Reese Witherspoon made her feature debut in "Man in the Moon." Starring opposite Sam Waterston, she earned wide critical acclaim as a 1950s tomboy who falls in love for the first time. She followed this performance with a sparkling performance in "Jack the Bear" as a 12-year-old hippy, circa 1970, opposite Danny DeVito and Gary Sinise. Next, Director Diane Keaton invited Witherspoon to play the lead role in the telefilm, "Wildflower, " with Patricia Arquette and Beau Bridges. She starred as a 1940s teenager whose sympathy and encouragement changes the life of an epileptic child. article continued below.....

Following her performance in the NBC Movie, "Desperate Choices: To Save My Child, " Witherspoon starred as Nonnie Parker in the Walt Disney motion-picture "A Far Off Place." In this film, she embarks on a voyage of self discovery, journeying across Africa's Kalahari Desert. To prepare for the role, she had to perfect the Bushman language by studying with a Matabele tribe.She also starred in the CBS mini-series, "Return to Lonesome Dove" as the salty Ferris Dunnegan with Jon Voight and Barbara Hershey.Afetr the great hit of the movie Fear (1996), Reese started to work in a lot of box-office hits, such as Pleasantville (1998) and Cruel Intentions (1999). Her most courageous part is yet to come: she will play Evelyn, the girlfriend of a crazed yuppie, in the horror American Psycho (2000), based on the polemic novel by Bret Easton Ellis.Reese Witherspoon is married to actor Ryan Phillippe and she recently had a baby.

• Reese Witherspoon was called to play the female lead in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) , but she refused the part.
• Majored in English Literature at Stanford University; on leave from her studies as of 1998
• Shortly after she started acting she had an audition for a role in "Cape Fear." She was supposed to meet with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorcese for the auditon, but at the time didn't really know who they were. On the plane she was talking to the man next to her about her audition, and the man started to rave to her about De Niro and Scorcese. This made her so nervous that she completely blew the audition and the role eventually went to Juliette Lewis.
• (9 September 1999) daughter Ava Elizabeth Phillippe born
• Reese refused the lead roles in two horror movies, they were Scream (1996) and Urban Legend (1998).
• Was stood up by her date for the high school prom. She went anyway, with her dad.
• Off-screen, major changes in Reese's personal life began with her twenty-first birthday party in 1997. Out of three hundred guests, one in particular stood out in her mind - fellow actor Ryan Phillippe. As he tells it, he wasn't even sure he was invited but went anyway for the free beer. They hit it off immediately, but Ryan had to leave the next day to begin filming for I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was weeks of letter-writing and phone-calling before they ever actually had their first date. Finally Reese made the decision to visit him in North Carolina and over a few days they got to know each other very well and have been together ever since. "He seemed so sincere and so not into himself. Too many young actors are so obsessed with themselves, it makes a relationship near impossible." They moved in together shortly afterwards and became engaged in December of 1998. On March 2, 1999, they announced their engagement and the fact that they were expecting a baby in Fall 1999
• Was considered for the role of Juliet in Romeo + Juliet (1996).
• Dated Chris O'Donnell
• One of her ancestors, John Witherspoon, signed the Declaration of Independence.
• At age 11 (in 1987) won the "Ten-State Talent Search"

