Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission.

Reese Witherspoon says she feels like she ‘earned’ her grey hair and fine lines

‘I have a point of view because I’ve been on this planet for 43 years’

Friday 19 April 2019 12:59 BST

(Getty Images)

Reese Witherspoon has expressed her joy in ageing, saying that she feels she's "earned" her grey hair.

When asked by Allure magazine why she enjoys becoming older, the Oscar-winning actor stated that she feels her world views are more well-defined than they were during the early stages of her career.

"I have a point of view because I've been on this planet for 43 years, and I didn't feel the same way when I was 25," the Big Little Lies star said.

"I didn't have the same things to say. I'm 43 and I've had a whole bunch of experiences, and I can speak with a thoughtfulness about the changes I'd like to see in the world."

Witherspoon continued, explaining why she doesn't mind that her hair has started to grey.

"I just feel like I earned that grey hair and my fine lines. I like 'em. I so prefer 43 to 25," she said.

Witherspoon added that her long-time hairstylist Lorri Goddard refers to the actor's grey hairs as "hyper blondes".

Despite the progression that's been made in Hollywood in recent years to become more representative of different races, sexual orientations and ages, discrimination still prevails in Tinseltown.

In 2017, the University of south California conducted a study to investigate the ages of characters in films from 2014, 2015 and 2016 that were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Show all 12

1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Anne Hathaway

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

EPA

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Helen Mirren

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

Getty Images

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Emma Thompson

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

EPA

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Elizabeth Banks

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

PA

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Viola Davis

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

Getty Images

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Ellen Page

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

Getty Images

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Zoe Saldana

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Charlize Theron

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

According to the researchers, of the 1,256 speaking or named characters assessed, only 11.8 per cent were aged 60 or over.

In 2015, Witherspoon gave an empowering speech at Glamour's annual Women of the Year event, in which she called out ageism and sexism in Hollywood.

While praising Amy Schumer, Witherspoon joked that as she's five years the comedian's senior, "by Hollywood standards", she would likely be cast to play her grandmother.

The Legally Blonde star also defended films with female protagonists, saying that they are "not a public service project".

"They are a big-time, bottom line-enhancing money-making commodity," she stated.

The second series of Big Little Lies, the hit television show starring Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz and Shailene Woodley, is due to air on Sky Atlantic later this year.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies