Reese Witherspoon is a huge movie star, but she plays a supporting role in Penelope. The film was produced by her company, Type A, so Witherspoon certainly had the option to play the title character. It was her choice to play the cool biker chick instead.
Witherspoon Talks Penelope
"I thought about it but I got busy with other commitments and the movie had to go forward," said Witherspoon. "We decided to cast it but I always knew I wanted to be in it in some capacity. It was kind of fun for me to get to play a smaller character and get to be a broad."
Those opportunities sometimes get taken for granted once the $20 million star vehicles start coming your way. "I carried the weight in other ways. Like, how are we going to get distribution and that kind of thing. It’s fun, it’s sort of very freeing to play a supporting character. Those are the kind of parts I came up playing, so it was kind of nice to return to that. I love those kinds of characters. Like Barbara Stanwyck, you don’t know if she’s going to kiss you or stab you in the neck. I love those kinds of characters."
Even for a small role, Witherspoon did proper research and preparation. "I found somebody I thought was kind of like her and I just kind of mimicked her. It was fun, yeah. I got to run around the streets of London on a Vespa. I got to wear the funny hair, just be ballsy, and funny."
That Vespa brought some difficulties too. That's where movie magic comes in. "It’s because I’m height challenged. My feet wouldn’t touch the ground on the Vespa. They tried to lower it as low as they possibly could and my feet still couldn’t touch the ground on the Vespa. We had to put it on a rig. Christina [Ricci] is pretty short too and she had to sit on the back. Somebody went off, so we had to rig it up, and do it good old movie style. I think that was it."
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