Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea
DIRECTOR: OK, action. Roll.
REESE WITHERSPOON: (SCREAMS)
JACKIE FRANK: When Reese Witherspoon went wild... ..she hiked America's scenic west coast. And there was only one person she wanted by her side for the journey.
REESE WITHERSPOON: I called my agent, I said, you know, "I really want to work with Bruna."
JACKIE FRANK: 'Bruna' is Aussie producer Bruna Papandrea, who just started her own Hollywood production company.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: I just decided that it was time to bet on myself. What's the worst thing that could happen? I've always been a bit of a risk-taker.
REESE WITHERSPOON: She's such an independent person. People love her. (LAUGHS) It's immediate. You just immediately love her. She's so warm and she's very caring and loving.
BEN AFFLECK: As you all know, my wife, Amy Elliot Dunne, disappeared three days ago.
JACKIE FRANK: That same year, another smash hit. This time, Reese wasn't the star - she worked with Bruna behind the scenes on the psychological thriller Gone Girl.
ROSAMUND PIKE: I am so much happier now that I'm dead - technically, missing... ..soon to be presumed dead.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: I'd loved Fatal Attraction. Movies like Malice. Old-style thrillers that were female-driven that we stopped making.
BEN AFFLECK: Yes, I loved you, and all we did was resent each other and try to control each other!
ROSAMUND PIKE: That's marriage.
JACKIE FRANK: The movie-making marriage between Reese and Bruna proved to be a perfect match. Gone Girl and Wild made half a billion dollars at the box office. They were two strong women making hit movies about strong women.
REESE WITHERSPOON: We set out to make films that had great roles for women, and to have Gone Girl and Wild all in the same season is extraordinary. We feel very blessed.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Yes. Totally concur. Like, really complicated, really strong female characters.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: It's proved to be, you know, an incredible partnership, because I definitely feel like we bring different things to it.
REESE WITHERSPOON: You know, there's so many people who TALK about getting movies made, and then there's people who actually do it, and she's what I call a doer.
JACKIE FRANK: What happens when you disagree? How do you resolve that?
REESE WITHERSPOON: Well, we fight.
JACKIE FRANK:
REESE WITHERSPOON: (LAUGHS) And we're the type of people that we're both really blunt. I'm from the South, she's from Australia. We don't mix messages. We just go right for each other. I'm like, "I don't like how you did this," and she's like, "Well, I don't like how you're talking to me!" "Well, I don't like when you did this!" (LAUGHS) But it's great, because it's completely open, it's completely honest, and then it's done.
JACKIE FRANK: Yeah.
REESE WITHERSPOON: And then probably we calm down about an hour later and I say, "I'm sorry I said those things, but I was feeling really mad." And she's like, "It's OK, but I really believe..." So we find resolution after it. I just travel with a posse. I can't leave my posse.
JACKIE FRANK: Working with an Aussie has widened Reese's circle of friends. She's embraced Hollywood's 'Aussie Posse'.
REESE WITHERSPOON: When I met Bruna, it's like I got welcomed into the Aussie family.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: The 'Aussie Posse'. It's so funny, you know, because I've lived in different countries around the world and I'm always like, "I'm gonna meet the English people, "I'm gonna meet Americans," and then I always just gravitate back to the Australians.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Between Bruna and Nicole and Naomi and Isla and all these Australians, I think we're all very similar. They're just funny. It's a great club to be part of. I'm so glad they let me in. I'm an honorary Aussie.
When the stars make you drool Just like pasta fazool # That's amore... #
BRUNA PAPANDREA: We're gonna make mini meatballs for the kids.
MARIA PAPANDREA: Yes, and big meatballs.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Mum, you're doing it by hand, not measuring.
MARIA PAPANDREA: I never measure.
JACKIE FRANK: Bruna's home is LA.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Tell me when to stop.
JACKIE FRANK: Mum Maria visits often to help out and cook for the grandkids, Roman and Avalon. She's also whipped up some home cooking for Reese.
MARIA PAPANDREA: A lot of people see movie stars as, you know, snobbish, but Reese is a really, really sweet girl. So I've cooked a few lasagnes, a few chickens schnitzels for her and I made her...a couple of Donna Hay's cheesecakes for her, which I've come to love and I do it very well.
MARIA PAPANDREA: Bruna, you wouldn't get on My Kitchen Rules with those meatballs. They should be all the same size.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: No. They look good.
MARIA PAPANDREA: Well, I would never imagine that my daughter or any of my children from Elizabeth go to Hollywood.
JACKIE FRZANK: And that's because Hollywood is a long way from here. It's the working-class industrial suburb of Elizabeth on the northern outskirts of Adelaide. Bruna has a brother and sister who are twins. In 1971, Maria was pregnant with another set of twins. Bruna was the first to be delivered.
