Reese Witherspoon:  My character?  Yeah, I think there are elements of that, it’s definitely a magical movie.  There are definitely twists and turns that you don’t expect.  There was something to the fact that we put wings on her, wings on her bike, and stuff. We thought of all these little details that we liked.  It’s nice that you noticed them.

Q:   Now it looks like the Oscars are going to happen and all the actors will be able to go.  Do you have any plans to attend the 80th anniversary?

Reese Witherspoon:  No, I don’t know what my plans are, but I’m thrilled that hopefully it will go on.  You see all these great young people, like Ellen Page, and Marion Cotillard, and you want them to have their moment to let people see how beautiful they are and celebrate their work, it’s a great thing, and Ruby Dee.  You got to recognize, she’s got to have her moment.  I’m excited about that.

Q:   Where do you keep your Oscar?

Reese Witherspoon:  Well, I’ve considered making it into a doorknocker or a necklace, but neither one of those options was very practical.  I just keep it in my living room.

Q:   As an Oscar winner do you look at scripts through a different eye in the future?  Is it just a nice thing on the resume and you go forward like you always have?

Reese Witherspoon:  I think you just have to go forward like you always have.  I’ve never let anything stop me.  You are who you are in life.  You are just who you grew up being.  I still feel like I can barely afford an apartment sometimes. [Laughs]  I call my accountant and I go ‘Can I afford to buy that car?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, you can.’  ‘Okay.’  I think, in the sense of choosing material, I feel like I’m always choosing things based on where I’m at in life.  The process of what I’ve gone through recently is always a part of decision making.  It’s interesting how things come your way that are right for you and how you gravitate towards things that you are trying to work out in your own life. 

Q:   You mentioned the family friendly aspect of ‘Penelope’ a couple of times.  Is that one reason why it was so important to you?  Not to say that your kids couldn’t see some of your other films.

Reese Witherspoon:  No, it’s always important.  Sometimes I get frustrated that there are not a lot of really great female characters out there that young women can look at and go ‘I want to be like that, it’s awesome.’  I go to movies and I get frustrated.  I’m just like ‘Shoot him!  Just shoot him!’  Why does the guy get to shoot him?  Why can’t the girl shoot him?  I miss those characters in film.  I feel like it would be nice to see more of them.  I’m happy to be part of something where I feel like there is a great female character, which Christina plays, and it could be inspiring to people.

Q:   Are you saying you would like to play a really kick ass female character yourself?

Reese Witherspoon:  Yes, possibly. [Laughs]  I would like to do that, and I would like to see other women do it.  I love to see Angelina Jolie in movies like ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’.  I can’t wait to see her in ‘Wanted’.  I think those movies where women have great strength, and character, it’s always interesting. 

Q:   What is the best career advice you have ever received and who gave it to you?

Reese Witherspoon:  The best career advice was ‘never miss an opportunity to just be quiet.’  That is always a good piece of advice, just in life.  It was actually put ‘Never miss an opportunity to just shut up.’  That was from my granddad.  Also, the interesting thing about our business is it’s so ever evolving.  Somebody said to me ‘Always be nice to everybody, particularly the people that answer the phones, because they are going to be your boss in four years.’  It’s true, it happens all the time.

Q:   There was one bit of career advice you had told us about not doing television from Sam Waterston.

Reese Witherspoon:  Yeah, he told me not to do TV.

Q:   But you have a project now.  Isn’t the Elwoods TV show something that you are related to?

Reese Witherspoon:  No, that doesn’t have anything to do with me.

Q:   Your company isn’t involved?

Reese Witherspoon:  No.

Q:   They just took the character and ran?  You created something…

Reese Witherspoon:  Well, a lot of people were part of creating it, I just played the character, and they got to spin that stuff.  They have to make a buck.

Q:   What is next for Type A?

Reese Witherspoon:  Type A, we are developing different things.  Gosh, I don’t know.  We have so much stuff going on, it’s hard to just decide one thing that we are going to be doing.  I don’t know.

Q:   What do you hope that teen girls especially who are having a really tough time with image will take away from this movie?

Reese Witherspoon:  I guess that there are all sorts of different definitions of beauty.  Beyond the physical aspects of beauty, it’s about finding what makes you unique, what can be really defining in your life, and that it’s important to really know yourself.

Q:   Where do things stand with the Children’s Defense Fund project in New Orleans?

Reese Witherspoon:  I’m actually going back next month.  I’m part of a very exciting project that I can’t talk about, but it’s going to be very exciting for the Children’s Defense Fund.  I’m looking forward to doing some work for them in the months to come, raising money.

