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Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine, held its second annual Shine Away conference in Los Angeles.
The two-day event aimed to empower and connect women through panels, activations, and programming.
Witherspoon sat down with Laura Dern and Octavia Spencer for a heart-to-heart conversation.
Dern joked about seeking Witherspoon’s advice on everything, from her romantic life to career choices. “Basically, I run everything by Reese, from my romantic life all the way to what jobs I should do.”
Witherspoon reflected on her early days as a producer, starting Hello Sunshine at 34. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she admitted. However, she saw a need for change in the industry.
“I didn’t have time to look at the bigger macro, like, what is our business? How are they making money? Wait, why are there no parts for women? Wait, why am I not seeing any people of color behind the scenes?”
Despite initial fears, Witherspoon took a leap of faith. “It was scary because I didn’t know if I was going to get my money back. Every day I woke up thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m not gonna get my money back.’ But I would rather bet on myself and lose that money trying hard. I woke up every single day and I was like, ‘I am my own lottery ticket.'”
After the success of Big Little Lies, Witherspoon realised she needed help. “I had a moment right after Big Little Lies… I thought, OK well, Big Little Lies won all these Emmys and Wild and Gone Girl got all these Oscar nominations, and we made $600 million at the box office. I had four employees, and I couldn’t keep the lights on.”
Witherspoon brought on Sarah Harden as CEO, building an infrastructure and hiring executives. She emphasized the importance of supporting female creators.
“When there’s a show on Netflix or whatever, just push the ‘like’ button — You don’t know how important that ‘like’ button is. Just ‘like it,’ because that actually affects the salaries of the women who made it.”
Other notable attendees included Olivia Munn, Amanda Kloots, Heather McMahan, Diana Flores, Alex Morgan, and Candace Parker.
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