Reese Witherspoon is inspired by Oprah Winfrey.

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon

The 43-year-old actress starred with the media mogul in 2018's 'A Wrinkle in Time' and has said she would consider the star one of her "female mentors", because she always gives her the most "beautiful and poignant" advice.

Asked who her female role model is, she said: "I have a lot of female mentors. Oprah Winfrey comes to mind, just because I had the extraordinary opportunity to work with her this year. She's done over 34,000 interviews with people, so I would say to her, 'What do people want? What is the one connective tissue of humanity and people you have met?' And she just said, 'People just want to be seen. They want to be acknowledged and they want to know they are understood. I thought that was really beautiful and so poignant."

Reese will next be seen on TV in the second series of 'Big Little Lies' - which kicks off on Monday (10.06.19) - where she got the chance to work with another one of her inspirations, Meryl Streep.

The blonde beauty found it "incredible" acting alongside Meryl, and called the opportunity one of the "top moments" of her career.

Speaking to Notebook magazine about working with Meryl, Reese said: "[It was] incredible! I might or might not have thrown an ice cream cone at her in a scene because she made me mad! It's one of the top moments of my entire career. And I hit her. I nailed it! She turned around and she was like, 'Yeah, you got me!'"

Reese's comments come after her co-star Nicole Kidman recently said Meryl Streep has "raised the bar" on the show.

She said: "Meryl is just amazing. To watch her do her craft - and it really is artistic craft - we all just went 'Can you believe it?'

"It raises the bar for everyone. I think she elevates the show. We have meaty really great scenes. It was fun watching her enthusiasm for work still.

"She has a fantastic character. It's grounded and it's based in something very, very real."