Reese Witherspoon revealed that when she was in her 20s and 30s, she was advised not to play mother roles so as not to appear old.
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The actress from “The Morning Show” spoke in an interview with the New York Times about becoming a mother so young and how, at the time, she didn’t realize that having a family could impact her career.
Witherspoon, who had her first child while married to her first husband, actor Ryan Phillippe, in the late 1990s, explained that she didn’t think about the sacrifices she would have to make after Ava was born in 1999.
“There was so much I didn’t know,” said the actress. “And maybe that naïveté was good, because it was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just do this and have a career,’” Witherspoon continued. “And some people told me: ‘This is going to be really hard for your career,’” she revealed.
Witherspoon, 49, said she had to learn to balance work and family and that she often heard that playing mothers could negatively affect her career.
The “Legally Blonde” star revealed that even other celebrities warned her not to accept such roles because they “would make her look old.”
Witherspoon recalls that this type of advice made her think about her own life: “And I thought: ‘But I am a mother.’ There was so much in our business…, so you couldn’t be a movie star if you played a mother,” she explained.
“And thank God that’s kind of fading away. But that was a big part of my life when I was in my 20s and 30s: ‘Don’t play a mother. No man will desire you, or nobody will want to see that movie because nobody wants to see a movie about a mother.’”
Witherspoon gave birth to her eldest daughter, Ava Phillippe, at age 23. Five years later, she gave birth to Deacon Phillippe. In 2012, she had her third child, Tennessee James, with her second husband, Jim Toth.
Images: reproduction Apple TV+, Instagram @reesewitherspooon. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
