{"id":2027,"date":"2020-07-28T11:05:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T11:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T19:39:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T19:39:07","slug":"what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
\n
\n \n

When I let myself indulge in celebrity profiles, I expect an enjoyable mix of gossip, gawking and who\u2019s who. The successful mix usually includes a broken marriage, a rift with a parent or a glimpse into an admirable social life.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

That is what I thought I would be getting when I tucked into the profile of Reese Witherspoon<\/a> in the March issue of Vanity Fair. It\u2019s Reese Witherspoon after all, whom I mostly associate with beyond-spunky Elle Woods, the sorority girl turned Harvard law student as played in the 2001 rom com \u201cLegally Blonde.\u201d<\/a> I had a vague sense that it might be about the actress reinventing herself mid-life, making the leap from perky starlet to entertainment mogul. That would have been a good read, hitting all the marks.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

But the story wound up being so much more. About mid-way through, it became clear it was more social commentary than celebrity dish. Witherspoon, a champion who has fought for equal pay and better roles for women in Hollywood, serves almost as guide to other women in what can be a brutal industry, showing the way forward in a post-#MeToo world. The rising Hollywood power player doesn\u2019t just give lip service to the goal of equality for women; she actually creates roles for them and demands equal pay.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

By the end of the profile I had moved from blindsided to inspired. The Witherspoon I was introduced to here was an embodiment of new feminism.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Then I paged back to the beginning for another surprise: The profile was written by the celebrated novelist Ann Patchett<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Refusing gotcha journalism<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n \n
\"Novelist
Ann Patchett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Patchett has written seven novels, including \u201cBel Canto,\u201d for which she won the 2002 PEN\/Faulkner Award<\/a>. She also has short stories, some memoir-esque nonfiction and essay collections to a long list of credits. Last year, she published her first children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

The Witherspoon profile was, in some ways, another debut for Patchett. She was contacted by an editor at Vanity Fair who wanted the profile to coincide with the new HULU series, \u201cLittle Fires Everywhere,\u201d<\/a> based on the novel by Celeste Ng<\/a> and co-starring Witherspoon. Patchett and Witherspoon both live in Nashville, Tennessee. They first met in 2018 when Witherspoon interviewed Patchett for her book club website \u201cHello Sunshine,\u201d<\/a> about Patchett\u2019s purchase of Parnassus<\/a>, an independent bookstore in Nashville. Later that year, they met again when Witherspoon was touring to promote her memoir, \u201cWhiskey in a Tea Cup.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Patchett agree to do the profile, but insisted that she would not write anything damaging or negative about the actress. She told the editor that \u201cI\u2019m not going to dig. I\u2019m not going to talk about her first marriage. I\u2019m just not going to do any of those things.\u201d Or, as she told me, \u201cI really like this person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Even without the usual celebrity dish, the piece is compelling read that paints a well-rounded picture of a woman who lives on her own terms, and has had an enormous impact on an entrenched industry. I was drawn into a woven narrative that let me eavesdrop on breezy conversations between two successful women, then led through bursts of revelation and insight. It finishes with a new understanding of what it will take for women to succeed.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

I spoke with Patchett about her process in crafting this profile.  Our conversation is edited for length and clarity, then followed by an annotation of the text.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

When Vanity Fair approached you to do this profile, did the editors give you any guidance on what they wanted it to cover?
<\/strong>No. And not only that, but when I asked how long they wanted the piece to be, they said \u201canywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 words.\u201d That is a big gap. A 2,000-word piece is one thing and a 5,000-word piece is a completely different thing. It was very strange for me to go in with that kind of open space. And they pay by the word. They were basically saying that I was allowed to decide how much I wanted. Claire (Howorth) was like, \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

How did you decide on structure?
<\/strong>I default to chronology and structure a piece around how the day is structured. I type up all my notes and pull out the good quotes. I run a highlighter over whatever I think is actually interesting. And then I just tell it like a story.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

I\u2019m a novelist. So it\u2019s like, this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. Then I looked for the transitional moments where I could fold in the things about (Witherspoon\u2019s) past or her career or the project she\u2019s working on. But I use the actual time that we\u2019re together as the scaffolding and then look for places to stick in the backstory.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

What do you see as the difference, if any, between this kind of writing and your fiction?
<\/strong>Oh, there really is no overlap (laughs<\/em>)! Except that I know how to write. But nonfiction is so much easier for me than fiction. In fiction you have to come up with everything \u2014  endings, characters, everything. I always feel like I am on a vacation when I\u2019m writing nonfiction.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

But, in nonfiction, I worry about hurting people. You can make up your mind about somebody before you meet them and use their words for them or against them.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Here is an interesting thing: I won\u2019t read interviews that I\u2019ve given. I find it the most excruciatingly painful thing. Because I can say something and reporter will love me and I can say something and reporter will hate me.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

