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The poster for "Four Christmases" features Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Nothing unusual there - except that Witherspoon is standing on four gift-wrapped boxes. Four large boxes. No wonder, though, since she is 5-foot-2-inches and Vaughn is 6-foot-5.
"People are definitely surprised when they meet me," the 32-year-old actress says. "But I'm tall in my own mind. When you're short, you have to have a big personality. Gary Ross, who directed me in 'Pleasantville' (1998), called me 'Mighty Mite': 'You go get 'em, Mighty Mite!' I feel that I have the personality of a Yorkshire terrier."
Could be. Witherspoon's production company is called Type A Films, and "Four Christmases" director Seth Gordon says that the name fits.
"For sure she's a type A," Gordon says in a separate interview. "Reese is an incredibly strong lady with terrific opinions. She's very smart and very funny. Her size is not a factor. What matters are ideas, and she has great ones."
Since making her first film, "The Man in the Moon" (1991), when she was 14, Witherspoon has become one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Two years ago she won an Academy Award as best actress for playing June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line" (2005). Now she is returning to comedy in a role that should resonate with anybody who has a family.
"Four Christmases" is about the emotional upheavals that occur when parents and their adult children get together for the holidays. Witherspoon and Vaughn play a couple who have successfully avoided this situation, flying off to some exotic spot every December to enjoy each other's company. This year, however, the airport is fogged in and they are forced to attend four celebrations, one with each of their divorced parents.
"I don't know anyone who doesn't feel stressed about the holidays, especially this year," Witherspoon says by telephone from her Los Angeles home. "The good news is, I think we're getting back to what it's all about - not so much material things, but more family experiences. That, of course, is always fraught with its own anxieties.
"I've always been interested in the family dynamic," the actress continues. "How do people build their lives without dealing with that component? Then, when you really do have to go home and face your family, how does the person you're with deal with it? Holidays can be stressful, but they also can remind you how great it is to be part of a family that really loves you."
This holiday season Witherspoon will head for Nashville, where she grew up and her parents still live. Her father is a surgeon and her mother a professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University.
"I always have a good time back home in Tennessee," she says. "I always go to church. It was nice when my grandparents were around, but now it's hard because they're not."
Although Witherspoon never had to deal with multiple holiday celebrations, her children, 9-year-old Ava and 5-year-old Deacon, have that experience ahead of them. Neither she nor her ex-husband, actor Ryan Phillippe, has yet remarried. Witherspoon is now dating Jake Gyllenhaal, her co-star in "Rendition" (2007).
"The big tradition in my family is going to the movies on Christmas Day," she says. "We open the presents and then go. Because that was a big part of my upbringing, I'm hopefully providing entertainment that will keep people happy on Christmas Day."
One of the few comedies opening during the holidays, "Four Christmases" also provided fun on the set.
"When we were filming, we were laughing every day," Witherspoon recalls. "Vince Vaughn is the funniest person I've ever worked with. He's so funny I thought I'd pee in my pants. He and Jon Favreau play brothers, and they are really funny together."
What movie does she hope to see this Christmas?
" 'Revolutionary Road' with Kate Winslet," Witherspoon says promptly.
It's not surprising that the actress would pick a movie featuring a strong female performance. Witherspoon always has been attracted to such films, even in her teen years, and she continues to seek out roles that portray women as strong and tough, rather than passive.
"I've always been a champion of women in films," she says. "If I'm out there showing someone an image, I need to know that it's important and that I'm not projecting any negative things, unless it's to open people's eyes."
Witherspoon has made more than two dozen films, moving easily between comedy and drama. She played an overly aggressive student running for class president in "Election" (1999), a surprise choice to attend Harvard Law School in "Legally Blonde" (2001), a fashion designer who thought that she'd escaped her backwoods background in "Sweet Home Alabama" (2002) and the conniving Becky Sharp in "Vanity Fair" (2004).
Next March she'll be heard voicing a female superhero in the animated 3-D "Monsters vs. Aliens."
"I play the 49-foot woman," she says. "All these B-movie characters are kept in a secret government prison, but they have to be released because aliens have come to the planet to try and destroy humanity. We're this motley crew of fighters who battle the aliens to get them off our planet."
Witherspoon developed her feminist outlook at an all-girl high school, Harpeth Hall, in Nashville.
"We studied a lot of women's literature," she says, "and we had programs to get girls out in the world, to show them that they could have higher-paying, more powerful jobs."
Her own interests lay in the arts. Her great-uncle had been a New York stage actor and her grandfather a singer, and at 7 she decided she'd try performing.
"As a whim," she says with a laugh. "Maybe it was my overwhelming urge to have all the attention in the world!"
At first she tried modeling and commercials, but at 11 she went to an open call for Robert Mulligan's "The Man in the Moon" (1991), hoping to get cast as an extra. Instead she won a leading role. The film became a critical success, and Witherspoon was suddenly in demand.
Still in high school, she starred in Diane Keaton's "Wildflower" (1991) and took supporting roles in "A Far Off Place" (1993) and "Jack the Bear" (1993). She was tempted to quit her studies and move to Hollywood, but her mother convinced her to graduate and go to college first.
Witherspoon lasted one year at Stanford University before dropping out to make "Twilight" (1998), in which she worked with Paul Newman.
"I like making bold decisions and putting myself out to dangle in the wind," she says. "Sometimes it pays off. You have to take charge and challenge yourself. You have to be driven and ambitious to become the person you want to be.
"Everyone will tell you, 'That's not possible, that's too difficult,' " Witherspoon concludes. "My response is, 'All right, I'll show you!' "
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