Reese Witherspoon Reflects on Importance of Strong Female-Driven Stories

The actress and producer developed her media company Hello Sunshine in 2016.

Reese Witherspoon.Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Years before Reese Witherspoon created her media company Hello Sunshine, she dreamed of a world that created space for female-driven stories.

In an Instagram reel she posted to her account on Feb. 28, the the 47-year-old actress-producer rewatched her 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards speech after taking home the honor of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.

“I think there are so many women who are the quiet, sort of silent, frequently unacknowledged center of so many people’s lives and I think I’m just really honored to bring her out of a certain shadow and into the light in this performance,” Witherspoon said 18 years ago.

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Present day Witherspoon then reflected upon how far she’s come in the last nearly two decades. “You know what’s strange is to think that like I said all of that then and I didn’t even know I was gonna do Hello Sunshine and I didn’t know that I was gonna make movies that had women at the center,” she stated of her media company, which was founded in 2016.

The Legally Blonde star is responsible for producing projects like The Morning Show, Big Little Lies and Tiny Beautiful Things.

“So many women like go their whole lives and like no one acknowledges them or like says ‘thank you’ and they do this incredible work,” she concluded. “Where they hold up the family and they work so hard and like no one ever says ‘you’re amazing’ or makes a movie about them. It doesn’t mean that their lives aren’t important.”