But is there any overlap between character development in fiction and non-fiction?
<\/strong>In fiction, something that I think about goes back to a writing class I took in college. My teacher used to say that when you read Chekhov, if a postman delivers a letter, you have some sense of that postman even if even if the guy is on stage for one sentence. Through the words, you have a sense of that person. So I think that as far as minor characters are concerned, that is something that I get from fiction. Reese\u2019s son walks in the room. I don\u2019t want to talk about him. I don\u2019t want to embarrass him, or drag him into it. He\u2019s a teenager. He\u2019s got his private life. But I can say he walks in the other room and plays piano. You have some sense of this kid, but it\u2019s respectful.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n

Th<\/strong>e annotation:<\/strong> Storyboard\u2019s questions are in red; responses from Patchett in blue. To read the story without annotations, click the \u2018Hide all annotations\u2019 button, which you\u2019ll find just below the social media buttons in the top right-hand menu, or at the top of your mobile scr<\/em>een.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n
<\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n\n

THE BOOK OF REESE<\/h3>\n\n

Reese Witherspoon talks to ANN PATCHETT about stardom, career paths, the pursuit of happiness and\u2014what else?\u2014reading<\/h4>\n\nI first met Reese Witherspoon<\/strong>\u00a0three years ago at Parnassus Books, the store I co-own in Nashville. She\u2019d come to interview me for Hello Sunshine, her media company, and when the interview was finished, our events manager asked Witherspoon if she\u2019d be willing to have her picture taken with one of our shop dogs, Mary Todd Lincoln, a dappled, silky dachshund who\u2019d been photographed with any number of celebrities in the past. It\u2019s Nashville, after all; it\u2019s the kind of thing we do here. Witherspoon took the little dog and tucked her into an open space in the bookshelf behind her, then proceeded to run the gamut of human emotion: joy, surprise, eagerness, love, suffering, hope\u2014spinning out a master class of acting in less than a minute. The amazing part was not how good Witherspoon was at this\u2014she\u2019s a very good actor\u2014the amazing part was how she managed to shine the enormous light of her talent onto a nine-pound dog. In frame after frame, the viewer\u2019s eye skips the movie star and goes straight to the dachshund, which first appears coy, then knowing, then resplendent. If Oscars were given to pups, everyone would have agreed that this was Mary Todd Lincoln\u2019s year.
\n
\nWhich is pretty much the point I want to make about Reese Witherspoon. <\/a>People are complicated and have many dimensions. As someone writing a profile you wield great power in what you choose to say about your subject. How did you make those decisions?<\/span> It would have been just as easy to write a 4,000-word profile on who she is on her television shows. Shrill, grating, undermining, playing into stereotypes about women, you know? I would have never done that. You really have to decide about how you are going to approach somebody.<\/span><\/span> <\/a>Is respect one of your top considerations?<\/span> As we all know, this isn’t what I do for a living, right? Maybe if I was trying to make my living as a celebrity profile writer, I would think I need to make myself as exciting and interesting and important as possible. But I don’t feel that way.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nBoiled down to<\/strong> a series of brightly colored squares on a board game, Witherspoon\u2019s career would look something like this: success as a teenager, including a starring role in The Man in the Moon<\/em>\u00a0at 15, then at 23 an indelible performance as the irritatingly determined Tracy Flick in\u00a0Election,<\/em>\u00a0then full-blown stardom at 25 for the even more indelible Elle Woods in\u00a0Legally Blonde,<\/em>\u00a0then an Oscar at 29 for playing June Carter Cash in\u00a0Walk the Line.<\/em>
\n
\nAnd after that? Well, after that things fizzled. Maybe success wasn\u2019t a good fit with her scrappy, driven nature, or maybe by looking for more roles as rich and complex as June Carter Cash she was essentially looking for polar bears in Los Angeles. They simply weren\u2019t there. The years that followed yielded nothing particularly memorable, and in 2012,\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0flung her on the ash heap of has-beens, in a cutting sentence, deep in a profile of another actor, laundry listing stars who were no longer stars. Reese Witherspoon was officially washed up at the age of 36.
\n
\nThirty-six is ancient for a gymnast, late for a model, midlife for an opera singer, nascent for a surgeon, and fuzzy for a female actor. Many talented women have been chewed up and spit out by 36, while a lucky few keep going. At this point in the story of Witherspoon\u2019s career, there was no guarantee of professional longevity. <\/a>Reese\u2019s history is condensed quite compactly here and it works. How do you figure out your pacing \u2014 where to condense and where to draw it out?<\/span> [annotate color=” blue”]You write it and then you read it. Where your eyes start glossing over, trim it up. And then notice the part you are interested in.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nHere she gives a great deal of the credit to her husband, Jim Toth, for helping her reimagine her job. She and Toth, her second husband, have a seven-year-old son named Tennessee. Toth had been a very successful talent agent at CAA and was recently named head of talent and acquisitions for Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg\u2019s mobile video start-up. (I throw this in to highlight the fact that the marriage of Witherspoon and Toth includes two people who stay ahead of the curve.) He told her that if she wasn\u2019t finding the roles she wanted, she needed to develop them herself.
\n
\nIf she felt like betting, she should bet on herself. If she felt like fighting, she was the one she should fight for. Toth also pointed out what should have been comically obvious to his wife: that she reads more than anyone he had ever known.
