By Hannah Powling
In celebration of it’s Blu-Ray & DVD release as of yesterday; The Good Lie – we have a Q&A with Academy-Award winner Reece Witherspoon. She opens up about being a young student, becoming a lead actress, getting married, life with three kids, what inspires her, and of course, starring in The Good Lie.
The Good Lie is a heart-rendering story set in the backdrops of a civil war; so as well as having all the tragedies that came out of that… there’s hope. Filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, The Good Lie tells the experiences of several survivors of the civil war that broke out in Sudan in the 1990’s. After their village is destroyed and their parents killed by Northern militia, Sudanese orphans Theo, his siblings and other survivors make a difficult journey to a refugee camp in Kenya. Based on real-life events, Witherspoon stars as a bold American woman who opens her heart when she is assigned to help the four young Sudanese refugees.
The refugees were known simply as ‘The Lost Boys‘ (played by Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, and Emmanuel Jal) are given the opportunity to leave their life as they know it, and resettle in America. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with an employment counselor (Witherspoon), but they start to struggle to adjust to their new lifestyle and are overwhelmed with feelings of guilt about those they left behind.
Q: Having this movie premiere here in Nashville… This film has some great Tennessee connections. producer Molly Smith, with quite a bit of credits to her name. [Alcon Entertainment’s] Fred Smith, who started this transportation company over in Memphis that’s changed the world [FedEx]. And obviously you’re a local girl who’s done really, really well.
RW: Thank you for being here to support us. The film is incredible. I read the script and I just knew. It was just one of those things — I couldn’t not do it. The other really wonderful thing about the process was I got to meet a fellow Tennesseean, who was producing the film, and her name is Molly Smith.
Q: And The Good Lie is a spectacular, surprising film with an amazing story, told with such humor as well as compassion.
RW: I read Margaret Nagle’s script, and I was just so moved. And I enjoy that idea that… I remember when I met the director, the first thing he said to me was, “This movie isn’t about you. And I just want to be really clear about that.” And I’ve never had a director say that to me before. But it made me happy, because I didn’t want to make a movie where it was just a white girl, an American girl, coming to save African people.
My character [Carrie Davis] is just as emotionally distraught. She’s just as without family as they are. And I thought that was such a beautiful opportunity to talk about family is where you find it. And the rest is, I made these movies, and they all seem to be coming out within three months of each other. I’m in a little bit of a traffic jam, right now. Hopefully that we’ll be able to see all of them, and see them for their different qualities.
Q: What was the message of the movie that spoke to you, and made you want to do it?
RW: Margaret did such an incredible job, you could tell that there was so much research involved, because when I started watching documentaries, it was completely accurate. Every story you’ve heard, the Sudanese refugees told is somehow in the movie or in the script. So we just met and I met with Margaret, and Molly Smith, and Philippe Falardeau, the director.
I just felt that there were wonderful — there are so many times when you don’t appreciate your life, until you see someone else’s perspective on our privileges and the opportunities that we have, whether that’s education, or health care, or just food and running water.
One of my favorite scenes is when he’s running his hands, turning the water on and off, after they’d walked through the desert, without water or food. I just thought it was a great message also for families. I think it’s really great to take your kids to this movie. It brings up a lot of integral conversations that we should all be having. I’ll take my kids!
Q: Having three kids, how do you juggle everything?
RW: You should have seen my hotel room this morning. It’s a disaster; chaos! Pancakes and milk and fruit and teenagers – it was madness. I felt that this script was so beautiful.
Q: What about love advice? If you could give yourself advice about love, what would it be?
RW: Well, I had a girlfriend who said something really smart to me the other day. She was telling me a story about how she always used to go to the same coffee shop and she was really into the guy making the coffee. He was this cool guy in a band and she always wanted to go out with him, but she never noticed that the guy giving her the coffee everyday was like totally in love with her. So she said, ‘I think it’s important not to follow the guy that you’re chasing. Look at the guy who’s chasing you.’ I think that takes time and life experience to sort of notice because boy is it fun chasing boys, especially when you’re young. But when you’re older, it’s a whole other thing.
Q: You have always been involved with charities.
RW: I think there are some amazing people out there doing work with different organizations. There is also a wonderful organization called Service Nation, which is organizing an opportunity for people to give back through service work. I think that’s economical at these times and it’s a great way to get kids involved. They work with everything from ‘Habitat for Humanity’ and ‘Teach for America.’ Its not just about giving money, but its about giving time, energy, and effort.
Q: I heard you’re not a person who goes to the gym regularly? Yet you look pretty good to me.
RW: I’ll be totally honest with you. If I never had to see the inside of a gym again I would be a very happy person. There are people who love it, it’s just their thing. I can do it, and I do it for my job because I’m really lucky to get this job or have a job, but it’s not my first choice of morning activities.
Q: These days we live in a tabloid world of reality TV and whatnot. How do you stay out of those magazines and live your life?
RW: There comes a point at which you are so subject to public opinion that I think that you have stop reading magazines and stop looking at newspapers and things like that because you could just be so tied up in other people’s opinions of you. Over time, you know, you become self motivated, and I think, yeah, you have to be sort of driven and ambitious to become the kind of person that you want to be because everyone is going to tell you, ‘That’s too difficult,’ or ‘That’s not possible’ and ‘Oh well, you’re this kind of actress, you’re not that kind of actress,’ and you just go, ‘Oh alright, I’ll show you. That’s what you think.’ And I’ve done just that. And I always try to do that.
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Watch the trailer for The Good Lie here;
THE GOOD LIE IS AVAILABLE ON DVD NOW, COURTESY OF ENTERTAINMENT ONE.
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