Reese Witherspoon as Hillary Clinton in a movie would be pretty amazing, wouldn't it? It's the reason why the actress and producer gets asked to step into the role of the first-lady-turned-politician often. When asked at the Produced By conference in Los Angeles, Witherspoon joked that she's already played Clinton — as Tracy Flick in the acclaimed 1999 movie Election, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I've actually been asked to play Hilary Clinton a couple of times," she said. "But didn't I play her already? When I did meet Hilary Clinton she said, 'Everybody talks to me about Tracy Flick in Election, all the time.'"
The role as the overachieving and scheming high school politico Tracy earned Witherspoon several honors, including her first Golden Globe nomination. It's hilarious to know that even 16 years later, Tracy's legacy lives on.
All joking aside, playing Tracy was a great role for Witherspoon and no doubt playing Hillary would be an amazing part for the actress as well. Right now, she's focused on creating films with more strong parts for women, that have women in the center of the movie, but that are also not just for women. Witherspoon partnered with producer Bruna Papandrea and together they created the production company Pacific Standard, which focuses on just that. So far, the pair have produced Wild and Gone Girl, both 2014 films that received critical acclaim.
“Women make up 50 percent of the population, so we should make up 50 percent of the [roles and stories] in movies," Witherspoon said at the conference. “It’s not a crazy thought, it’s just a representation of reality." She added that she decided to take on the producing role three years ago, when she was reading scripts and realizing that there were less and less good roles for actresses and less movies for women. Her husband Jim Toth, an agent, had suggested to her to start optioning books and making her own movies.
So far, it's worked out for Witherspoon and Papandrea, but not without some struggle. Gone Girl, a best-selling novel, wasn't exactly an easy sell to studios. "We sent the book to every studio, and nobody read it. And then it went to No. 1. And they all scrambled," Witherspoon said.
As for the future, Witherspoon said that Pacific Standard will focus on making films that have awesome roles for women. "We are looking for great female parts," she said at the conference. "If she’s the girlfriend or the wife, probably don’t send it to us."
While Tracy Flick was one of Witherspoon's great roles, I love that she's all about finding other great roles for women everywhere.
Images: Giphy (2)
