London Film Festival: Reese Witherspoon Discusses Kicking Stoves in ‘Wild’ and 2013 Arrest

Reese Witherspoon told reporters on Monday that her 2013 arrest for disorderly conduct may have revealed a side to her that many weren’t aware of.

“I think it was a moment where people realized that I wasn’t exactly what they thought I was,” she said at a press conference for the film Wild at the BFI London Film Festival. “I guess maybe we all like to define people by the way the media presents them, and I think that I showed I have a complexity that people didn’t know about. It’s part of human nature. I made a mistake. We all make mistakes. The best you can do is say sorry and learn from it and move on.”

The actress also revealed that scenes in Wild showing her character’s inexperience at camping were not always acted.

“When you see me putting together the tent, that’s literally me putting together the tent. It took me two hours. I could not figure out the f—ing tent,” she said. “And when I kicked the stove, it’s because I couldn’t make the f—ing stove work.”

Witherspoon admitted that she had hoped the rucksack she carried while filming Wild would be filled with newspapers, but director Jean-Marc Vallee had other ideas and wanted her to carry a heavy load.

“I got there on the day, and Jean-Marc said, ‘Actually, I think it would be better.’ And I said: ‘Are you joking?’ And he said, ‘No, I think it would be better’ and then just walked off. So I ended up carrying it the whole time. I’ve never been as strong as I was after that movie. I had a back problem.”

– THR