Q:   Your company’s name, Type A, implies a lot of ambition on your part.  You’ve succeeded and achieved so much.  Where are your ambitions now?  What are the things that you still want to check off the achievement list?

Reese Witherspoon:  Kick ass female role, definitely shooting somebody in the neck, in a movie [laughs] or in the knee or something, just the knee, nothing permanent.  I don’t know.  I have a lot of ambition.  I really am interested in doing a period film.  There are a lot of filmmakers I would love to work with like Ridley Scott.  There are other actors I think are really interesting.  I really like Marion Cotillard, I thought that movie ‘La Vie en Rose’ was so good.  I am endlessly inspired, but now I’m interested more in design and production design.  I’m getting more involved in that kind of thing.

Q:   What about directing?

Reese Witherspoon:  Possibly, I think I’m inching towards it, I have to say.  [Laughs]  Be afraid, be very afraid, I’m not doing that exactly next.  It’s very inspiring to see people like Sarah Polley who I was auditioning with, being on the cover of Vanity Fair with, and seeing her adapt the Alice Munro short story, and direct Julie Christie hopefully to an Oscar.  That’s really inspiring.

Q:   Do you ever see yourself in a film that you direct?

Reese Witherspoon:  I don’t know, I think it’s hard to have that kind of perspective, but who knows?  Maybe.

Q:   How much was ICM involved with the project?

Reese Witherspoon:  ICM, they had a lot to do with that, and they have been really helpful.  They were really a big part of Christina being in the film, a lot of involvement with getting the movie distribution.

Q:   Speaking earlier about Vince Vaughn and his improv skills, how was it working with Catherine O’Hara who is just so fantastic?

Reese Witherspoon:  She is great.

Q:   What did you think when you got her to be involved in this movie?

Reese Witherspoon:  We were just really lucky to have her.  She was really attracted to the material.  The thing is that she plays so many different colors of a part that you can have her play something very wicked, but also still like her.  She had to be pretty evil in some moments in this movie.  You find your character’s redemption in that, and that’s what she is really great at, plus she plays a fantastic Autoharp.  It’s really annoying.  When I was learning the Autoharp for ‘Walk the Line’ they kept bragging about Catherine O’Hara.  ‘Catherine O’Hara in ‘A Mighty Wind’ and she could really play that Autoharp.’  I was like ‘Goddamn that woman.’  Then I met her and I was like ‘I’m mad.’  And then she played it and I was like ‘Oh forget it, I can’t keep up.’ 

Q:   Did you see any parallels between the experiences that Penelope goes through and just being a celebrity? 

Reese Witherspoon:  Yeah, we definitely have that aspect in the movie.  There is a little representation of the paparazzi there, with Peter Dinklage's character and the choices he makes which were definitely fantastic and fairytale like, to put down the camera.  There was definitely that aspect in it, it’s interesting.  There are all sorts of different things that make you famous nowadays.

Q:   You were actually involved in trying to get some legislation on that matter.  Has that been successful?

Reese Witherspoon:  We’re still working on it, but they are making progress.  It’s an uphill battle.  I want to be mindful of our rights as Americans and all that kind of stuff.  The thing about kids is that you just don’t want your kids exposed to so much of that.  It’s becoming bizarre too, it’s a little aggressive, and strange.

Q:   You said you enjoyed having the chance to play a broad.  What are your broad qualities?  What did you do to embrace them?  Do you have any in real life?

Reese Witherspoon:  Fast talking, sharp shooting, tough girl.  Yeah, I like to think I’m really tough on the outside, with a caramel sweet center inside.  Most people who know me would agree.

Q:   I’m curious if you saw ‘Walk Hard’?

Reese Witherspoon:  No, I didn’t see it, was it funny?  I heard it’s funny.

Q:   Yeah, there was sort of a tribute to your character in ‘Walk the Line.’

Reese Witherspoon:  How was I?  Was I good?  Was I really funny?  Good. 

Q:   Do you have a very favorite Oscar moment over the years?

Reese Witherspoon:  I really liked Jodie Foster’s speech I remember, that she did about her mom.  That was a very inspiring thing to me.  She is very cool about it.  I’m trying to think of anybody else.  I was there when Halle Berry cried, and I cried, and cried, and cried.  I was like ‘This is so moving.’  The people next to me were like ‘Stop crying.’  [Laughs]

“Penelope ” opens in theaters on February 29th.

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