\n
\nReading is one of Witherspoon\u2019s superpowers. She is fascinated by stories, whether in books, in film, in dinner party conversation. She wants to tell stories, and she wants to encourage other people to tell them. \u201cI always knew from the time I was seven that I wanted to be a storyteller or an actor or a singer,\u201d she says. \u201cOr a writer. I always wanted to be a writer. I think that\u2019s why I\u2019m in awe of writers because I\u2019ve tried to sit down and do it. I have ideas for stories all the time. I could never figure out how things ended. I always have ideas about how things begin but I never know how they end.\u201d <\/a>It\u2019s clear to me that you like Witherspoon; you are quite kind. Did you relationship with the actress complicate your objectivity?<\/span> This is not journalism. I’m not interviewing the CEO of Monsanto about Roundup. I am not, I am not, I am not offering a service for the public good. Vanity Fair has talked to an actress and they’ve said we want to put you on the cover of magazine and the actress is no doubt thinking: I’ve got this new show coming out on Apple TV.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nSometimes, a strong beginning is all it takes. When Witherspoon decided to start a production company with her own money, she turned to her constant companions: books. She optioned the rights to two novels that had yet to be published. The first,\u00a0Gone Girl,<\/em>\u00a0she produced, and the second,\u00a0Wild,<\/em>\u00a0she produced and starred in. (Wild<\/em>\u00a0yielded Academy Award nominations for both Witherspoon and Laura Dern, who played her mother.) Then she optioned a novel by Liane Moriarty called\u00a0Big Little Lies.<\/em>\u00a0After that, no one was questioning Witherspoon\u2019s ability to spin paper into gold.
\n
\nIn the middle of this new period of success, she also started a book club, becoming something of a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket for a number of books. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to highlight authors who don\u2019t have a track record of selling a lot of books. To watch what happens to them is extraordinary, and really emotional for us.\u201d But finding those authors and just the right book requires a boatload of reading month after month. Where does an actor who is\u2014once again, or still\u2014heading the A-list, who has a thriving media company, a lifestyle brand (Draper James\u2019s Nashville outpost is a mecca for Tennessee tourism), an enormous social media presence, and three children find the time? She makes it, as making time seems to be another superpower.
\n
\nShe told me she\u2019d been able to spend four hours just reading the day before. \u201cAnd nobody interrupted me! To me, that\u2019s a vacation.\u201d
\n
\nSeeing as how books were the key to so many parts of the story, it made perfect sense for us to meet back at Parnassus Books for this interview. It was late December and Reese had come home to Nashville for Christmas. It\u2019s where she grew up, where her parents live, where her brother and sister-in-law and two nieces live. She agreed to come to the bookstore early so that we could talk before the shoppers arrived.
\n
\nAt eight o\u2019clock<\/strong>\u00a0in the morning, Reese Witherspoon looks less like a movie star and more like a pretty girl with really good hair. I use the word\u00a0girl<\/em> with intention, both because we\u2019re in Nashville and because in her jeans and sneakers she doesn\u2019t look old enough to rent a car. After she accepts a cup of coffee from the appalling coffee machine and says good morning to all the booksellers, we begin making slow loops around the tables and past the shelves, playing the parlor game devoted readers can never get enough of: Have You Read This? <\/a>How did you decide to meet at the bookstore?<\/span> I want to plug books and Reese always wants to plug books. That’s our connection now.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nWitherspoon opens with\u00a0Such a Fun Age<\/em>\u00a0by Kiley Reid, the January pick for her book club. \u201cIt does such a good job exploring work dynamics, race, class.\u201d
\n
\nI counter with\u00a0Greek to Me<\/em>\u00a0by Mary Norris, which she hasn\u2019t read. I have it in my head that this book would make a terrific movie and the next thing I know I\u2019m pitching her. \u201cA copy editor at\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0decides to learn ancient Greek!\u201d I say. \u201cIt\u2019s like\u00a0Wild<\/em>\u00a0but for the mind.\u201d
\n
\nShe shakes her head. \u201cToo interior.\u201d
\n
\nWe stop at the new releases table to profess our mutual admiration for Colson Whitehead, then Attica Locke. Witherspoon leans over to pet the cover of Tayari Jones\u2019s\u00a0An American Marriage.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cLove,\u201d she sighs, as if it were a picture of Marcello Mastroianni.
\n
\nWitherspoon likes to read nonfiction in the morning (The Moment of Lift, Sapiens, Three Women<\/em>) and fiction at night (she hugs a copy of\u00a0The Secret History<\/em>\u00a0to her chest and declares it one of her all-time favorite books. She had just bought a copy for her daughter, Ava, who is 20.)
\n
\nThen we break into a mutual rhapsody over Margaret Renkl\u2019s\u00a0Late Migrations.<\/em>\u00a0In addition to being an opinion writer for the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and the author of one of the best books of the year, Renkl had once been Reese\u2019s favorite high school English teacher here in Nashville and remains a friend. Since we are speaking of local authors, I try to give her a copy of Kevin Wilson\u2019s\u00a0Nothing to See Here<\/em>\u00a0but she says no, she\u2019s brought her credit card, she\u2019ll buy it herself, thank you very much. When I offer her the store discount she turns that down as well.
\n
\n\u201cWhy are there all these writers in Nashville now?\u201d she asks. \u201cDoes Lorrie Moore really teach here?\u201d
\n
\nLorrie\u2019s my neighbor. She teaches at Vanderbilt. Witherspoon gapes in disbelief that I know Lorrie Moore, much less live close to her. Then she asks if she could take the class.
