Reese Witherspoon: “If this is what is coming out of the pipeline in Hollywood, I gotta do something about it."

Reese Witherspoon is one of the most beloved and accomplished actors and producers, having earned an Academy Award, SAG, BAFTA, Emmy awards and numerous other nominations and accolades throughout her career. She was inspired to transform her role in Hollywood—at times, trading in scripts for business plans and advocacy. Since forming her media company Hello Sunshine, Reese has become one of the most prolific names in creative content, not only due to groundbreaking films like Wild and Gone Girl and high-end television shows such as Big Little Lies, The Morning Show and Little Fires Everywhere, but also because of the business’s values: inclusive stories that celebrate all women, both onscreen and behind the camera. In this episode, Reese shares how her love of reading books coupled with her passion for acting influenced the media empire she’s built, how she views the creative landscape today and how empowered women empower women.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of I Heart Radio and
call my agent. I said, I'm not doing this, and
she said, every actress in Hollywood wants this part. And
I thought, if this is what is coming out of
the pipeline in Hollywood, I gotta do something about it. Hi,

(00:22):
I'm Michael Casson. Welcome to Good Company, where I'll explore
how marketing, media, entertainment, and tech are intersecting, transforming our
lives and the way we do business at a breakneck speed.
I'll be joined by some of the greatest business minds
and strongest leaders who will share how they build companies
from the ground up or transformed them from the inside out.
My bed is you'll pick up a lesson or two

(00:43):
along the way. It's all good. Everyone knows Ruce Witherspoon,
through her roles as l Woods, June Carter, Cash, Bradley Jackson,
Reese has inspired the world by creating characters that are
defined by their intellect and maybe more importantly, their independence.
Reese has taken those qualities into the real world, working

(01:06):
behind the scenes to provide opportunities for women creators and
creators in general through shows like Big Little Lies, The
Morning Show, Little Fires, everywhere with her company Hello Sunshine,
which she founded in TWI recently, and appropriately, Hello Sunshine
was named one of Time Magazine's Most Influential Companies. The

(01:27):
mission is simple, create and promote stories about women, for women,
and most importantly by women. Welcome Reese, and thank you
for joining me today. It is truly an honor. Thank
you so much for having me. I'm excited to have
this conversation with you. Well, I know our listeners and
viewers are in for a real treat, but you know,
I kind of want to start with what for most

(01:49):
people would be a high point and and I'm sure
your case it is as well. But there's been so many.
But let's start with winning an Oscar for playing June
Carter Cash and Walk the Line, and two thousand and six,
when you realized and looked around the corner that studios
seemed to stop making films with strong female leads, you
actually decided to take matters into your own hands. It

(02:12):
would be inspirational to hear what your inspiration was and
how did you create and kind of self front that
first production company. I think it was Pacific Standard and
then you know, rolled into Hello Sunshine. Yeah. Um so
around two thousand eleven, I started noticing the scripts were
just deteriorating greatly. I was reading UM. You know, it

(02:35):
used to be I would read twelve scripts a year
that to consider starring in. And it started to be six,
and then it was four, and then it was two.
And I just remember, in particular, there was this one
script that I read UM that was just so dismal.
I mean, it just had a terrible female lead who
was completely in service of the male lead. It had

(02:56):
a bunch of boob jokes, and I was like, this
is misogyny, stick and not funny. And I called my
agent and I said, I'm not doing this, and she said,
every actress in Hollywood wants this part. And I thought,
if this is what is coming out of the pipeline
in Hollywood, I gotta do something about it. And so
that's when, after thinking what am I gonna do? What

(03:16):
am I gonna do? I ended up optioning books and
starting my own production company, which was called Pacific Standard.
And the first couple of books that we UM optioned
were Wild and Gone Girl, and both of them hit
number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and
we were in development. So I was like, oh gosh,
the pressure is on. I gotta nail this, and we did.

(03:39):
We got three Oscar nominations, a ton of box office
and then you know, it went and started growing from there.
Um And that was my first iteration. But then since then,
I decided to go into multimedia. Around two dozen and seventeen,
I was seeing women were flocking to social media. It
was a way that women were proselytized thing about things

(04:00):
they loved, and I started to think, I really want
to create a company that meets women where they are,
whether that's start on their phones, on their podcasts, on
their television sets, um that instead of waiting for audiences
is to come to us in the movie theaters, starting
to go to them with the stories they wanted to see.

