Reese Witherspoon on parenting and romancing in 'Home Again': 'Being a mother doesn't make you a turnoff'
Hollywood all too often constrains actresses, pigeonholing them into conventional archetypes: Women as mothers or women seeking romance.
Reese Witherspoon acknowledges she has found a rarity with Home Again, a new romantic comedy in which she plays a 40-year-old newly single mother of two who begins a fling with a young filmmaker staying in her guest house.
“I think it’s a modern perspective that a woman in her 40s can be attractive to a 25-year-old guy,” Witherspoon, 41, told Yahoo Movies at the film’s Los Angeles press day. “Being a mother doesn’t immediately make you a turnoff. I think that’s sort of a fallacy. But if you never see that on film then you don’t think it’s possible, and it’s important.”
Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer (and produced by the first-time filmmaker’s mother, Nancy Meyers), Home Again stars Witherspoon as Alice, a woman struggling to fulfill her own career ambitions after moving her daughters from New York to L.A. following a split from her record-exec husband (Michael Sheen). On her 40th birthday, Alice befriends a trio of Hollywood newbies (Pico Alexander, Nat Wolff, and Jon Rudnitsky) and extends them an invite to crash at her place.
“I think a lot of people find themselves at a crossroads in life, particularly in their 40s, what am I going to do? What do I do next? Am I living the best version of my life?‘” Witherspoon said when asked what she found relatable about Alice. “‘Cause life is short, and you only get one of them.”
Home Again opens Sept. 8. Watch the trailer:
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