MARIA PAPANDREA: Bruna was born and she was fine and then everything stopped, and... ..I was prepared for a C section, which I never got, and a few hours later, the other one was born, but I had her christened, I never saw her, and she was taken to the Adelaide Children's Hospital. I'm gonna cry. And... ..she died. Never got to see her.
JACKIE FRANK: From the beginning, Maria sensed a special strength in Bruna.
MARIA PAPANDREA: I always thought that she's got the strength of two people. I do believe that it comes from her twin.
JACKIE FRANK: Maria raised the children as a single mum...
MARIA PAPANDREA: I left Bruna's dad when Bruna was five months old, so I was on my own. ..and set about doing her very best with very little.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: We were an Italian family in a very English neighbourhood. So, that was kind of the toughest part, I think.
JACKIE FRANK: Did you feel like you didn't fit in?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Yeah, definitely. I think when I was younger, particularly with a name like Bruna, a name I hated when I was younger. I love it now, because it's, you know, a little bit more unique.
(CHILDREN SING)
JACKIE FRANK: Bruna's first experience of movie-making came when she was in high school.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: When I was 13, they made a documentary about the school I was at, and it was called Pop Movie. (CHILDREN SING BOISTEROUSLY) And I went to a school that kind of had... We put on musical productions, and of course, I was part of that. My former...you know, wanting-to-be-an-actor days.
Don't you think I'm real? # Everybody is always picking on me. #
ACTOR: You people have the talent...
JACKIE FRANK: It was the start of what would become Bruna's brilliant career.
ACTORS: Go! (SCREAMS)
JACKIE FRANK: Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Reese was getting her first taste of stardom.
ACTOR: Have you ever been kissed before?
REESE WITHERSPOON: I'm not a little girl.
ACTOR: You are too, Dani. You're a little girl and you don't know what you're doing.
JACKIE FRANK: Unlike Bruna, Reese had a middle-class upbringing - her father a surgeon, her mother a college professor. They encouraged her to pursue her acting dreams.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Thanks for inviting me, girls. This party is super fun.
SELMA BLAIR: Nice outfit. (LAUGHS)
REESE WITHERSPOON: Oh, I like your outfit too, except when I dress up as a frigid bitch, I try not to look so constipated.
JACKIE FRANK: She was 25 when she starred as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
REESE WITHERSPOON: (GASPS) I think I dropped something on the floor that I need to pick up. So you bend... ..and snap! See?
JACKIE FRANK: Virtually overnight, Reese Witherspoon became a household name and the next big thing in Hollywood.
# You're going to Jackson (CROWD CHEERS WILDLY) # Go comb your hair # See if I care... #
JACKIE FRANK: As June Carter in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, Reese showed her range and talent as an actor.
PRESENTER: And the Oscar goes to... Reese Witherspoon, Walk The line.
JACKIE FRANK: Winning the Oscar meant Reese had a chance to star in the best movies being made in Hollywood. But to her surprise, there were hardly any strong female roles.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Never thought I'd be here in my whole life, growing up in Tennessee.
REESE WITHERSPOON: I started noticing that the female roles that were coming to me were just... ..I mean, frankly, terrible. They were so one-note. They were usually the wife or the girlfriend of some famous actor and it just started to diminish.
REESE WITHERSPOON: OK, you can do this. You are a confident woman who can deal with conflict.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: She went round to the studios and said, "Well, what scripts are you developing for women?" and there were almost none.
REESE WITHERSPOON: But if you knew anything about women or anything about me, you'd know that I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own movies. And so I thought, "Well, what if I just develop them myself?" You know, I know...I've over 25 years of being in this business, I know exactly what audiences like. I know...um... I know what I want to be in. I know what my friends who are other actresses want to be in. So I thought it would be worthwhile to just buy some books. My husband said, "You read more than anybody, honey. "Why don't you just buy some of these books?"
JACKIE FRANK: I believe you're both voracious readers.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Yeah. Although, she's... I mean, I'm pretty voracious. Let's say she's more voracious than me. (LAUGHS)
REESE WITHERSPOON: I'm actually surprised how many people don't read books. There are so many people. People don't even read the script!
JACKIE FRANK: Five years ago, Bruna and Reese met at a party and their shared love of reading established their first connection.
REESE WITHERSPOON: The first book I bought was Wild, and I gave it to Bruna and I said, "What do you think about coming to produce it with me?" And she read it and she called me and she said, "This is amazing "and I really want to make this movie." She's like, "I'm not sure I want to be in a production company with you, "but I want to make this movie."
JACKIE FRANK: You actually played hard to get.