(04:21):
And that's where Hello Suntime was born. Well, it's interesting
because you said get them where they are, and I
think you mean that probably spiritually as well as technologically,
and and finding that perfect timing you know in media
these days. I'm sure you're aware of this. We talked
about finding the right person on the right device at

(04:41):
the right time and the right context in the right everything,
and you know, life isn't always like that. You've got
to be able to make room for serendipity as well.
But if you're looking for that zeitgeist, for that the
headspace or the heart where they are using the right
device in the right context, in the right time, seems

(05:01):
to be a good way to do it. But look,
it's not easy to do that, to go from one
side of the camera to the other. You obviously achieved
extraordinary success in front of the camera, and then the
two movies you just talked about, and the accolades and
the box office were extraordinary and so I guess that
fueled fueled the fire, Yeah for sure. And you know,

(05:22):
from there we just started thinking about and I you know,
I've spent thirty years in the movie business, learning what
audiences wanted to see, what they didn't want to see,
how they wanted to get information did they? You know?
And I also grew up in the middle of Nashville, Tennessee.
So I have a very um my sensibility is very
I'm not above here, I'm not below people's perspectives. I

(05:45):
try to meet people where they're at. You know, people
want to be entertained, but they also want emotional material
that resonates with them. So the next projects we took
on were Big Little Eyes, which was, you know, a
wonderful comedy with this incredible ensemble of women. But at
the heart of it, it had a message about domestic
violence that was told from a perspective a woman writer.

(06:08):
Early on Moriarty wrote the book, and it really showed
that even things dark things are happening in people's lives,
even when they're your best friends, you might not know
what's going on in their lives. We then, you know,
went on Too Little Fires Everywhere and Morning Show, and
we've been able to tackle um workplace harassment issues or um,

(06:30):
you know, race in America during the nine nineties inside
of these television shows and have meaningful impact with audiences
and really start conversations um while entertaining them as well
and creating long form premium content UM that is really
addressing the issues that are on people's minds right now.

(06:51):
I have to be specific, Reefs, because I know your
audience is broad based. You're not looking just to reach women.
Because I can tell you I've watched many of those
shows from back to front, and I've taken away messages
and I will tell you in the Morning Show particular
scenes which I won't get into here, but particular scenes
made me understand the me Too movement a little differently

(07:12):
than I did going in, which I think is critical
because we learn and if you know, it's the expression
that the marketplace is using today with things like to
see her movement. If you can't see her, you can't
be her. We love market and everybody at pange as
doing an incredible job to really promote gender equity within

(07:33):
the household. UM. I think Mark Pritchet has done a
wonderful job there and we are in partnership with them
on the brand side. But I really appreciate what you're
saying about. These aren't just stories for women, you know,
when you change the storytellers, So it's not just making
shows with women in them. It's actually we're architecting from

(07:54):
the very beginning stories written by women, produced by women,
UM star women, directed by women. But there are so
many men involved in this process, and it's not just
about reaching audiences with female stories that are, you know,
creating one one narrative. What we're trying to do is
invite people into women's lives that we've had very limited

(08:18):
perspectives on what the experience is to be a woman
because stories were being written by men about women's experiences.
When women authentically authored those stories. And we're talking about
all women, women of color, lgbt Q experiences, differently abled women.
You're starting to see a broader perspective of what it

(08:39):
looks like to walk through the world. And that's what
audiences want to see. Um. They're they're craving that authentic
connection and that real storytelling. So it came our companies
started before the Me Too movement, before Times Up. But
it's just we've got these really great secular tail winds

(09:00):
wishing our our mission forward and there's some urgency around it.
I mean, I personally think about the thousands of years
of lost stories and if we all look like we're
hurrying and rushing myself, Ava Diverney Oprah lead a way
to Mindy Kaling. It's because it's this excitement around the
world is ready to see and streaming has really opened

(09:21):
up um great avenues for us to tell those stories,
um and even a bigger broader way. You know, it's
interesting because you hit it right on the button. The
sensibility is what changes the sensibility of writing about something
or producing something from different perspectives is going to give
you a different result. I mean, you know the old joke,

(09:43):
if you don't know where you're going, you're gonna end
up somewhere else. If you know where you're going, you
can end up where you want to. To deliver that
message again from another perspective, which isn't trying to imagine
what the perspective is. It's actually something that you can
feel differently. I always get around, not literally, but say
I grew up with two older sisters, so I was
always in touch with my feminine side. I didn't. I