\n
\nHad Witherspoon been a smart, entrepreneurial actor who figured out how to get meaningful parts at 36 by optioning books and producing films herself, that would have been a good story, but that\u2019s not the story at all. What Witherspoon did was create a whole new playing field in Hollywood. In making parts for herself, she found that she wanted to make parts for other women as well, women her age but also women who were older and younger. She wanted to make parts for women of color, because if she was having a tough time finding good roles, she could see that what they were facing was considerably harder. <\/a>This is the moment we realize that this profile is going to jump beyond the \u201creinvent yourself\u201d trope. Did you know you would be making social commentary going into the profile?<\/span> If you ever sit down and read 15 celebrity profiles about someone, you realize how bad they are. Like how incredibly boring they are. The only way you’re going to do something that’s better is to bring some kind of intellectual construct to the piece, and to the person. There are two lines: There’s the line in which is the action happens. Here we are in the restaurant, this is what they order, blah, blah. And then there is what they mean culturally.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nAnd what about getting more women behind the camera? \u201cI can remember being in pictures in which I was the only woman on the set and there would be 150 men,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe there would be a couple of women in wardrobe. I remember when I was a kid I would find them and cling to them.\u201d
\n
\nWhy weren\u2019t there more women directors and screenwriters? Why weren\u2019t there women working cameras and doing sound and editing? If she were the one making the movie then she could hire them. She could prove that it was possible to fill a movie with all sorts of women: women of different races and ages, women from the LGBTQ+ community, women who are differently abled. It\u2019s the kind of thing the people in Hollywood say.
\n
\nThe difference is that Witherspoon is actually doing it, and her projects make money. Lots of money. She went out to find water, then called her friends so that together they could dig a well, lay a pipeline, and change the landscape. That included demanding equal pay for equal work, an agreement she won from HBO.
\n
\n\u201cAn actress came up to me at a party and said, \u2018Do you know what you\u2019ve done?\u2019 I had no idea what she was talking about. The day after the HBO equal pay thing went through, they called her agent to rewrite her contract. She was then paid twice as much as she had been.\u201d
\n
\nWitherspoon is happy to talk about money and contracts. She believes in the power of information, because if other women don\u2019t know how much you\u2019re being paid, the only person who stands to benefit is the person who\u2019s writing the checks. She has a group of friends she talks to regularly in order to share information, a list that includes and is in no way limited to America Ferrera, Shonda Rhimes, Tracee Ellis Ross, Ava DuVernay, Nancy Meyers, and Laura Dern.
\n
\n\u201cYou know, you meet people, you\u2019re friends with people, but I say about a few women in my life, they are my sisters. I don\u2019t have a sister and I found my sister in Laura. No one makes me laugh like Laura. She\u2019s magical.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cReese is a miracle,\u201d Dern says. \u201cShe is the gold standard of what it means to be a champion. She has always been a champion of art, and other artists, as well as friends and family. But discovering how she will never stop until other women are honored for their voices and their skills with not only a seat at the table, but paid and paid well for it, is a rare marvel. Because of her, so many other women in positions of power have followed suit. As an only child, finding family has always been very important to me. And that I get her in both areas of my life\u2014personal and professional\u2014is an outrageous blessing.\u201d
\n
\nWitherspoon has a way of using every question as a means of highlighting someone else, and in her case it feels less like deflection and more like a genuine sense of wonder for everything and everyone who moves her. I tell her the thing I find so remarkable about her story is that she was pregnant when\u00a0Election<\/em>\u00a0came out, that she had a baby at 23. I can\u2019t think of anyone else who had success as a young actor, had a baby at the same time, and didn\u2019t get derailed.
\n
\n\u201cKate Winslet,\u201d she says, without acknowledging my astonishment. \u201cShe was 25. She had a baby after\u00a0Titanic.<\/em>\u00a0We talked all the time.\u201d
\n
\nWhen I tell her I watched her acceptance speech for the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, the first thing she wants to know is if I watched Kerry Washington\u2019s introduction. Well, she asked me that after taking several minutes to praise Sherry Lansing\u2019s leadership. Washington and Witherspoon are making a limited series out of Celeste Ng\u2019s smash novel\u00a0Little Fires <\/em>Everywhere,<\/em>\u00a0about privilege, class, race, motherhood, and ownership, with Witherspoon in the role of Mrs. Richardson, a paragon of oblivious entitlement. \u201cCreating that character was a new challenge for me,\u201d Witherspoon says. \u201cDespite her intelligence and social grooming, she has a deeply embedded lack of awareness of her privilege. She\u2019s constructed a life that\u2019s impervious to the world she lives in. She\u2019s so comfortable in her social standing and her wealth that she feels entitled to analyze anyone outside her sphere but never takes a hard look at her own shortcomings.\u201d <\/a>Here we start to see the theme of Witherspoon helping other women. Is this something you knew before the interview or did it strike you in your conversation?<\/span> I had done my homework. I had read all of the other celebrity profiles and saw that Reese is not just going to say “Black Lives Matter” or “women must be treated equally.” She is going to sit down and figure out who to hire and and not make a big deal of it. I knew all of that going in. But then meeting her, when I told her that I had watched the (leadership award speech) speech, the first thing she said was \u201cDid you watch Kerry Washington’s introduction?\u201d Her first impulse is, don’t look at me \u2014 look at her. Everything she does is like that. And it’s natural. It’s who she is.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nOr to put it another way, this character is about as far from the actor as she could get.
