Reese Witherspoon made headlines this week by revealing in an interview that a very famous, “serious, proper actress” stopped talking to her after she accidentally ruined their friendship by saying bawdy things about her while introducing her at a “classy” British awards ceremony.
But Witherspoon didn’t name the actress in the interview with People, which of course sent movie fans sleuthing through her career to theorize on the identity of the A-list thespian whom the “Legally Blonde” star so deeply offended. But before sharing fans’ conclusion, here is how Witherspoon set the actress hunt in motion:
“It literally haunts me,” Witherspoon said in a joint interview with Will Ferrell to promote their new romantic comedy, “You’re Cordially Invited,” according to People. The Oscar winner then responded to a question she had posed to Ferrell, asking whether he ever regretted saying something when he delivered a speech.
Witherspoon began: “So this friend of mine, who I didn’t really know that well, but she was a very serious, proper actress, she asked me to give her an award. But I had never been to this award ceremony, so I thought it was like a roast. So I got up, and I roasted her.”
Witherspoon revealed that the event was “British,” “elegant” and “classy” and that she got the tone completely wrong while cracking jokes in her speech. “I was like, ‘Remember the time we got laser hair removal?’”
For this and other crass remarks, Witherspoon said the unnamed actress stopped talking to her. “We’re not friends anymore. I’m not even kidding — we’re not friends anymore” she said with a laugh. “I think she doesn’t like me anymore. I thought it was so funny and it was just, I had the wrong audience. It was pretty bad. Yeah. Not even kidding, she doesn’t talk to me anymore. Oh well.”
So, with these clues, internet sleuths have come to believe that the actress, who supposedly no longer likes Witherspoon, is Kate Winslet, according to the Daily Mail and the gossip site JustJared.
That’s because Witherspoon once honored the “Titanic” star on stage at the BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards in November 2007. Winslet was receiving Artist of the Year award from the Los Angeles branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) — a little over a year before she’d receive the best actress Oscar for her performance in the 2008 film, “The Reader.”
Ten months before the BAFTA/LA ceremony, Witherspoon and Winslet seemed to be pretty friendly when they greeted each other at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards. But according to Witherspoon, that friendship ended when she gave her speech at the British awards event in November of that year.
Besides the quip about “laser hair removal,” what other apparently offending things did Witherspoon say about Winslet? A transcript of the speech was posted on a Witherspoon fan site in 2007.
“I always wanted to be a European movie star, wear giant sunglasses, elaborate neck scarves, smoke hand-rolled cigarettes, and have savoir faire and gravitas,” Witherspoon said, according to the transcript.
“Imagine my good fortune when Kate Winslet moved into my neighborhood, rang my door bell and said, ‘Dahling, Sam is off shooting, and I believe our children are the same age,” Witherspoon continued in a British accent. “Could they possibly have a play date and oh, by the way, it’s almost 9 o’clock and I’ve had nothing to do drink, do you have any wine?’”
Witherspoon then told the BAFTA audience that she admired Winslet’s “fearlessness,” as during a scene in the 2001 film “Iris,” when Winslet removed her clothes and jumped, naked, into a lake. “I thought, ‘Wow, I bet that lake is really cold.’ And then I thought, ‘Wow, There’s an actor without fear.’”
Witherspoon said she couldn’t tell her most personal stories about Winslet because “they’re all too bawdy or tawdry or drunken to tell,” including the “really funny thing that happened when they were both in their underwear,” according to the fan site.
So, according to fans, Witherspoon’s famous British actress ex-friend is Winslet. Then again, the two women appeared to patch up their differences enough to appear together at the 88th Academy Awards in 2016 to jointly introduce two films, “Bridge of Spies” and “Spotlight,” which were nominated that year for best picture.
The Daily Beast also reported that Witherspoon has presented awards to other actresses as well, including when she presented her “Big Little Lies” costar Nicole Kidman with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. During that presentation, she did an impression of Kidman’s Australian accent as Kidman watched from the crowd. Witherspoon also attended the BAFTAs in 2015 and 2023, where she walked the carpet with British actresses Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike and Felicity Jones.