(10:06):
never went through the I don't like girls part. You know,
when I was in fourth grade, I was the first
one with a girlfriend and my friends made fun of me,
and I said, it's okay, you'll catch up. You know.
I never went through that, but again, it put me
more in touch with that side growing up, watching what
my sisters went through, whether it was dating or life
for whatever. And it's harder to know it if you

(10:27):
don't know it. Anyway, Michael, and you know it, there's
to speak to the men in the audience. It's so
important that men adopt these ideas as well, because we
are trying to get to a gender equitable world right,
and that only works if we all adopt these concepts.
And it doesn't mean that there's less for anyone. It

(10:49):
just means that we're getting a better, more realistic spectrum
of art, entertainment and movies, podcasts. We're learning more about
ourselves as human beings through this process. So certainly, when
we talk about Hell Sunshine, we're not trying to create
monocultures where women take over where men had patriarchy. We

(11:10):
want matriarchy. We're really looking to um create meaningful content
that just has different perspectives in it. Let me switch
gears for a second, Reese, We've had a raucous eighteen months,
god knows, first with a pandemic and then with a
necessary racial reckoning. Has that changed the focus of Hello Sunshine?

(11:34):
You know, we've got consumers whose behaviors are changing rapidly
and the flow of information is instant. You know the
old expression you used to be that you say you
couldn't build a brand in thirty days, And then we've
got to a point where we said, not only can
you build a brand in thirty days, but in this environment,

(11:54):
you could destroy a brand in three seconds and Hello
Sunshine is a brand Reese their spoon. You're a person,
but you're a brand, but you have to have that
lens and that aperture open. Because of what we've gone
through in the last eighteen months, has that changed the
focus for Hello Sunshine. Um, that's a great question, honestly,

(12:16):
because we started we you know, when we began this company,
we were seeing we were here to raise up marginalized voices.
So I started at this company with an idea that
I just wasn't doing this about women alone. It was
about every woman's voice, and that all women have been

(12:36):
pushed to the sides in Hollywood have not been the architects,
have not been the directors, have not been the screenwriters.
And so when we intentionally architect at our company, from
the very beginning, it was very inclusive in our messaging.
We haven't had to pivot. We if anything, those movements
really just gave us fuel in our tank because we

(12:58):
already had things in development. It that we're about racial reckoning,
about sexual harassment or um things that were deserving. But
I was sitting there having these conversations and rooms seven
years ago and nobody was wanting to make these projects.
Now I already had them. I had them ready, I
had the director, I had the writer, had the book,

(13:21):
and so it was just go time. UM. So if anything,
you know, we've been really powered by um the movements
across social channels to keep going and pep this rest.
This message of inclusive storytelling has really resonated with I
can't tell you I used to get stopped all the
time about movies I was in. Now I get stopped

(13:43):
about my brand. People say I love what you're doing
for women across books, TV, film, social media. UM. And
that is really powerful and and so humbling to me
because it means we were onto something, you know. But
as you know, any great idea only works if the
marketplace is ready. So it was a nice convergence for us. Well,

(14:08):
but you anticipated where the world was going. Somehow you
were able to with your I'll use the word again, sensibility,
realize and look over the horizon and say we should
be doing this, and look, we're in a mode right now.
Where again, back to this racial reckoning. It's not just
a racial reckoning, but that seems to be in the
in the forefront. Now there was a gender inequality. Now

(14:32):
we have the racial inequality, and we do have to overcorrect.
I keep saying to people, yes, there is a need
to overcorrect. That means that there's going to be you know,
people are going to move to the head of the
class that might not have been And and it's all
about the filters. You know. I've been saying this as
we look at recruiting, and it's no different than you casting.

(14:52):
That's recruiting of a different sort. You know. One of
the things that the private equity world proved was if
you got to private equity, got there through banking. And
if you got to banking, you probably got there through
an Ivy League school. And if you got to that
Ivy League school, you probably got there through a prep school.
So if you go all the way back to the
beginning and the filter keeps narrowing to where nobody gets through,

(15:15):
you've got to go all the way back to the
beginning to change that or you're never going to change it. Right,
And it's true in the arts as well, right, I mean,
if people are not able to get that start, that
somebody to give them that extra hand that overcorrection, they
may never get there. I think that's very well said,
and we have to look at these closed door systems

(15:35):
that have kept people out for years and years, and
I think the world is responding. I mean, look at
Bitcoin and everything that's going on with n f T S.
I mean, global currency is changing so rapidly. I just
did a seminar bitcoin because I needed to get up
and learn. But it's these equalizing moments, right. Social media

(15:56):
equalized everyone's voice mattered. Everybody his voice is saying something,
and consumers are starting to get wise about brands and companies.
They're not just getting wise, they are wise. That's my
mother calling. Sorry, that's good. We should not edit your

(16:17):
mother out. I don't want to be part of that.
I want your mother to be part of this reason
my mom I called her into our space. But let
me go back to what I was saying, because I
do think this is really um important to to the
audience today. UM talking about the intelligence of consumers and
how they are using their voice to say what they want.

(16:38):
I was just recently looking at study that six people
are more likely to buy products or watch television shows
just consume UM more conscious material. So people are not
just looking at what the product is, They're looking on
how it's made. Right, that's so important consumers and they
know the ethics behind our businesses. They know when businesses

(17:01):
are mission driven. They know when you're investing dollars back
into their communities and their ideas. So I'm really interested
in these equalizing economies, right, Whether that's UM social media,
that's that's raising everyone's voices and making everyone feel seen
and heard UM in a way that they never were

(17:21):
ten years ago. UM, whether that's you know, n f
t s that are making it possible for artists to
sell directly to the buyers. UM. It's a really interesting
world that is evolving so quickly, and it's so important
UM as an owner of a brand to stay on
top of all those trends and really watch what the
consumers are doing. Reese, It's so interesting because you started

(17:45):
in this business when there was that proverbial green light,
you know for a project, a TV show, or a
movie that green light the person with their hand on
the switch was generally speaking a man and generally speaking
part of a club and breaking in and getting that
green light. You know this better than I because the
thing a performer on either side of the camera has

(18:05):
to do is learn how to deal with failure. You know,
because it's the other side of success, you're not going
to always win. So it's curious because my view of
and I think most people's view of the Information super
Highway was democratization of somebody's ability to publish what they think,

(18:27):
whether it's social media or a TikTok video, you can
have that freedom, and you can. It's really around democratization.
But now what we need to do is lift up
those who, even through the democratization, can't get their voices heard,
or aren't getting their voices heard, or are not getting
that green light. You've got a green light now as well,

(18:48):
because you've got the resources to help produce that content,
to help make that content become a reality. Yeah, and
it's really important for us that we have conscious partnerships.
So whether we're talking about pairing with another woman's production
company to bring a television show to market, or pairing
with brands like Buick, PNG, Nike, it's very intentional our authorship,

(19:14):
and we are always looking for people who are the
ven diagram crosses in the right places so people know
what our mission is. We're very much quality over quantity um.
We're not doing big volume in the brand space, but
we're always trying to find. Like our partnership with Pubic
was really interesting. UM we built Reese's book Club inside

(19:38):
of buick right, so you can use it on their
operating system and listen to any of the audio books
that we've chosen over the past three years. And it
was very consciously engineered by female tech um and and
they had all these uh these tech executives and practitioners
in their building the app with us UM and that

(20:00):
was really important to us. It was a big piece
of why we partnered with buick Um. So I I
have to say, we have these relationships with brands that
are very deep and very meaningful, and we all have
a lot of them. That's the other thing I think
is UM really important to point out as people are
working with celebrities in different brands, it's important that you

(20:22):
align with what their ideas are, their mission is, and
it's important to get under the hood whatever that celebrity
is or whatever that company is, what do they really
stand for and are you truly aligned? Because if you're
truly aligned, you're going to have a much more successful partnership.
So Reese, I couldn't agree with you more, especially in

(20:43):
an environment where the consumers bullshit detector is much more sensitized.
And if it's not real, if it's not authentic, people know,
they just know. It seems like whether it's because of technology,
maybe there's a chip we've all had inserted that allows

(21:04):
us to look through that which is not sincere it
just doesn't play anymore. And those brand affiliations, you know,
I'm sure you. I'm betting you. When you call your
mother back, she will tell you the same thing that
my mother told me, which is ones known by the
company they keep. That's not only in brand affiliations, that's
in life. If you look at it through that lens, right,

(21:26):
then it's critical for you where you affiliate the Hello
Sunshine or or the Reese Witherspoon brand, because those brands matter.
Now you've made those brands stand for something and people
know that. And by the way it creates expectations, you know,
there was always that expectation if there was a Disney movie,
you knew what to expect and and and they were

(21:51):
true to that. Yeah, I agree, and I think we
have worked really hard to have Hell of Sunshine means
something beyond me. So it's really starting to see and
for curation quality in a marketplace. I always say I
feel like going sometimes, so I go on these streaming
platforms and it's like a flea market. I don't know
where to look. And curation to me is so so important.

