Reese Witherspoon Wonders if Careers Like Hers and Jennifer Aniston’s Are ‘Possible Ever Again’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | April 15, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | April 15, 2024 |

In a promotional interview for the latest season of The Morning Show, Reese Witherspoon was asked about how Hollywood has changed in recent years.

“Streaming was like the biggest thing for three to four years, and there was a never-ending constant smash for content, and like literally we could sell anything,” she said. “What I’m seeing right now, I think from the buying and selling landscape of it, is that probably part of the strike was a reset for these studios that are not profitable—the streaming services—and an opportunity for them to resize, rework and cut costs.” In other words, she thinks the writers’ strike had a big impact and will have a lasting one on how much content is getting made.

“So, we’re going to probably see less stuff, which is probably good, right? It was just chaos. It was a flea market. We can slow down a little bit. But there’s going to be more intention around it, and it’s gonna be a little bit harder.”

She speaks not only as an actress but also as a producer via her company Hello Sunshine (she also executive produces The Morning Show), so, on the backend and sales side of things, she knows what she’s talking about. As far as the acting side, she wonders what the future will be.

“Are careers like ours possible ever again?” She asked, gesturing to her Morning Show co-star Jennifer Aniston. She implied that working with streamers meant not completely understanding ratings on a project: “Are there opportunities for people to really emerge as a star? How do you know with no data transparency? How do we even know if something did well or didn’t do well?”

Netflix is “pretty transparent” about the data she refers to, she said, but “other people [streamers] don’t. And it’s tough as an actor—how do you negotiate? How does a producer? How do you market? If you don’t know where you sit in a landscape, how do you value something?”

She explained that the data does exist; she just doesn’t have access to it, saying, “They don’t want you to have the advantage, and it’s tough.”

Aniston agreed but seemed to have less information about ratings and streaming and such. “We did start in this industry in a time when it was so glamorous and so fun, and [you would] just go on auditions and auditions and just hope that you get it. And if you get that Movie of the Week and then hope you get that little guest star on Quantum Leap,” she said. “When it was so simple, and now it is becoming so…it’s too much sometimes.”

As for the burgeoning threat of AI, Witherspoon was surprisingly optimistic.

“It’s here to stay, so just get used to it. And I think AI is not coming for your job; people who know how to use AI are coming for your job. So learn about it. It should be a tool upon which we lay our own creativity, our own humanity, and our own ethics. That’s just a whole conversation—for women and people of color and people who are othered sometimes in those developmental spaces really need to get in there…let’s not be scared of it, let’s dive in.”

So, in summation: Reese Witherspoon wants writers — especially female and BIPOC writers — to learn how to use AI to write primetime cable shows for her to star in.