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Reese Witherspoon Four Christmases Press Conference

Making a Christmas film there’s a lot of pitfalls because a lot of them are formulaic. Knowing that, why did you want to do this film?
Reese Witherspoon: "I just thought this was a different kind of Christmas movie. I’d never seen anyone do the idea of the blended family and how they have to go to a million different places, but I hear people complain about it constantly.

And I was excited to work with Vince. I think he has a different kind of comedy that’s renegade and, like, crazy and he always has crazy ideas right in the moment and it’s just funny to be a part of that energy. I knew it would be original and interesting."
What was it like to work with two greats: Mary Steenburgen and Sissy Spacek?
Reese Witherspoon: "Fun! It was so fun. It was great to just… And Jon Voigt and Robert Duvall. I have the biggest crush on Robert Duvall. He’s such a great Southern guy, and Tender Mercies – he was so great in The Apostle. Big crush. And Sissy was so great too. We talked about playing country singers and stuff like that. There were a lot of Oscars on the set."

Did everybody bring theirs in?
Reese Witherspoon: "Bring Your Oscar to Work Day? [Laughing] No, but we should have. It would have been really funny. It was fun."

There’s a scene in the film where the family has a $10 budget. How would your family respond to that?
Reese Witherspoon: "Oh, wouldn’t that be great?

Wouldn’t it be great to record the look on their faces? [Laughing] No, my family doesn’t spend…my family always had a thing where everybody always got one thing whether it was like chocolates or flowers –it would be the nicest little chocolates you could get or the one really nice toy that was beautifully made. It was always about the quality of things and not the quantity of things."

The scene in the church when you have stage fright, did you ever have stage fright and did you ever have to play a character in a pageant like that?
Reese Witherspoon: "Yes, I get very bad stage fright. I get really, really bad and I’m really bad at like luncheons when you have to talk or even at the award shows. I’m so so so nervous. My knees are sweating, my elbows are sweating. I’m sweating in abnormal places. You just have to push me on the stage, but I’m getting a little better at it. And yeah, I was in nativity plays when I was little. I remember desperately wanting to play Mary in the nativity play and the preacher’s daughter got it and I was so mad. So mad! But you can’t really compete with the preacher's daughter."

What did you play?
Reese Witherspoon: "I think I was the third sheep on the left [laughing] and very angry about it."

Had anybody ever told you how much you and Kristen Chenoweth look alike and that you should play sisters one day? She seems like such a dynamo. What was it like working with her?
Reese Witherspoon: "Yeah, I used to get stopped all the time and people asked, ‘Are you on West Wing?’ And I’d say, ‘No, I’m not on West Wing,’ and my girlfriends would say, ‘Oh, have you seen that girl? She looks just like you and talks just like you and she’s just like you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, really?’ and then I ran into her at an awards show and I realized I’d seen her in Wicked and all this stuff. I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we got to play sisters?’ It turns out she’s just the sweetest, nicest, little country girl from Oklahoma. She’s just sweet and wonderful so it came up and I called her and asked her to do the movie and she said yes. We lucked out. She was very busy at the time, too."

She’s actually shorter than you?
Reese Witherspoon: "I know, she is. She’s tinier than tiny, y’all. She’s like 4 foot 11 or something. She’s small."

Your character and Vince's have some conflicts in the movie. What is the most important aspect of having a good relationship?
Reese Witherspoon: "I think my character and his character show that it’s important to have honesty and openness and communication. I think that’s what they learn in the film. You can’t have a relationship without those things."

A lot of us just spoke to Twilight’sRob Pattinson who he said played your son at one point during the Vanity Fair shoot.
Reese Witherspoon: "I remember he was verrrry handsome. I was like, 'I have a really handsome son.' I was supposed to play an older version of my character who had been sort of a ruined woman and was at the end of her life. I remember I just had to sob and cry all over him. He was great. He was a wonderful actor."

What’s your reaction to Joaquin Phoenix’s quitting acting? Do you think he’d have quit if he’d won the Oscar for Walk the Line?
Reese Witherspoon: "I don’t think Joaquin cares about Oscars. He’s a great sort of creative spirit, whatever he puts his energy into. He’s done amazing things, he’s done amazing things. Whatever he wants to do he’ll be happy. He’s a great guy."