Reese Witherspoon on Shooting for Men's Magazines, Women's Friendship and Ability to Be Funny

Reese Witherspoon covers the April issue of Vanity Fair. She posed for the cover in a luxurious pale pink dress with ruffles from Giambattista Valli.

Inside she gives a candid interview about growing up in the industry and explains why she’s glad she’s considered funny over sexy. The actress also shared, that early in her career, she faced sexual harassment and assault. "Bad things happened to me. I was assaulted, harassed. It wasn’t isolated. I recently had a journalist ask me about it. She said, Well, why didn’t you speak up sooner? And I thought, that’s so interesting to talk to someone who experienced those things and then judge them for the way they decide to speak about them. Social media has created a new way for people to express themselves that I didn’t have. That’s the great strength in power and numbers.”

Reese Witherspoon said that she never wanted to pose for men's magazines, to exploit her sexuality and build a career on it. "I always had a thing about exploiting sexuality,” she says. “When I came up in the business, there were all these men’s magazines we were told to cater to,” she says. “I was never in Maxim. I was never picked as a GQgirl, and I’m okay with that because that’s not how I wanted to be viewed. I always say, ‘Funny doesn’t sag.’ And you can’t be rendered obsolete if you just keep being funny. Guess what gets rendered obsolete? Your boobs go south, your face goes south, your ass goes south, but you can always be funny.”

The actress also noted that even in the cruel world of Hollywood, you can find real friends. She named her colleague Laura Dern her real sister “You know, you meet people, you’re friends with people, but I say about a few women in my life, they are my sisters. I don’t have a sister and I found my sister in Laura. No one makes me laugh like Laura. She’s magical.”