direct television shows, to direct films. The only deficit⁴ comes when we don't have enough women to employ because a lot of them didn't even bother to get started in a profession that they felt like it was a dead-end road.

I would love to see more women of color being employed and directing, more disabled women, more LGBTQ women and men finding their authorship in my business. And I think that's happening. So it's exciting to see baby steps happening and real growth and change.

MARTIN: If we circle back to end on the book, I have to ask this - because there will be people who pick this up and flip⁵ through these pages and see beautiful photos of you and your home and food and friends and think - oh, my God - her life is, like, so perfect.

WITHERSPOON: (Laughter).

MARTIN: Is it?

WITHERSPOON: I hid all the junk for the pictures.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

WITHERSPOON: Come on. When you know somebody is coming over to take a picture of your house, you hide all the toys.

MARTIN: (Laughter) But we do live in this time - right? - where everybody wants the raw - like, all the deep and the dark and the gritty stuff. And this is not that. This is...

WITHERSPOON: Oh, they can see all the junk on my Instagram.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

WITHERSPOON: They can see the real chaos⁶ of my life. But no, I wanted to present something that is visually pleasing. And it's like, yeah, I cleaned it up for you people.

MARTIN: Yeah.

WITHERSPOON: (Laughter).

MARTIN: Why not?

WITHERSPOON: I tried to make it nice.

MARTIN: Reese Witherspoon - her new book is called "Whiskey In A Teacup," and it is very nice.

Reese, thank you so much for talking with us.

WITHERSPOON: Thank you, Rachel.