Reese Witherspoon: Walking her own line

Reese Witherspoon brings a vibrant energy to her portrayal of June Carter, and Joaquin Phoenix makes a very convincing Johnny Cash.

Reese Witherspoon is only 29 but seems older, perhaps because she has already spent 15 years in front of the cameras. She is unfailingly polite, charming and always friendly, but you wouldn't describe her as warm.

She gives the impression of being an intelligent woman who has learned from experience how to conduct interviews without giving too much away.

She has an aura of cool detachment. She named her production company Type A Films - she likes to be in control.

But the actress says her usual composure disintegrated when she agreed to play the part of June Carter Cash, the singer and wife of country music legend Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk The Line.

As a Southern girl, she grew up immersed in country music and says the mere thought of playing her role-model reduced her to tears.

But after the thrill of landing the coveted role, Witherspoon was convinced that she wouldn't make the grade. "I called my lawyers crying and and said, 'I'm not going to do it, can't you get me out of it?'

"It was terrifying, it scared me to death. I'd never played a real person before, so there was a lot of responsibility to represent her correctly. And the possibility of failure made me very insecure."

Witherspoon had no idea that director James Mangold expected her to sing - until she had signed on the dotted line. "I just assumed we were using their music and then he said, 'You're going to be learning to sing.'

You should've heard me in the beginning - it was really bad. It was the biggest professional challenge I have ever had and I said to him, 'Can't you just hire someone who sounds good? I'm not going to do it.'

"It was really overwhelming. Singing in front of thousands of people made me as nervous as thinking about childbirth. And learning to play the autoharp was even harder."

Mangold had faith that his star could do the job. Watching her perform in the movie, belting out Jackson and Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man, it is evident that the director's intuition was sound.

Witherspoon trained diligently with the film's music producer, T-Bone Burnett.

"Well, I got better and ultimately the experience boosts you out of your complacency," she says. "It's the kind of stuff that keeps you alive and keeps you thriving."

Her career was in good shape before Walk The Line. Thanks to the Legally Blonde films, she is enormously popular and gets paid $15 million a film. The only actresses who earn more are Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, and there are not many who have as much choice in the roles they're offered.

Nevertheless, she failed to convince critics that she was cut out to be a serious dramatic actress. Now they must eat their words: Witherspoon has just been nominated for a best-actress Oscar for her role in Walk The Line as Carter, having earlier walked away with a Golden Globe. She stars opposite Joaquin Phoenix, whose convincing performance as Johnny Cash has put him on the Oscar nominations list for best actor. To top it off, they've both been nominated for their singing.

Carter was a divorced mother and celebrated country music singer in her own right when she met Cash. He was already married but pursued her relentlessly for years.

Carter stood up to the American music legend, but also supported him through years of his addiction and depression. Witherspoon never met Carter, who died in 2003, four months before the death of her husband. But Carter had given Witherspoon her blessing.

"It was a wonderful role, because it was a very interesting time to be a woman in the 50s and 60s," Witherspoon says. "June Carter was still rooted in a time where it wasn't socially acceptable to have two different husbands, to get divorced, to be in love with the man you were working with, to have two children and be on the road with a load of men.

"She didn't try to comply with social convention and I think that made her a very modern women. I also think there was something appealing to the opposite sex about her no-nonsense attitude.

"Apparently a lot of men on the tour had it pretty bad for June, including Elvis Presley, which drove Johnny crazy."

Witherspoon brings a vibrant energy to her portrayal of the bubbly performer. There is also a physical transformation - she dyed her hair dark brown.

Witherspoon talks in a lilting Southern drawl. "I understand the history of country music because I grew up in Nashville. I related to June because she was a Southerner like me, you know. We're nice people. I send a lot of thank-you gifts and write a lot of cards.

"The South is a spiritual place," says Witherspoon, who is a regular churchgoer. "It's about the ritual of family togetherness and singing and storytelling. It's a community that takes care of people and they have a lot of respect and compassion."

"I think there are similarities between us. June was a woman trying to have a career and have children, like me. I have a lot of adult responsibilities, I'm not frivolous or carefree. And we both started working at a very young age." Witherspoon enrolled in drama classes when she was 7. She was soon modelling and appearing in TV shows.

Of her success she says: "I don't think it is just talent, I think I'm just lucky.

"I feel like I'm in such a rare position to get this far, as a woman in this business, getting challenging roles with great directors and co-stars. When I go home to see my family in Tennessee, my old friends will always say to me, 'You're a movie star, why did this happen to you?'

"And, you know, I have absolutely no idea why it happened to me," she smiles, tossing her blonde waves back from her face.

Witherspoon agrees that she has always had a steely determination and rigorous work ethic, unlike many other young actresses she knew who were preoccupied with fashion and boyfriends.

"You have to be focused and a little tough as a young woman, because people can overpower you. It takes a certain type of tenacious personality to deal with rejection. When I first came here, all I heard was, 'No, not right, not tall enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough.'

But I didn't care about their opinion because I'm stubborn."

Witherspoon won great reviews for her starring role in the witty satire Election (1999) then shot to fame as the perky Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2001), followed by Sweet Home Alabama. She starred in Vanity Fair (2004) and played a doctor in last year's comedy Just Like Heaven.

The sense of control and discipline extends to her personal life. She is married to actor Ryan Phillippe, and the couple have two children, Ava, 6, and Deacon, 2.

By the time we meet, at noon, Witherspoon has already been for a run, made breakfast, been to a meeting and taken the children to school - and arrives in Beverly Hills looking fresh and immaculate. Later she'll be cooking dinner, reading to her children - then reading scripts. She doesn't have a nanny because she likes to be a hands-on mother.

Witherspoon makes no apologies for being a working parent. Her parents both had demanding careers, Her father, John, is a doctor and her mother, Betty, was a nurse. "My mother was an inspiration - she had five jobs, and she had six different degrees. She was always doing something."

Witherspoon makes a convincing case that life is relatively routine. "Someone asked me the other day: 'Do you have a chef?' And I said: 'Yes, her name is Reese'. Ryan and I didn't grow up with money and I don't think we've changed.

"I don't feel I have a Hollywood marriage, I just have a marriage, there are good days and bad days. Our lives work as a family because I just pretend I'm not famous half the time. I just close my eyes and I don't look at people when I'm out with my children. I want my children to have my full attention.

"I love my work, I am so passionate about what I do as an actor, but there's something about playing with your kids and calming their fears at night, when it's dark, that makes you realise what life is really all about."

Her next project with Type A is Penelope. "It's a fairytale about a girl who has a pig-face. I play her quirky best friend."

Then she'll be in The Reckoning, a political drama set in Cambodia.

"I'd love to direct and I think it's only a matter of time," Witherspoon says. "And I'd like to do a Broadway musical."

Presumably she feels more confident in her vocals now. "When I'm with the children in the car. I sing really loud - and I think I'm a fantastic singer."

LOWDOWN

WHAT: Walk the Line, biopic of Johnny Cash's early years

CAST: Stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon - both Golden Globe winners, and Oscar nominees for their acting and singing performances as Cash and June Carter Cash in the film.

WHEN: Opens in cinemas on Thursday

- INDEPENDENT