\n
\n\u201cWatch Kerry,\u201d she tells me. \u201cWhat she says about power is so important.\u201d
\n
\nAnd she\u2019s right. Washington\u2019s speech is a perfect encapsulation of Witherspoon\u2019s journey and the change in Hollywood. \u201cThe new narrative,\u201d Washington says, shimmering from the lectern, \u201cthe Reese narrative, tells us that our power lies in our partnership. That real power comes from succeeding with people, not succeeding off of people. That real power is borne of the humility and grace of sisterhood. That\u2019s what empowerment means. The more power you share, the more power you have, and the more power you have, the more you must share. This is the lesson that you must learn when you are in Reese\u2019s orbit. This is the lesson so many of us are learning from her.\u201d
\n
\nThe HBO series<\/strong>\u00a0Big Little Lies<\/em>\u00a0began its addictive spin in February 2017 and quickly became as much the story of five women living with privilege and abuse in scenic Monterey as it did about the five actors who were finally getting a chance to work together. When Witherspoon found out that Nicole Kidman\u2019s production company was also interested in the Moriarty novel, she moved to partner instead of outbid. Witherspoon and Kidman joined forces, taking joint executive producer credits and equal starring roles. Read an interview with Dern and she\u2019ll talk about how much she loved getting to work with Witherspoon, then Witherspoon is quoted praising season-two addition Meryl Streep, who has nice things to say about Kidman. They all loved the younger women, Shailene Woodley and Zo\u00eb Kravitz, who in turn learned so much from their elders.
\n
\nIf all of them are acting their way through these interviews, well, they\u2019re extremely convincing. Those reliable tropes about bitchery and catfights, about women undercutting other women, are suddenly rendered useless. All reports point to the genuine shared affection and respect among the cast. And those other tropes about men not being interested in watching shows about women, and shows about women not being profitable?\u00a0Big Little Lies<\/em> blew those up as well. <\/a>What is missing from this piece is any in depth discussion of Witherspoon\u2019s TV shows, which is how I mainly associate with her. Is that intentional?<\/span> The thing that was hard for me in all of this is that I don’t watch television. I haven’t watched television since I was in my early 20s. None. Zero. So I’m not qualified to talk about television. But I talked about who she hired and how she produced and how well she worked with the other people and how they all had nice things to say about each other.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nSo while the show wasn\u2019t responsible for the #MeToo movement, the downfall of Harvey Weinstein, or any of the other dominoes that fell behind him, the actions feel inextricably linked. Quell false rumors about women\u2019s inability to support one another, have the year\u2019s most successful show produced by women, and then watch women who had nothing to do with the show stand up and say they have been harassed, raped, and silenced, because maybe they\u2019ve seen what\u2019s possible\u2014a world in which women have each other\u2019s backs, a world in which women, at least on HBO, can be in charge of a hit, a world in which the women to whom you tell your stories will believe you.
\n
\nInto that world of #MeToo and Time\u2019s Up, a legal defense fund for women fighting for equality and the end of sexual harassment in the workplace, Witherspoon arrives with\u00a0The Morning Show,<\/em>\u00a0a series with Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell that is the launchpad for Apple\u2019s entrance into the world of streaming services. Apple TV+ is pretty much staking its success on Witherspoon\u2019s ability to deliver the kind of audience she brought to\u00a0Big Little Lies.<\/em>\u00a0Again, we get the backstory of female friendship and collaboration. Witherspoon and Aniston have been friends since 2000, when Witherspoon guest starred as Aniston\u2019s sister on\u00a0Friends.<\/em>\u00a0The Morning Show<\/em>\u00a0provides a vehicle with two strong (very strong) female leads.
\n
\nAll good, but the thing that makes this show worth watching is the 10-hour dissection of what it means to be caught up in a #MeToo moment. Because while we can read accusations and denials in the paper, watch a perp walk on the news, and listen to no end of discussion on what has happened and what needs to happen, it\u2019s something else entirely to see it play out as art. If our understanding of the Great Depression is forever linked to John Steinbeck\u2019s\u00a0Grapes of Wrath,<\/em>\u00a0and then John Ford\u2019s\u00a0Grapes of Wrath<\/em>\u00a0with Henry Fonda\u2019s creation of Tom Joad, our understanding of #MeToo may well be shaped by Witherspoon and\u00a0The Morning Show.<\/em>\u00a0As the morning anchor who is hired to replace Carell\u2019s fallen character (in a turn that can\u2019t help but call Matt Lauer to mind), Witherspoon\u2019s Bradley Jackson must pick her way through the aftermath of sexual misconduct. Layer after layer of bad behavior, mediocre behavior, friendship, power, consequences, and culpability are examined from the point of view of every player until absolutely nothing seems clear\u2014except that working in morning television appears to be a really undesirable job, and sleeping with one\u2019s colleagues is a universally bad idea.
\n
