Reese Witherspoon is being candid about how she manages her demanding schedule and friendships.
The 47-year-old Legally Blonde actress shared personal details about how she builds her inner circle while speaking at a conference in Boston on Friday.
“Editing. Edit your friendships,” Witherspoon told NBC News Daily anchor Zinhle Essamuah at HubSpot’s annual INBOUND gathering.
“Everybody out there over 40 knows. If you aren’t adding to my life, get the heck outta my life. My grandma used to say people are radiators or drains. Stick with radiators,” the actress from The Morning Show said.
When asked how she has dealt with rejection, Witherspoon acknowledged that she first learned about it when she was “so young.”
She continued that she learned a very long time ago that other people’s perceptions of her are not of her concern since rejection was such an early part of her existence. It doesn’t matter what other people think of you because everyone will have an opinion.
Living on her own terms has liberated her, Witherspoon continued.
She does not really give a damn what others think. She’ll still carry out her duties. She is going to go out with a pal who nobody likes and date anybody she wants. One becomes liberated when one lets go of the sense that other people’s judgments are crushing or keeping one back. One is entirely at liberty, the Academy Award winner stated.
After 12 years of marriage, Witherspoon and Jim Toth reached a divorce settlement in August. Tennessee, age 10, is the son of the ex-couple. Along with her two children, Ava, 23, and Deacon, 19, the Walk the Line actress also has two children with her ex-husband, Ryan Phillippe.
It was the goal of Friday’s INBOUND conference to “focus on human connection to drive transformative growth, meaningful conversations, and actionable insights.” “Industry-spanning icons, marketing [and] sales leaders, wellness experts, and acclaimed authors” were among the attendees in Boston for the event.
Witherspoon discussed the lack of female-driven projects in Hollywood during her interview with Essamuah, which inspired her to “put my money where my mouth is” and “actually walk the walk” by founding the production firm that would become Hello Sunshine.
The 2016-founded media firm is the driving force behind shows including Truth Be Told, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Morning Show, and From Scratch.
“I was told not to put my own money in it several times by many, many advisors. I saw people who were taking money from studios, and I saw how watered down the product was. I saw that they were sitting on material that never got made,” Witherspoon explained of her decison to personally invest in her production company Hello Sunshine.
She continued, “And I thought if you were to function and do something differently, you have to think about it differently. And you have to capitalize it differently. So probably about a year and we had two of these three Oscar nominations, we had a television show that got done. And I couldn’t keep the lights on.”
Witherspoon gave Toth, 50, credit for helping her hone her strategy.
“I reworked the company concept and spoke to my spouse at the time and a business partner. We then proceeded to raise finance, which included a lot of money-related requests from individuals. “It was frightful,” she averred. “I would get up every day and do something to pursue my dream.”
On Friday, she also posted an Instagram summary.
“Boston! It was [a] wicked good time. Loved the duck tour, Dunkin’ cream pie specials, and the clam chowder,” she said in the caption of her photo from the conference on Friday.
