- There really are no words
that I have for our next guest,
except to say that
she's not just a guest,
she's a woman
who is showing up for a friend,
me.
we've actually known each other since we were,
oh my gosh,
14?
We've been pregnant together,
and at weddings
and she's someone that I deeply, deeply, deeply respect.
And so do you.
She has a book club.
She's created job opportunities
in the Hollywood industry that are unprecedented.
She has a production company,
Hello Sunshine.
She's someone who's a true Maven and a pioneer.
So
ladies and gentlemen, without further ado,
Reese Witherspoon.
(people applauding)
- Hi?
Hi friend?
- Oh my goodness.
Thank you so much for christening the show.
(Drew laughs)
- I am so excited, Drew.
When I heard you were doing a show,
I said,
this is the perfect person,
because whenever you were on a TV show,
I literally stopped whenever I'm doing,
just to watch you,
because you bring me so much joy.
- You are someone
that I feel like is very emblematic
of what I would like to try to do with the show.
You're interested in so many different things,
and a show like this as an opportunity
for me to take all of those interests
and put them in a piggy bank
and break it on the floor every day.
- That's such a good metaphor, I love that.
Well, we've known each other for so long, right?
I think...
- How old were we Reese?
I thought we were 13
and then I realized you had done "Man on the Moon".
So you must've been 14.
- I was 14 years old.
I was completely obsessed with you
and you had no idea that I was like your super fan.
I had read your book.
I had pictures of you on my wall.
You were like my childhood acting idle,
and you came up to me in a restaurant and you said,
"I saw you in a movie and you were so wonderful."
And do you know,
it changed my whole perspective on,
like you were one of the first people who ever supported me
and showed me, it doesn't have to be competitive,
that creativity is infinite.
And if we can collaborate,
as women together,
we can accomplish so much more.
- I Marvel at the opportunities
that you give to women.
And,
I think there's sometimes a fear in general
that if you lift someone else up,
you like, will either go down or not be seen.
And I think,
and you obviously are the symbol of this,
that when you lift someone else up,
you go up with them
and there's enough light and creativity
and room for everyone.
But,
you not only lift people up and shine a light on them,
but you give them opportunities that are very rare.
And I am so impressed with what you are doing.
It's just incredible.
- Well, thank you for saying that.
I have gotten so much inspiration from so many women
who are doing work like this,
including, you know,
Ava DuVernay, and Lina Wert
and yourself.
When you created flower films,
that gave me courage to say,
"Hey, I could have a company too."
And I'll never forget when you called me on the phone
and I said,
"Drew, I love that you're creating female superheroes
because I have a little girl in the car",
and my daughter was young then.
And I said, "you don't understand,
there's no female superheroes."
That was something that was so important to you,
but it gave me courage to start my company and say,
you know, when we see systems that are broken,
right?
Whatever system you work in,
it could be your school district,
it could be your community,
your city, government.
We looked at our Hollywood system and said,
you know, not good enough.
There's not enough projects for women,
there's not enough female directors,
there's not enough people of color writing
and getting show running-opportunities.
And I think that feeling
that you can take control of your life
and that everyone has the ability to tell their own story.
I think we're going through,
obviously,
some really difficult times,
but I'm such an optimist.
I'm always like there's such rebirth and regrowth
that comes out of that kind of pain and struggle.
- When I called you that day,
it scared me, it intimidated me.
You had these two young kids in the back
and I thought, God, I'm so far away from that.
Like,
I would be so scared if somebody put two young kids
in the back of my car and said,
"Just go and take them and feed them",
you know,
it cut to like years later,
the full circle story of irony is
we were both pregnant together at my wedding
with like bumping bellies,
the only two sober chicks there
and,
I was so amazed by you being this young mother
who was able to take all that on.
And,
did you,
how did you balance work and motherhood at that point?
Cause I was just trying to balance work,
and
how did you do both?
Yeah. Well, to be completely candid,
I was terrified too.
I got pregnant when I was 22 years old
and I didn't know how to balance work and motherhood.
And we just,
you just do it, you know.
I didn't know if I was going to have steady work too,
I wasn't a popular,
like, I made movies, but I hadn't,
you know,
established myself as someone who could demand that
it shoot close to my kids' school or,
you know,
I didn't have any real power leverage within my industry.
So
I think I was just like every other mom
trying to figure it out,
and dad out there, and partner, and grandparent,
who's raising a child.
There's a lot of,
first of all, compromise.
You take the food out of your mouth,
the clothes off your back,
the sleep out of your life.
Like, every bit of it,
every bit of that sacrifice is truly worth it
because you feel like,
that's what makes me wake up on a Sunday
is not a
movies,
is not my job.
Is my kids.
(upbeat music)