Reese and Chelsea’s “War” Stories

In the action/romantic comedy This Means War, hotties Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are CIA studs who turn out to be dating the same woman, a product tester for a consumer magazine played by Reese Witherspoon. She likes them both and has to make a choice. The two guys, best buds, use every covert “spy-like” trick in the booth to mess up the other guy’s chances.

Reese’s best galpal in the movie is played by zany, funny Chelsea Handler who thinks Reese needs a guy and puts her raunchy profile up on a dating site. One guy bites, the other cute-meets her in a video rental store. Chelsea and Reese have been pals for quite a while. We’re getting the insider info from them in Beverly Hills. Both are tastefully decked out in black or black and white and wear little jewelry.

TeenHollywood: Chelsea, we understand they had to lose some of your jokes to get a PG-13 rating. Your director McG says that if you are asked about men or sex you have a very strong take. True?

Chelsea: I don’t feel like I’m being censored. I’m a troublemaker, everybody knows it. So it was bound to happen. [McG] egged me on. He had me say some very, very dirty things that even I thought were dirty.

TeenHollywood: You two were very convincing as best pals. You had met before, right?

Chelsea: Reese and I had met a few times; we really got to know each other over the film. We met for breakfast and she asked me if I would want to do this and of course, I wanted to because Reese always makes really good decisions with movies. So I figured if I was going to do one, it would be my best bet to do with her and we become great friends.

TeenHollywood: I assume it was a pleasant experience?

Chelsea: I learned a lot by working with her. And we actually had great chemistry immediately. And it was so much fun because she’s a professional, I am completely unprofessional. I have nothing prepared. We worked a lot and we improvised a lot and it was super fun and we’re good friends because of it, I think.

Reese: Well, I first met you at a party or maybe someone’s house. I was terrified of you but I thought you were brilliant. I think I said that to you. I said I loved your show.

Chelsea: No, she comes up to me and says “I love your show”. And I go, “You do?” Like, I didn’t think Reese Witherspoon watched my show.

Reese: I saw you on your show in an airport once and I literally was mesmerized. You’re just brilliant, an off the top of your head, comedic genius. But at the same time, being a person in the public eye, I was terrified of you and I think I told you that. And you said, “I’m just harmless!” So when it came around to ideas of who would play your character, McG pitched it first and I said, of course, Chelsea Handler is brilliant.

TeenHollywood: Did you rehearse a lot to make that chemistry flow or did you get a drink together after work?

Chelsea: We rehearsed after the movie was done. [laughs]. Then we started drinking together.

Reese: Then we started drinking a lot. [both are laughing]. We met probably like two years ago. I think what really endears you to Chelsea’s character is in the first scene that you really see her talk to me. I say, “Oh I think I’m going to move away, I feel really bad” and she says, “But I would miss you.” And it was so sweet and tender and she said it on the day and it’s like that’s how she is. She’s just a very loyal friend.

TeenHollywood: Cool. Reese, you do some action in this film. What was the paintball warfare scene like?

Reese: It was fun to shoot. Although it was hard going in on your first day shooting and I didn’t know Tom [Hardy] very well. That was our first day shooting and I had to shoot him in the crotch, which is a good ice breaker, it turns out.

TeenHollywood: Yeow, I’ll bet! Reese, you’ve kind of dropped the girl next door vibe you have in many of your films for more action and a sexy feel caught between two guys in this one. Talk about that.

Reese: Well, I was a single girl when I made the movie. This wasn’t a hard job to make. It was made very easy by McG’s enthusiasm by having two amazing men in this movie who are very talented actors, very funny in their own right, and obviously [working] with Chelsea who is….

Chelsea: A horrible influence on everyone.

Reese: [laughs]… uncontrollable and a genius [was easy].

Chelsea: This is kind of the opposite for us. In real life, she has children, she’s a mother and she’s married. And I’m single, so it was kind of fun playing opposite roles.

Reese: Yeah, we’re reversed.

Chelsea: I’m single and I sleep with a lot of men, so it’s perfect.

TeenHollywood: Reese, out of all the dates your character goes on, which was the most fun to shoot and why?

Reese: I think Tom would agree, the trapeze scene [Tom takes her character to a cool circus trapeze setting where they really… swing]. He practiced for at least a month ahead of time.

TeenHollywood: Was it something you wanted to do more or did you tell yourself that you’ll never do it again? Did you enjoy the physical stunts?

Reese: It was fun. I wished I could have done more. I kept saying to McG, “Give me the gun. Think of a scene where I could do the guns.”