In 2001 Reese Witherspoon talked to the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press about playing Elle Wood in Legally Blonde directed by Richard Luketic.
“When I read the script, I thought that this really needed a director with a great visual style and sense of humor, and when I sat down with Robert Luketic, he was so charming and he had all these wonderful ideas about what to do with the visual side of the story.”
“I thought this was a great message for kids, in the sense that you see so many young women who are eighteen or college-age being so obsessed about relationships or one man in particular and not really exploring all of their options. This girl is ready to throw her whole life away to be this guy’s fiancée and wife, but when she learned that he was never going to appreciate who she really was, from that moment on, she was completely changed. She was driven and determined to be the person that she could be.”
“When girls don’t take math and science in college, it’s really a detriment to all of us, because nowadays women are really coming into such great political positions of power, that it’s really important to encourage young women to believe that they can succeed and that your whole life isn’t about your love relationships. It’s about being a well-rounded person and pushing yourself.”
“I understood about the stereotyping, because I’m from the South, from Tennessee, and a lot of people think you’re not very smart when you’re from the South because you talk funny. The challenge is overcoming
those doubts in your life so as they don’t hinder your success. Especially being an actress in Hollywood, you have to weather a lot of rejection in this business, people telling you you’re not tall enough or not sexy enough or not funny enough, and just show them that they’re wrong. It’s really important to push beyond those stereotypes and to believe in yourself.  You can’t be scared because someone tells you you can’t do it, we have to overcome our fears in order to be successful.”
“I am very conscious of how I’m portrayed, and when they try and slim you down in magazine images and all that sort of things, I try to be more representative of reality and how real women look, and rather than focusing on the superficial, on my outward appearance, I try and focus on my acting and really work on that.”
“I exercise, I eat right, but mainly I sustain my energy for a busy lifestyle. I try and take care of myself, to be good to myself and not beat myself up every day. There’s a lot of insecurity in this business and I certainly have my share of it, but I realize that it’s all going to be okay as long as you keep working hard, that you’ll still have a job in front of you. And I do, so I must be doing something right.”