(22:12):
I think being a symbol that stands for something. Our
Reci's book Club symbol actually means something. It's a standard
of quality of entertainment. And I think people were trying
to really build something that's resonant beyond who I am,
because I do think people are looking for optimism, hope, entertainment, laughter, humor,

(22:35):
um and build a great, very optimistic brand that that
stands for something. It's it's not easy every single day.
I mean I look at every single social media post.
I read so many books to get to those twelve
every year. Um, it's a lot, but I love it.

(22:55):
It's my mission in life. I wake up every day
and think so luck that I get to read these
incredible authors, or help that director be um a superstar
on set today because I know a great production designer
I'm gonna introduce her to or you know, UM. Creating
these great team experience is a really fun part of

(23:16):
building my brand that I never expected. I never worked corporate.
So for me, it's it's been a learning curve as well,
and I'm very very grateful to my team, my CEO,
my CEO, everybody who works at all of Sunshine helped
me become this, you know, the executive that I wanted

(23:37):
to be as well. Well, I want to give a
shout out to Sarah Harden for sure, because she is
a superstar and a great friend. You're fortunate to have
her as your as your partner. Believe me. I know
you know that, but I can't not say that because
I can be creative all day Lawn Michael. She builds
businesses around that creativity and she puts guard rails in

(23:59):
it so that you know, we're really focused on short
term goals, long term goals, but it's a very strategic,
um strategically built company because we have huge ambitions. You know,
killing a media room for women was like, you know,
there's very very few women who own their own companies
as well, and that was a really important piece about

(24:22):
building something of ownership outside a system that had doors
closed for a long time. So well, I will say
there's a reason that we call it show business because
there's the show and there's the business, and you've obviously
married the two together. Reese, let me ask you a
final question, and I believe me, I could go on
for for hours, and I so appreciate you making the time.

(24:46):
So there's Reese Witherspoon, the the performer, the actor. There's
Reese Witherspoon, the producer. There's Reese Witherspoon the entrepreneur. Which,
Reese Witherspoon is your favorite these days? The entrepreneur, the producer,
the actor. Which is it? It's I know it's Sophie's choice.
Do you have a favorite? UM? I have to say

(25:08):
I love all of it. I feel so blessed in
this life to just wake up every day and love
my job and love my team. UM, I even love,
you know, the complicated parts of it, the ups and
the downs of being in a startup. Um. But when
the pandemic allowed us it started to abate. Around October
here in America, we were able to go back on

(25:29):
set of the Morning Show and I walked on the
set and I didn't know how I was going to feel,
but I realized, oh my god, I love acting. I
just I love it. It is such a huge part
of my heart and my soul. And to get to
do what I'm really good at. I just imagine all
these musicians who are going back on the road, and
it makes it just fills my heart with joy that

(25:51):
they're able to share their gifts. Um. I have to
say acting as my first love, but I have to
say this company occupy It's the other fifty percent of
my brain all the time. And I feel really um,
I feel really honored that I get to talk about
it with you and this whole audience here today because
I know, um, I don't know. There's just a lot

(26:14):
of meaningful change that's ready that the world is now
ready for, and I'm excited for it. Well, I'm happy
to say that meaningful change is being led by people
like you. And hello, Sunshine. You're at the forefront and
deservedly so. And it's truly an honor and a privilege
to share this time with you, and I know our

(26:36):
audience will feel the same. You are as advertised, You
are a superstar. Thank you so much for your thoughtful questions.
It was really nice. Well, and and you for your
time and being Reese Witherspoon, Thank you, Rees, I'm Michael
cass Thanks for listening to good Company. Good Company is

(26:56):
a production of My Heart Radio special. Thanks to Lena Jerson,
Chief Brand Officer and Managing Director of Media Liak, for
her vision of Good Company. Bent to Jen Seely, Vice
President Marketing Communications of Media Leak for programming, amazing talent
and content. Good Company is edited by Jessica Crinchich.