Sofia Vergara (left) and Reese Witherspoon play a drug witness and a police officer in Hot Pursuit. Photo / AP
Reese Witherspoon teams up with Modern Family's Sofia Vergara in a female-led caper that breaks the Hollywood mould.
Sofia Vergara walks into the room, stops and looks back.
"Where is she?" the statuesque beauty, in a burgundy, figure-hugging knee-length dress shouts in her thick Colombian accent.
A familiar voice down the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel hallway answers. "I'm with my child," the squeaky voice, unsuccessfully trying to match Vergara's fire, shouts back.
It feels like a scene from a
Modern Family
episode, with Vergara's demanding, impatient, princess character Gloria giving husband Jay, played by Ed O'Neil, a hard time.
But this time the squeaky cutie pie isn't long-suffering Jay, but Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon.
Witherspoon is with 12-year-old son Deacon, who tagged along for the day as his famous mum and Vergara did interviews in the hotel for their new big screen comedy, Hot Pursuit.
In the movie Witherspoon plays police officer Rose Cooper, a stickler for the rules who has to escort Daniella Riva (Vergara), the wife of a Colombian drug cartel informant, to court to testify against his boss. Not surprisingly, the trip doesn't go well.
The 156cm tall Cooper, in her flat police-issue shoes, has to protect Riva, over 180cm in her high heels, from assassins and crooked cops.
Witherspoon, with her producing partner Bruna Papandrea, came up with the idea of the female buddy comedy as part of their plan to change the way Hollywood makes movies for women. They set up film production firm Pacific Standard after Witherspoon, three years ago, watched six talented actresses compete for a "terrible part in a movie".
Pacific Standard has also been behind Oscar-nominated dramas Wild and Gone Girl.
"I thought we'd be funny in a movie together," Witherspoon, 39, says of the decision to reach out to Vergara.
"She's tall, Latin and sexy and I'm short, white and American."
Vergara, 42, said the idea of a Hollywood comedy with two female leads captured her interest.
"There's scripts with two girls who try to get the guy, trick a guy or get married," Vergara says. "This movie has nothing to do with that. It's two women who are just trying to survive and do what they have to do."
Vergara has found herself typecast as the Latin bombshell but isn't concerned. "I'm trapped in this body so I can't do anything else."
What: Hot Pursuit
When: Opens today
- AAP
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