Reese Witherspoon is taking a look back on that explicit scene from Fear that ultimately inspired her to become a catalyst for change in the industry.
During a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar, Reese spoke candidly about the formative experience on set, revealing that she didn't even agree to it.
Reese starred in the 1996 thriller Fear alongside Mark Wahlberg, and it follows 16-year-old Nicole (Reese), who begins a relationship with 23-year-old bad boy David (Mark). Nicole's fairy-tale romance quickly turned toxic when David became obsessive and abusive.
And the explicit scene in question involved Reese's character being fingered on a roller coaster by Mark's character. The scene has cemented itself in pop culture film history, but Reese admitted she remembers it for very different reasons.
since watching it i have not been able to get this scene from fear out of my head of mark wahlberg romantically finger-banging reese witherspoon on a roller coaster to a 90s indie rock cover of wild horses pic.twitter.com/oyme8OZWTm
“I didn’t have control over it," Reese told Harper's Bazaar. “It wasn’t explicit in the script that that’s what was going to happen."
"So that was something that I think the director thought of on his own and then asked me on set if I would do it, and I said no. It wasn’t a particularly great experience.”
Reese went on to reveal that she requested a stunt double for those below-the-waist scenes. This is just one of many experiences in her career that helped shape who she is today.
“I’m certainly not traumatized or anything by it, but it was formative,” Reese added. “It made me understand where my place was in the pecking order of filmmaking."
"I think it’s another one of those stories that made me want to be an agent for change and someone who maybe can be in a better leadership position to tell stories from a female perspective instead of from the male gaze.”
And that's exactly what she's continued to do! The Oscar Award–winning actor and Hello Sunshine founder has gone on to star in and produce female-centered projects, including but not limited to Gone Girl, Big Little Lies, Daisy Jones & the Six, and The Last Thing He Told Me.
To learn more about Reese, be sure to check out her full interview with Harper's Bazaar.
