Why Reese Witherspoon Is Now a Bigger Deal Than Oprah
As Hollywood goes into reset mode, the veteran actress and Hello Sunshine impresario tells Emily Chang about her vision for a growing media empire.
Hello Sunshine founder Reese Witherspoon
Photographer: Alisha Jucevic
Reese Witherspoon doesn’t think her career would have been possible in today’s Hollywood. Since founding the production company Hello Sunshine in 2016, the actress has built a media powerhouse while remaining one of the world’s most recognizable stars. But with the rise of social media, artificial intelligence and the pressure on actors to cultivate a following on their own, Witherspoon sees a much trickier path for young performers.
“They have to be the producer, the director—they have to shoot their own videos. They have to market themselves. That’s not something that I understood when I was 20 years old,” Witherspoon said on The Circuit with Emily Chang. “It’s a different, challenging time…I just, I don’t think my career would be possible.”