Reese Witherspoon: mom as monster Actress' kids loved new film 'Monsters vs. Aliens'

Reese Witherspoon's kids are at that age - the one where they discover a movie they like and proceed to watch it over and over and over again.

Her daughter, Ava, 9, and son, Deacon, 5, don't get bored of their favorites and don't find themselves satisfied with a third viewing. They just get excited to watch it again.

So it's no surprise that the Oscar winner, 33, is particularly concerned with the quality of children's entertainment, choosing to work back to back on animated feature films.

"Obviously having two young children, it's nice to be able to go to the movie theater and have a film there that's OK for kids, but it also has some adult humor in it that kids won't necessarily catch," she says from her Los Angeles home. "It's great to do those movies, because I have to watch a lot of them."

The first of those movies to be released is Monsters vs. Aliens. In it, Witherspoon lends her voice to a would-be bride who is struck by an asteroid with radioactive material that turns her into a 49-foot woman renamed "Ginormica" by her government captors.

The film is intended to evoke early sci-fi flicks of the 1950s and '60s.

"I thought it was really cool because I had always liked those movies," she recalls. "My dad and I always used to sit up late watching them."

Witherspoon signed on to that movie and soon agreed to The Bear and the Bow, a Pixar film set for a 2011 release in which she gives voice to a mythical Scottish princess. The actress says she was attracted not only to the content of the films, but to the endeavor itself.

"It's a very different process," Witherspoon recalls. "I got into a sound booth probably once every couple months for three or four hours." And though it takes less time, she adds, it requires much more imagination. "There is nothing visually in front of you to inform the scene. And you don't have a full script in front of you, so you don't even know what's going to happen next. They kind of talk you through everything, and then you just go in there and play around with it."

"It's really difficult; you don't have a lot of actors around you to bounce off of," says Conrad Vernon, the film's co-director. Witherspoon "was great at ad-libbing and coming up with different things, but when you're in that booth and you're doing something funny and you don't hear anything but silence, it can be daunting."

Vernon says she was right for the part because she "has this very, very adorable voice. And to put that voice into a 49-foot, 11-inch-tall giant was a great contrast and fun to do."

Witherspoon did have a couple of hours in the sound studio with Paul Rudd, who plays her narcissistic fiance. The two will be reunited for her next project, a comedy directed by James. L. Brooks.

She saw Monsters vs. Aliens recently in a theater full of kids wearing 3-D glasses, her two among them. "They loved it," she reports.

So in that regard, at least, it's a Mom-mission accomplished.

Reese stands tall in 3-D

Reese Witherspoon voices Susan Murphy, aka Ginormica, in DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens.


Reese Witherspoon can’t be pigeonholed. In Freeway, her 1996 breakthrough film, she played a resourceful 15-year-old who’s been described as a “nearly illiterate firebug and serial shoplifter.” She was a bouncy but brainy sorority girl turned lawyer in two Legally Blonde films. And she won an Oscar as country singer June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. But she’s never before tried her hand at a character who’s 49 feet tall and strong enough to go head-to-head with a mountain-size alien invader. That’s the role she voices in the new DreamWorks animated 3-D extravaganza Monsters vs. Aliens. Witherspoon talked about fame, her Oscar and playing a character five-stories tall.

Q : You once said you would feel famous when you became a question on Jeopardy. You’ve now been a question on Jeopardy. So what do you think of fame?

A: It is all it’s cracked up to be. It’s fantastic. I highly recommend it. No (laughs), it has its drawbacks, but the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s better than digging a big ditch.

Q: Monsters vs. Aliens has a girl-power theme. Who are the women who’ve influenced you?

A: Diane Keaton. She’s done great things. Goldie Hawn is amazing. Judi Dench. Personally, my mother and my grandmother were really strong female influences in my life. I went to an all-girls high school and had a lot of great teachers. (There were) lots of great, strong Southern women around when I was growing up.

Q: Your production company is called Type A Films. And a few years ago, you said, “I spend a lot of time considering and planning my life and career.” Is that still the case?

A: Probably not as much so. I had this notion that you could control everything in your life, which I’ve been sadly stripped of. It’s actually a good thing to realize that the universe is pointing you in different directions all the time. Great stuff comes out of the unknown.

Q: You play a giantess in Monsters vs. Aliens, and you’re going to do Alexander Payne’s Downsizing, a satire about miniature people. Coincidence or part of the plan?

A: (Laughs.) The two are not linked in any capacity.

Q: How did your career change after winning the Oscar for Walk the Line?

A: It definitely opened a lot of opportunities to work with great directors, meet great writers and producers.

It changes how people think about you. It’s been great for me.

Q: You’ve performed in dramas and comedies. Do you have a preference?

A: It’s usually just the character (I would play), more than the script, if I can really see myself as that person or see some part of that person in my life or maybe in a friend. That helps me make the decision.

Q: You said in your Oscar acceptance speech that it was your “lifelong dream” to be a country singer. When are we going to hear your first record?

A: (Laughs.) I think you’ve heard it. It was called Walk the Line, and that will probably be my last as well. It was a really difficult experience, challenging in a good way. You watch American Idol and you say, “Oh, I can sing.” But until you really have to do it and learn how much technique goes into it, you can’t even really appreciate it. So I had this unique opportunity to work with the best of the best, coaches-wise, producers. And it’s good to cut out when you’re on the top there.

Walter Addiego writes for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Seth Rogen On Career Highs, Lindsay Lohan & 'Green Hornet'

Seth Rogen gives a goofy grin at the premiere of 'Monsters Vs. Aliens' in LA

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Seth Rogen is in high demand these days. The actor has three movies opening in 2009 - and even Lindsay Lohan is asking the "Monsters vs. Aliens" star to call her back.

Access Hollywood's Shaun Robinson caught up with the actor at the junket for his new DreamWorks animated movie, where Seth talked about his career explosion.

"A lot of people would say your career right now is on fire," Shaun told Seth.

"Ya maybe. We'll see... It's going pretty good. I'm very thankful," he said.

Though he might be landing role after role, according to Seth, he can still lead a fairly normal life unlike a lot of Hollywood's elite.

"I can go everywhere without getting recognized," he explained. "You know, people don't really [recognize me.]"

And that is mainly due to his recent break up, which fans may not know about, the actor joked.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Apatow Gang -- Ferrell, Rogen & The Rest

"Ever since me and John Mayer stopped dating, the floods of paparazzi stopped following me around so," he laughed. "So, that was a good move I think."

Seth also cleared up a report that Lindsay Lohan had been calling him about a possible project together.

"I actually asked my agents and, no. No one [from Lindsay's camp] has tried to contact us." Seth told Access. "I would call her back. If it was a work-related thing then why not, you know?"

Seth might not be getting calls from Lindsay, but he's being called upon to play a super hero in the upcoming "Green Hornet" movie.

"Yeah it's happening. Were making it," Seth said. "Michel Gondry is directing it, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,' he's a great guy. He's a true visual genius. And it's exciting. We're going to make it. It's happening!"