Reese Witherspoon on How Playing Cheryl Strayed in Wild Changed Her on a "Cellular Level"

If you've read Cheryl Strayed's book Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found or seen the 2014 movie adaptation of the #1 New York Times best-selling book, you know what a painful, emotional, and uplifting ride you're in for with this harrowing tale of a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone in her twenties a few years after her mother's death.

On the silver screen, Reese Witherspoon gave one of her most moving performances to date in her portrayal of Strayed on her soul-changing hike, earning an Academy Award nomination for her work. While the talented actor makes it look easy, a new interview conducted by fellow actor Tracee Ellis Ross from Interview Magazine reveals the great impact playing this part had on Witherspoon. So much so, that she even had to seek out a hypnotist before filming commenced.

"I had hypnosis, I was so scared. I was having panic attacks for three weeks before I started [filming Wild,]" she said in response to Ellis Ross' inquiry about what role has changed her the most in her career. Her fear of being alone on camera for so long really got to Witherspoon: "I hadn't ever been alone in scenes for days and days. There were probably 25 days of the shoot where I had no other actor opposite me. It was just me and a camera and a backpack. I was like, 'Is this going to be so boring?'" she said.

The book, too, moved Witherspoon to her core. "And Cheryl Strayed's book was so beautiful and sacred me because it spoke to me so deeply about how we as women have to save ourselves," she said. "There's no mother or father coming to save us. There's no spouse. I thought it was radical that at the end of the film, she ends up with no family, no money, no job, no partner, and she's happy."

While Witherspoon added that she doesn't know if she'll ever work that hard again in her career, she conceded that doing so "changed [her] on a cellular level."

We repeat, "cellular level" change. Given the times we've all been through this past year, we think that's all the convincing we need to go ahead and pick up Strayed's tome from our local bookstore or dust off our cover and get to reading.