If you're a rom-com lover, then there's a very good chance you've come across one of Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine productions. From Where The Crawdads Sing to Daisy Jones & The Six, Love in Fairhope, and The Morning Show, entertainment is a brighter place because of the Reese's Book Club founder.
“I’m not meant to be doing dark, heavy, intense, horror, gore, darkness movies," Reese said during this month's Hello Sunshine Shine Away event. "People like to see me do light movies, and I was like, 'OK. It doesn’t put you in the cool kids club a lot,' but I don’t care, I don’t want to be in the cool kids club. I want to make optimistic stuff that makes girls excited to be women in this world, because it is a wonderful thing to be a woman in this world.”
Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Hello Sunshine
At the Hello Sunshine event, Reese sat down with other women we love (namely Jennifer Garner and Mindy Kaling) to talk about work, continually striving to improve the industry. "We were always like minded about comedy or about philanthropy," Reese said during the panel. "These two women are two of the first people that I called when I did Hello Sunshine, I was like 'Will you work with me? How can we work together?'"
Aside from some podcasts that never got off the ground ("I was like, ‘What about this one where we just a watch a rom-com and drink wine? Is that a podcast or is that like a Friday night?'”), Mindy and Reese are working together for Legally Blonde 3, and we just saw Jennifer take a lead role in The Last Thing He Told Me.
Reese Witherspoon's joy — and the way she prioritizes female stories — is more than just her projects, and it spills out into the rest of her life. Hello Sunshine provides space for all kinds of women to come together in an environment that inspires them and makes them feel heard, seen, and safe. Jennifer Garner described the impact of Reese's role in the #TimesUp movement, and how she welcomed other actresses into her home.
"It was the first time I'd ever sat down with that many actresses in the same room that we weren't passing each other in an award show in big dresses, where we just sat," Jennifer said at the Shine Away event. "The place that started the change where that no longer can happen is Hello Sunshine. It's just true."
Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Hello Sunshine
But, just like her characters, Reese isn't afraid to show her vulnerability, and she also told the Shine Away event how much she's struggled with work-life balance. "I'm a person who fills my schedule with busyness, so that I feel less alone or less nervous or less unsettled," she said. "About a year ago, I was like, 'I was a robot and the robot broke.' I cried and cried."
Reese went on to share how a poem from Cleo Wade inspired her to recognize the importance of self care. “[The poem is] about the glue in people’s lives. And sometimes you are the glue in everybody’s life, whether it’s at work or being a mom or being a partner, but who is holding you together, you know? It’s really important to remember.”
It served as a good reminder to Reese (and to us, TBH) how important it is to take care of ourselves — and ask for help if you're not able to do so.
Let us know your go-to Hello Sunshine watch in the comments (it's Your Place or Mine for me!!), and check out our Facebook for more fun pop culture news!
Lead image by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Hello Sunshine