\nAgain, Witherspoon is quick to give credit where credit is due, in this case to the showrunner and director, Kerry Ehrin. \u201cShe\u2019s an incredibly empathetic woman. She just kept peeling back the layers. This behavior that men have carried on for hundreds of years, thousands of years, suddenly isn\u2019t okay. The world changed in about six months and everyone is just scrambling to keep up.\u201d
\n
\nSpeaking of scrambling to keep up, I have a question that has long stumped me: How is it that so many women discussing their own experience with harassment in articles are photographed draped backward over a sofa with no top on under their jacket? Is it fair to say that sends a mixed signal?
\n
\nWitherspoon thinks about this for a minute. \u201cI can tell you what my daughter would say.\u201d It is clear she means to be patient and kind, to actually explain it to me. \u201cWhy should a woman have to sublimate her own sexuality, because that\u2019s not her responsibility, the way she\u2019s viewed, right? Her sexuality shouldn\u2019t be diminished because she\u2019s having a conversation about consent. You should be able to be sexual, to display your sexuality, because consent is consent, no matter what.\u201d <\/a>It\u2019s here that Witherspoon becomes almost a teacher who is educating us about a new mode of feminism. Was that intentional?<\/span> To me, this is the best moment in the story. She really taught me something. And she was speaking to me in that moment like we’re in Nashville. I understand why you think the way you think because that’s the way I used to think. But that in itself could have been a whole piece. That’s so interesting. It’s like I’m not going to criticize another woman for taking her shirt off. She explained it to me and I love that.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nShe can see that I\u2019m still struggling a little.
\n
\nI know,\u201d she says, \u201cit\u2019s complex. It\u2019s not how I grew up. I grew up thinking you dress the way you want to be treated. But things are changing.\u201d
\n
\nI point out that there aren\u2019t pictures of her wearing a jacket with no shirt.
\n
\nShe nods. \u201cI always had a thing about exploiting sexuality. When I came up in the business, there were all these men\u2019s magazines we were told to cater to. I was never in\u00a0Maxim.<\/em>\u00a0I was never picked as a\u00a0GQ<\/em>\u00a0girl, and I\u2019m okay with that because that\u2019s not how I wanted to be viewed. That\u2019s not how I see myself. I always say, \u2018Funny doesn\u2019t sag.\u2019 I always just wanted to be funny, you know? And you can\u2019t be rendered obsolete if you just keep being funny. Guess what gets rendered obsolete? Your boobs go south, your face goes south, your ass goes south, but you can always be funny. And those are my idols, my heroes\u2014Goldie, Holly Hunter, Diane Keaton, Nancy Meyers\u2014smart and funny.\u201d
\n
\nThis is the moment in which I lose any semblance of journalistic integrity because I\u2019m already envisioning a line of T-shirts for the bookstore that say \u201cFunny doesn\u2019t sag.\u201d
\n
\nWe have stayed<\/strong> too long at the fair. Parnassus is now packed with holiday shoppers, and while none of them seem to be paying any attention to the movie star, it\u2019s time to go someplace quieter. Witherspoon wants to show me the house she bought two years ago and has just finished renovating. Behind the wheel of her husband\u2019s car she\u2019s a canny local, taking a series of back roads to avoid the crush of holiday traffic. She talks about her parents, her friends, her brother, John. \u201cWe have that inexplicable bond of childhood. Two people forged in the same fire. It\u2019s interesting because we\u2019re very different, but we manage to love and care for each other with a ferocity that defies words. I call him Brother. He calls me Sister. Very Southern sibling stuff.\u201d <\/a>I notice there aren\u2019t too many personal details about Reese\u2019s childhood and personal life. How did you decide what details to include and what to leave out?<\/span> To be a very successful woman and have somebody ask you about your parents \u2014 it’s demeaning. And it’s something that happens to me all the time. It doesn\u2019t happen with men. Did Reese and I sit in the kitchen and talk about our parents? Yes, we did. But she didn\u2019t have to say this is off the record because she knew I wouldn\u2019t do that to her.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nWe talk about Harpeth Hall, the all-girls school she attended here. I ask if she liked going to a girls school, if she thought it was helpful.
\n
\n\u201cYes,\u201d she says, \u201cvery much so. It definitely encouraged whatever tiny little feminist pilot light I had.\u201d Though she makes it clear there was also a lot of fun in those days. \u201cI was very opinionated, a little devious. I had a master plan. I might have tried to put beer in the Coke machine.\u201d
\n
\nI had asked Margaret Renkl, her high school English teacher turned author and friend, about her memories of that time. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a high school teacher and you teach bright kids, there\u2019s always going to be one kid who\u2019s waiting for you to prove that you\u2019re smart enough to be her teacher,\u201d Renkl said. \u201cReese was always that one. She was a little bit skeptical, a little unsure, but it wasn\u2019t long before she became the student whose eyes never leave your face because you are saying what they need to hear. Somehow, through some miracle, you\u2019re teaching exactly what they need to know at exactly that moment in their development. It was like talking about literature was food and she was hungry.\u201d
\n
\nDid Renkl think, all those years ago, that Reese Witherspoon would turn out to be this person? Not just an actor but a force for change in the world?
\n
\nRenkl smiles. \u201cShe was often stamping her foot mad about something. She was outraged by injustice in any form she encountered it. But she was also funny and fierce. She was like any other teenage girl in an all-girls school\u2014she never wore makeup or combed her hair unless it was a dance or picture day.\u201d
\n
\nWitherspoon shakes her head at the memory of her British lit survey and Margaret Renkl, who left Harpeth Hall at the end of Witherspoon\u2019s junior year. \u201cI cried when she left.\u201d
