Reese Witherspoon is "passionate about women having their own money".

Reese Witherspoon

Reese Witherspoon

The 42-year-old actress has become known for her work in helping to empower women through her production company Hello Sunshine - which aims to create parts for strong female leads - and says she's "passionate" about making sure women don't feel "afraid" to be successful.

She said: "There are just reasons I'm passionate about a lot of things, you know? I think there's a time and a place and there will be a moment when I can speak about it. But there's a reason I'm very passionate about women having their own money. I have a lot of friends and I have a lot of personal experiences with women feeling afraid and making life choices because they felt completely paralysed or in a stasis because they didn't know what to do financially. And you can't have liberation if you don't have that."

The 'Big Little Lies' star wants her production company to "put women at the centre of the story", because she's "sick" of seeing scripts which don't cater toward female stories.

She added: "The idea is to put women at the centre of the story. I was sick of making movies where I was the only female lead on the set. I was sick of seeing scripts where there was only one female role, badly written, and yet every actress in town wanted the part because there was nothing else."

And although she's passionate about empowering women, Reese admits she herself used to be scared to display her achievements, as she even used to "hide" the Oscar she won in 2006 for playing June Carter in 'Walk the Line'.

Speaking to Vogue magazine, she said: "I used to hide my Oscar but then I was like, 'Why shouldn't I put it out here in the living room?'"


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