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01
After providing her own singing voice for Walk the Line 2005, several companies approached her to record music.
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02
She considers Wild 2014 to be her best film and her best performance.
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03
Shortly after she started acting, she auditioned for a role in Cape Fear 1991. She was supposed to meet Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese but at the time did not know who they were. On the plane, she talked to a man who raved about them, making her so nervous she blew the audition. The role went to Juliette Lewis.
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04
On September 7, 2011, she was hit by a car while jogging in Santa Monica, California. She was treated for minor injuries and received a quarter-inch scar on her forehead that she hides with her bangs.
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05
She was a gymnast for seven years.
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06
Her mother, Betty, has a Ph.D. in pediatric nursing and her father, John, is a surgeon.
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07
Reese is her mother’s maiden name.
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08
Among the guests at her wedding were Renée Zellweger, Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Alyssa Milano, Isla Fisher, Selma Blair, and Salma Hayek.
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09
She was 8 months pregnant with her son Tennessee when she completed filming Devil’s Knot 2013.
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10
She considers Meryl Streep’s performance in Sophie’s Choice 1982 the greatest female performance of all time and cites Streep as an influence.
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11
She has three children: daughter Ava Phillippe b. September 9, 1999 and son Deacon Phillippe b. October 23, 2003 with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and son Tennessee Toth b. September 27, 2012 with husband Jim Toth.
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12
Her best friends include Selma Blair, Chelsea Handler, and Renée Zellweger.
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13
Neither she nor her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe use their real first names; Reese’s first name is Laura, and Ryan’s first name is Matthew.
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14
She is one of 13 actresses to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Award, and SAG Award for the same performance. The others include Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Hudson, Kate Winslet, Mo’Nique, Natalie Portman, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Patricia Arquette, and Julianne Moore.
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15
As extra credit for a high school class, she worked as an office production assistant for the film Devil in a Blue Dress 1995. Director Carl Franklin paid homage by featuring Legally Blonde 2001 in his film Out of Time 2003.
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16
Her son Deacon is named after former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Deacon Phillippe, a distant relative of her ex-husband.
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17
She co-founded the film production company Pacific Standard with Australian partner Bruna Papandrea in 2012. The first books optioned were Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed.
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18
She auditioned for the role of Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins 2005, but Katie Holmes was cast instead.
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19
She has English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and distant Dutch ancestry. She is said to be a relative of John Witherspoon, a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence.
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20
She collects antique linens and is crazy about old embroidery.
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21
She is just 9 years younger than Laura Dern, who played her mother in Wild 2014.
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22
As a child, she appeared in her local Sunday paper modeling kids’ track suits and was paid $50 a day.
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23
She runs a production company called Type A Films with Debra Siegal.
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24
She was the first person to host Saturday Night Live after the September 11 terror attacks.
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25
She lived in Wiesbaden, Germany, as a young child.
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26
She is the second actress to win the best actress Oscar for portraying a female singer in a biography; the first was Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner’s Daughter 1980.
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27
Her performance as Tracy Flick in Election 1999 is ranked #45 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time 2006.
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28
She returned to work 8 months after giving birth to her son Deacon in order to begin filming Walk the Line 2005.
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29
Ryan Phillippe proposed to her in December 1998 while the couple vacationed at The Planter’s Inn in Charleston, South Carolina.
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30
She was in a relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal from January 2007 to November 2009 after meeting him on the set of Rendition 2007.
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31
She started children’s acting classes at a community college at age seven and was taking adult acting classes by age nine.
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32
Her daughter Ava Phillippe is named after her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe’s grandmother.
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33
She returned to work 4 months after giving birth to her daughter Ava to begin filming her guest appearance on Friends 1994.
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34
She played Robert Pattinson’s mother in Vanity Fair 2004, but his scene was cut. In Water for Elephants 2011, they play lovers.
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35
She performed the audiobook version of Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird. In Four Christmases 2008, she appears with Sissy Spacek, who performed the audiobook of To Kill a Mockingbird, and Robert Duvall, who played Boo Radley in the film.
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36
She was honored with the MTV Generation Award at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, the second female recipient after Sandra Bullock.
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37
Her wedding ring is an early 1990s Neil Lane Asscher-cut diamond, and there are only a few like it in the world.
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38
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2006 for playing June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. She had already played another Carter family member: Mother Maybelle Carter in her fourth grade play.
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39
She refused the lead roles in two horror movies: Scream 1996 and Urban Legend 1998.
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40
She married Jim Toth on March 26, 2011, in a marquee on her ranch in Ojai, California, wearing a custom Monique Lhuillier gown before 120 guests. Eighty white doves were released after the couple said I do.
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41
She revealed in the 84th Academy Awards montage that her favorite movie is Overboard 1987.
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42
The year she won her Oscar for Walk the Line 2005, her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe appeared in the movie that won Best Picture, Crash 2004.
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43
She majored in English Literature at Stanford University and was on leave from her studies as of 1996.
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44
She was a cheerleader in high school and a debutante.
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45
Steve Dontanville from the William Morris Agency is still her agent; they got together after The Man in the Moon 1991.
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46
Her favorite films include Splendor in the Grass 1961, Overboard 1987, The Impossible 2012, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa 2013, and The Grand Budapest Hotel 2014.
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47
On December 1, 2010, she was awarded the 2,425th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by James L. Brooks and James Mangold, accompanied by her children Ava and Deacon and boyfriend Jim Toth. The star is located at 6262 Hollywood Boulevard.
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48
She did her own singing in Walk the Line.
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49
She was considered for the role of Juliet in Romeo + Juliet 1996, which went to Claire Danes.
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50
The dress she wore at the Golden Globe Awards in 2006 was also worn by Kirsten Dunst at the Golden Globe Awards in 2003.