\n
\nWitherspoon pulls up in front of a beautiful house that is no more and no less than its beautiful neighbors. But when we step inside I have to say it stops my heart for an instant, the flooding light in the foyer, the sweeping staircase, the openness in every direction, the wallpaper. There is different, complementary wallpaper in room after room, including a wallpapered ceiling that looks like the tiled floor of a French bistro. I have no idea what the neighbors\u2019 houses look like on the inside, but my guess would be nothing like this. The house is welcoming and warm in a way that feels almost like a memory, but better than a memory as it is both traditional and explosively joyful. While I am exclaiming, she looks around herself, maybe seeing it again.
\n
\n\u201cGrowing up, all my friends at Harpeth Hall lived in houses like this. I always wanted to live in a house like this, and now I do. It\u2019s some sort of childhood fulfillment.\u201d
\n
\nAnd that\u2019s exactly it, because I grew up in Nashville too and went to a different girls school. This was the house of childhood dreams, or a better version of it. This is the place a person spends her whole life looking for. <\/a>I love this scene where you enter Reese\u2019s house. Your sense that it was like the \u201cother girl\u2019s\u201d houses that you went to private school with. It seems like Nashville and the south almost become a character in the story. How much did you pull from your own experience?<\/span> It was weird. When I walked in, I had such a visceral reaction to that house. And when she said, this was the house that the other girls lived in,<\/em> I was like, yeah, that’s exactly right. It was this incredible combination of this classic, old, beautiful Southern house. She just kind of like tapped in on every primal home fantasy.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
\n
\nWe go and sit in the big bright kitchen to talk some more. I ask her if she thinks it\u2019s a dangerous thing to be a child actor.
\n
\n\u201cThe ambition?\u201d
\n
\nNo.
\n
\n\u201cOh, you mean the hope that it could happen?\u201d
\n
\nNo, I mean, is it dangerous to be a child working in an adult world?
\n
\n\u201cAh,\u201d she says, \u201cyes. Bad things happened to me. I was assaulted, harassed. It wasn\u2019t isolated. I recently had a journalist ask me about it. She said, Well, why didn\u2019t you speak up sooner? And I thought, that\u2019s so interesting to talk to someone who experienced those things and then judge them for the way they decide to speak about them. You tell your story in your own time when you\u2019re ready. But the shame that she tried to put on me was unreal, and then she wrote about how selfish I was for not bringing it up sooner. There wasn\u2019t a public reckoning 25 years ago when this stuff happened to me. There wasn\u2019t a forum to speak about it either. Social media has created a new way for people to express themselves that I didn\u2019t have. That\u2019s the great strength in power and numbers. I think we have a lot of judgment and that\u2019s unfortunate because we\u2019re all tender-footed in these new times. We\u2019re trying to find our identity. That\u2019s what I really like about The Morning Show.<\/em>\u201d
\n
\nThere is a knock at the back door and Witherspoon\u2019s sister-in-law, Jennie, arrives with her two daughters. Then Witherspoon\u2019s 16-year-old son, Deacon, appears from wherever he\u2019s been in the house. Suddenly there\u2019s a coffee cake and talk of diving practice and where everyone should go to lunch. Witherspoon has plans to meet her mother, and Jennie\u2019s taking Deacon and the girls to lunch downtown at Robert\u2019s Western World.
\n
\n\u201cSeriously?\u201d I ask. \u201cYou can eat lunch there?\u201d I had always thought it was a giant bar but am told they have fried bologna sandwiches.
\n
\n\u201cYou know Reese and I were in the same class at Harpeth Hall,\u201d Jennie Witherspoon tells me. \u201cWe were both in Ms. Renkl\u2019s class.\u201d
\n
\nI wonder if Jennie felt the same way the first time she walked into this house. I wonder if she too thought that it was the kind of place the other girls lived.
\n
\nJennie Witherspoon starts talking about\u00a0The Morning Show.<\/em>\u00a0She and John had watched the final episode of the season the night before. \u201cWe were so into it!\u201d Jennie says. \u201cWe kept forgetting it was you.\u201d
\n
\nAfter the cake has been eaten and the lunch plans have been made, Deacon slips off to play the piano for two minutes (and I can say, based on those two minutes, he is very, very good) while Jennie and the girls pull on their coats. <\/a>How do you choose what to include about a minor character in the story and what to leave out?<\/span> I could have mentioned his haircut; his hair was cut short and shaved on one side like in an \u201880s Cyndi Lauper video. You see that shit over and over again, but it\u2019s not nice. It\u2019s rude. The writer is making themselves look clever by their observation but there is an inherent cruelty in the observation.<\/span><\/span>
\n
\nEveryone says goodbye. Witherspoon asks me if I want to use the powder room before I go, and I tell her no, I\u2019m fine.
\n
\n\u201cUse the powder room,\u201d she says.
\n
\nUnder the front staircase is a tiny door to the tiniest bathroom I have ever seen. It is the Alice in Wonderland of bathrooms, with swallows painted in the miniature sink. I\u2019m speechless.
\n
\n\u201cRight?\u201d she says.
\n
\nWitherspoon offers to<\/strong>\u00a0drive me back to the bookstore, where I\u2019ve left my car. I tell her the traffic will be awful, but she waves me off. She may have a home in Nashville but she and her family still live in Los Angeles. She has a completely different notion of what constitutes traffic. And anyway, there\u2019s a book she wants to pick up for her mother.
\n
\nWhen we go back into the bookstore we can barely cut a path through the last-minute holiday shoppers. No one notices us in their rush, but Witherspoon sees a painting of a small dachshund reading a book that\u2019s hanging on the back wall.