• [on the break-up scene she had to do with Ryan Phillippe in Cruel Intentions (1999)]: "I literally beat him up when we had to do the breakup scene.We'd gotten so tired and we'd done the scene so many times. He was off camera giving me my lines and he started to ad lib - which is a bad thing when you're doing this kind of scene, and talking like, 'I never loved you! You're not attractive!' Terrible things. I got upset. I just hauled off and socked him in the face. And everybody in the crew was like 'Gasp! Can you believe she did that?' And I'm screaming my lines and I just yelled 'Get out!' And then he ran off and threw up in a stairwell. And I'm, like, sobbing, saying, 'I can't believe he said those things to me!'And the director came in and said 'Oh God, I can't believe it, that was so great! Can you do it again?'"
• [on being an actress]: "The joy we get as actors is out of transforming ourselves into something that's not necessarily anything true to ourselves. And it's a power - not being yourself, and being in the role; it's just like another prop." - Femme Fatales, February 1998
• [on having a baby]: "Obviously, this isn't the time in my life that I would have chosen to do this, but I feel like life gives you these challenges for a reason. I feel so happy and glad to be in the place that I am. I really feel blessed. This is something I need to face and take control of. " - ET Online, April 9, 1999
• [talking about her character in Election (1999)]: "I think that's a good point. You don't realize how lonely my character is until the third act; we had some really sad scenes where nobody would sign her yearbook. In one of the scenes Paul Metzler says, "Tracy, have a great summer, " and she's genuinely moved and then she looks in her yearbook, and it says the same thing. It's a theme in the movie. It's similar for actors."
• [talking about how she choose the films she will be in]: "I have a weird process, but the main thing is like this: I hear her voice in my head. There are a lot of wonderful scripts my agents can't believe I pass on, but I do because I can't hear the voice. It doesn't appeal to me then. I'm really careful. Unless I hear the voice, I can't do it."
• [talking about Ryan Phillippe]: "I'm lucky to find a person to share my life, and the best friend I'll ever have."
• [talking about motherhood and her baby]: "I feel good, I'm proud of Election and very proud of this [her child]. It couldn't be a better time. It's always the right time when it happens. You make it the right time."
• [talking about Pleasantville (1998)]: "We were thrilled for just the three nominations we got , but obviously it's a little sad. I went through so many press junkets with people saying they loved it. And Joan Allen was robbed but she can't get nominated every year. She's an inspiration for every young actress. She has that calm and reserve about herself and makes you think she appreciates the normal things of everyday. Then she transforms into this character that's so different."
• [about her life]: "Many people worry so much about managing their careers, but rarely spend half that much energy managing their LIVES. I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out." - Animalhouse.com, April 30, 1999
• [on life in general]: "I'm definitely happy with the way my career has gone, the success; but I even feel glad that I've experienced some failure in my life. That gives you perspective and humility about this business; it's good to realize that you're always just one movie away from not being in Vogue anymore." - Los Angeles Daily News, May 10, 1999.
• [talking about Ryan Phillippe]: "We corresponded through letters and phone conversations and really got to know each other on a more intellectual level. And I think that really built a really long-lasting bond so that when we finally did see each other, I think it was love at first sight. Or love at second sight. "-TV Guide Online, March 18, 1999
• "On the Internet, it says that I'm married. Some Psycho Santa has decided to tell the entire world that I'm married to him. I've never been married in my whole life." -- Reese Witherspoon to Dale Brasel in Detour Magazine, February 1998
• [talking about her film Election (1999)]:"There was a girl in junior high. She was so perfect. She had all the boyfriends and was the smartest girl in school. And she was rude to me! This is my little revenge. I'm doing her in Election."
• [talking about her upcoming film American Psycho (2000)]:"I had read the book and had a long discussion with Mary Harron (I) who's the director and screenwriter. To me it's a dark satire about male response to the sexual liberation of women in the early '80s. Women didn't need men, and that was a new thing to these men, who wore designer suits and had wonderful apartments. I think the story is about this man who responds to his inadequacies with the only control he can take, which is to put women in these horribly compromising positions. Mary has this wonderful black tone about it. I thought,
• "She'll pull this off." In addition to Christian Bale, it has Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Samantha Mathisand Chloë Sevigny."
• [talking about the movie business]: "The battles that we face in this business aren't financial, but they are moral. And I certainly think that the longer you can keep your values, and your morality intact, and keep your head on your shoulders about what is important at the end of the day, you can get the most out of this business and really emerge with something wonderful."
• [on Ryan Phillippe]: "It isn't always easy seeing your boyfriend like you know in a bathtub with some girl or kissing some other girl. Well I guess its part of the job."- E! News Daily, February 1999