Reese is amongst a very star-studded line-up on the cover of this years Vanity Fair Hollywood issue, which has been released online today. Alongside her Big Little Lies co-star Nicole Kidman and A Wrinkle In Time co-star Oprah Winfrey, Reese is joined by Tom Hanks, Zendaya, Jessica Chastain, Claire Foy, Michael Shannon, Harrison Ford, Gal Gadot, Robert DeNiro, Michael B. Jordan and exiting Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter – what a line-up!! The issue consists of the fold-out cover photoshoot, and a small blurb on each star. Find the photos in our Gallery and Reese text snippet below:

• Vanity Fair – Hollywood Issue 2018
• 2018 – Session #001
• On the Set > Vanity Fair (2018)

The 2018 Vanity Fair Hollywood Portfolio: 12 Extraordinary Stars, One Momentous Year

A super-stellar lineup, including Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, and Reese Witherspoon—plus, one special cameo—took advantage of their downtime during the shoot of a historic V.F. cover.

In the quarter-century since Vanity Fair launched the Hollywood Issue, show business has changed in fundamental ways, as have magazines. But a star-studded, foldout cover remains a surefire thrill. This year’s portfolio goes inside the cover’s creation, which took place in L.A. and New York as Annie Leibovitz photographed 12 of film and TV’s most iconic actors—with a non-actor corralled for the shoot for his last V.F. hurrah.

The films and TV shows represented by the actors in this year’s Hollywood Portfolio—which for the first time offers a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot—took the #MeToo movement in stride, offering strong women in leading roles, as well as strong men supporting them. Here we have Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman summoning the women’s battle cry of Big Little Lies alongside Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the indispensable sidekick to The Post heroine Katharine Graham. There’s also Claire Foy and Gal Gadot, embodiments of their formidable characters, the Queen and Wonder Woman, and one possible future female president in the mix. Movies have always thrived on relevance, and this year’s cover stars don’t hesitate to make a statement about the times we’re living in and the changes that need to happen.

REESE WITHERSPOON, actor, producer.
39 films, including A Wrinkle in Time (2018); one Academy Award.

Fresh from the starting gate, Reese Witherspoon radiated poignant yearning in The Man in the Moon. Only 15 at the time, Witherspoon was a natural on-screen, but a lot of naturals turn unnatural with time; not our Reese. Her special gift is for clear carbonated comedy, most memorably as Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, whose bunny fluff conceals a snap-crackle-and-pop brain. Rom-coms aplenty followed, girded by dramatic triumphs: country madonna June Carter in Walk the Line and scary momster Madeline Martha Mackenzie in HBO’s smash mini-series Big Little Lies.

The 2018 Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue Cover Is Here

The Queen. Wonder Woman. Oprah. This year’s Hollywood cover features some of film and television’s most iconic and beloved women (and the roster of men—Han Solo, anyone?—isn’t too shabby, either). Unsurprisingly, managing to assemble the group of 13 cover stars for the ultra-glam, white-tie-and-shimmery-gown shoot was no simple feat.

Photographed in Los Angeles and New York by Annie Leibovitz, this year’s cover marks the last one in the 25-year tenure of Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. And yes, Carter—nestled between Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, and New York institution Robert De Niro—appears on the cover for the first time ever. “We wanted to celebrate all things Graydon on this cover,” V.F. creative director (fashion and style) Jessica Diehl explained. Said Annie Leibovitz, “In honor of Graydon, we went to the full white-tie . . . which is his style.”

Part of the fun of soaking up a Vanity Fair Hollywood cover is imagining what went on during the photo session. Who whispered to whom? Who made whom laugh? Who exchanged phone numbers and followed each other on Instagram the next day? This year, our Hollywood Portfolio is composed of photos from behind the scenes of the shoot. “It’s an insider look into the magic of what goes on at this special cover shoot,” said Jane Sarkin, V.F. features editor. “It’s always been a very closed set.” We get to see Tom Hanks crack up Oprah and Reese Witherspoon (perhaps pitching himself for an arc on the second season of Big Little Lies?). We get to see Nicole Kidman have her luminous hair touched up. (We always assumed cartoon bluebirds dressed and prepped Kidman, but apparently humans do it.) We get to see the charming De Niro having his collar adjusted, the ethereal Jessica Chastain awaiting the lens, and the serene Michael Shannon surveying the scene.

The selection of stars from a variety of age brackets also sets this year’s installment apart. “This is what is great about Hollywood,” V.F. executive West Coast editor Krista Smith said, “where you can have Michael B. Jordan, who’s 30, or Gal Gadot, who’s 32, or Harrison Ford, who is 75—all of them are totally relevant.” Zendaya, 21, expressed the excitement she felt, surrounded by so many legends on set: “I’m like this little kid. ‘Hey, I’m coming up.’ You know, it’s pretty cool. I just want to keep working and live up to the people I’m surrounded by.” Witherspoon—who has appeared on several V.F. Hollywood covers—reflected on what this means to an actor: “Being on the cover of Vanity Fair was just sort of this incredible moment that validated all that work. . . . You really feel it can give you the momentum that you need to push forward and to do great things.”

(Vanity Fair)