\n
\n\u201cIs that Mary Todd Lincoln?\u201d she asks me, and then, derailed by a sudden, awful thought, asks, \u201cIs she\u2026\u201d
\n
\nI assure her the dachshund is fine. We\u2019re in the process of having all the shop dogs\u2019 portraits painted.
\n
\n\u201cYou know I had my picture taken with her the last time I was here.\u201d
\n
\nI tell her I do in fact remember, though I\u2019m amazed that she remembers. I tell her that\u2019s how I want to open this piece, with her shining her light on the dachshund. \u201cI\u2019ve done enough for myself,\u201d Witherspoon replies, deadpan. \u201cI need to do more for the Mary Todd Lincolns of the world.\u201d
\n
\nI have no doubt. She will come to the aid of small dachshunds everywhere, once she gets the rest of the world straightened out.
\n
\n
\nMonique Brouillette<\/strong> is a freelance journalist based in Boston who covers science, health and tech. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Technology Review, Quanta, Science and several other publications.<\/em>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ann Patchett writes about Reese Witherspoon: No celebrity dirt, a storytelling structure, lots of dialog about books and houses and feminism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[300],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-2027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annotation-tuesday","authors-monique-brouillette"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ann Patchett writes about Reese Witherspoon: No celebrity dirt, a storytelling structure, lots of dialog about books and houses and feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nieman Storyboard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"commonmedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"commonmedia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"37 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"commonmedia\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad131fac9b2e8136d6171c8575cfc226\"},\"headline\":\"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":7424,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Story Annotations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/\",\"name\":\"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":465,\"caption\":\"Reese Witherspoon at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles in January 2020. Matt Sayles \\\/ Invision \\\/ AP\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/28\\\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nieman Storyboard\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Nieman Storyboard\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/NiemanKOLogo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/NiemanKOLogo.svg\",\"width\":1,\"height\":1,\"caption\":\"Nieman Storyboard\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad131fac9b2e8136d6171c8575cfc226\",\"name\":\"commonmedia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"commonmedia\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/wp\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/niemanstoryboard.org\\\/author\\\/commonmedia\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard","og_description":"Ann Patchett writes about Reese Witherspoon: No celebrity dirt, a storytelling structure, lots of dialog about books and houses and feminism","og_url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/","og_site_name":"Nieman Storyboard","article_published_time":"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":465,"url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"commonmedia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"commonmedia","Est. reading time":"37 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/"},"author":{"name":"commonmedia","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ad131fac9b2e8136d6171c8575cfc226"},"headline":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?","datePublished":"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/"},"wordCount":7424,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg","articleSection":["Story Annotations"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/","url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/","name":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress? - Nieman Storyboard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg","datePublished":"2020-07-28T11:05:41+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-29T19:39:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/03\/AP_20020056591577-scaled-e1595933133378.jpg","width":750,"height":465,"caption":"Reese Witherspoon at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles in January 2020. Matt Sayles \/ Invision \/ AP"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2020\/07\/28\/what-happens-when-a-superstar-novelist-is-asked-to-profile-a-superstar-actress\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What happens when a superstar novelist is asked to profile a superstar actress?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/","name":"Nieman Storyboard","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#organization","name":"Nieman Storyboard","url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/02\/NiemanKOLogo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/02\/NiemanKOLogo.svg","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"Nieman Storyboard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ad131fac9b2e8136d6171c8575cfc226","name":"commonmedia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a67dac1d5145031a5e3f8bcb411f86c4aed5a7ebe4244392196080637ed18af?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"commonmedia"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp"],"url":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/author\/commonmedia\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2027"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12484,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2027\/revisions\/12484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=2027"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=2027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}