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The Internet Wants To Know Which Crappy Movie Reese Witherspoon Turned Down

Meghan De Maria
June 7, 2017, 4:20 PM
Photo: Andrew Toth/FilmMagic.
Reese Witherspoon has starred in plenty of movies over the years, but the actress is selective about the roles she accepts. In fact, there was apparently one movie with female roles so bad that it inspired her to start her own production company. And while Witherspoon is too classy to call out the "terrible script" by name, the internet is determined to figure out which film it was.
Witherspoon discussed the "terrible" movie during The Hollywood Reporter's roundtable interview with some of today's leading drama actresses. In addition to Witherspoon, the panel included fellow Big Little Lies star Nicole Kidman, The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss, This Is Us star Chrissy Metz, Feud: Bette and Joan star Jessica Lange, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks star (and general badass) Oprah Winfrey.
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When THR's TV editor, Lacey Rose, asked the women if they ever felt typecast or forced into taking certain types of roles, Witherspoon took the opportunity to explain why she started her production company, Pacific Standard, in 2012. The company has produced films like Gone Girl and Wild.
"I started a production company five years ago, because I was looking at maybe the worst script I've ever read in my entire life, and it had two parts for women," Witherspoon told THR. "I called my agents and said, 'This is such a terrible script.' They said, 'Well, seven women want it, so… you're the only one who's not vying for the part.' And I thought, 'God, if this is what we've come to, I have to get busy.' Because you can either complain about a problem, or you can be part of the solution."
And while it's totally admirable that Witherspoon wants to help fight Hollywood sexism by creating more dimensional roles, Twitter users have taken it upon themselves to figure out which movie the actress was referring to.
AV Club writer (and former R29-er!) Esther Zuckerman tweeted that it's likely the same story Witherspoon recounted to Entertainment Weekly in 2016. At that time, Witherspoon said there were "three Oscar winners and two huge box office leading ladies" interested in the role.
Last year, Vulture senior editor Kyle Buchanan and BuzzFeed senior film reporter Adam B. Vary suggested that Witherspoon was referring to A Million Ways to Die in the West.
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Other Twitter users suggested The Rewrite, Mortdecai, and The Big Wedding.
We probably won't ever find out which movie Witherspoon actually meant. But as screenwriter Amanda Pendolino pointed out, the fact that there are so many possibilities only emphasizes the need for better female roles.
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