BRUNA PAPANDRA: I did play hard to get. She would tell you that I was very hard to get.
REESE WITHERSPOON: We kind of did a dating thing where she wasn't sure for a little while and then finally she called me and she said, "OK, I'll try. "I'll try and have a production company with you."
DIRECTOR: Ready?
REESE WITHERSPOON: I'm an actor!
SOFIA VERGARA: (LAUGHS) I thought you were fixing it!
REESE WITHERSPOON: I'm a very serious actor!
JACKIE FRANK: Lately, Hollywood has been in hot pursuit of Bruna and Reese.
(GUNSHOTS)
JACKIE FRANK: They have dozens of film and TV projects in the works.
SOFIA VERGARA: What about my husband?
REESE WITHERSPOON: He's dead. (SCREAMS) (TYRES SCREECH)
JACKIE FRANK: Who's worse - actors, directors or studio bosses?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: That's hilarious. Um, I think it depends on every project.
JACKIE FRANK: Oh, come on!
BRUNA PAPANDREA: I love actors. I mean, I do love actors. I've always loved actors. Um... But you know, they're just... you know, they... By the very nature of being an actor, I think, you're a very kind of complicated person.
SUSIE PORTER: Nothing flirtatious. It was the furthest thing from my mind.
JACKIE FRANK: Bruna dabbled in acting but chose a career behind the camera, learning the trade through work experience and then as a producer.
SUSIE PORTER: So, how long are you here for?
DAVID WENHAM: Um, till Thursday.
SUSIE PORTER: Oh, right. Three days.
JACKIE FRANK: In 2000, she made her first movie, Better Than Sex. It starred David Wenham and Susie Porter.
JACKIE FRANK: Nominated for eight AFIs, your first movie. I mean, did you pinch yourself?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: It was a movie that got a lot of critical attention and went to film festivals, and it was really through those travels that the rest of my career got sparked.
JACKIE FRANK: It took her to New York and London, working alongside Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, then to Hollywood and a chance meeting with Reese. The birth of their film company in 2012 coincided with other very personal productions.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: I think a couple of months after we started the company, we were both pregnant. She was three months ahead of me. But we were both pregnant at the same time. Like, in the first year of the company. It was pretty crazy.
JACKIE FRANK: Oh, my God. How did you manage that? The two of you, pregnant?
REESE WITHERSPOON: Well, I think, you know, pregnant women get a lot of stuff done. There's that sense of you're incubating a human being but you're also trying to accomplish things, and in a way, we sort of incubated the company and brought it to life while we were having kids.
JACKIE FRANK: Reese has three children - Ava, Deacon, and the youngest, Tennessee, who was born during the year they started their company. Around the same time, Bruna gave birth to twins, just like her mum.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: My children actually are named for Australia. Avalon is my daughter's name, named after the beach, and Roman is my son, but Sydney is his middle name. And it's very important to me that they're connected to Australia.
STEVE HUTENSKY: Gonna be real Aussies.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: They are.
STEVE HUTENKSY: They're real Aussies. They've got their passports. They've got to swim.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: I don't know how to swim.
STEVE HUTENSKY: Well, you're the exception to the Australian rule.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: (LAUGHS)
JACKIE FRANK: Bruna's husband is American producer Steve Hutensky. Their own love story is one you couldn't script.
BRUNA PAPANDREA: So, we met and it was... there was a bit of chemistry. I was engaged to someone. He was engaged to someone. And that was it. We didn't see each other again for 10 years. But it was a very memorable moment.
JACKIE FRANK: For 10 years?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: 10 years.
JACKIE FRANK: When they met again, Bruna got her own Hollywood ending.
JACKIE FRANK: When you saw him, did your heart just skip?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Yeah. Yeah, I really did. It was, like, kind of crazy. It was like, "Oh, my God. "This is the person I'm supposed to be with." And I had to kiss a lot of frogs to get there, but... I don't think it's a coincidence that in the first three years of my children's lives have been the three most successful career years that I've had. Which is, you know... ..you don't necessarily think those two things go together, but I honestly think I make better decisions because of them. My time feels more valuable to me.
Shine bright like a diamond... #
JACKIE FRANK: Having children wasn't the only coincidence to happen for Reese and Bruna early in their partnership. Following their instincts, they'd purchased the movie rights to both Wild and Gone Girl BEFORE the books hit the shelves. They were right on the money.
REESE WITHERSPOON: By the way, they both hit number one on the bestsellers list the same day.
JACKIE FRANK: The same day?
REESE WITHERSPOON: I remember calling Bruna and going, "They're both big hits," and she's like, "I know. I'm so excited." I'm like, "No, but you understand what this means?" and she's like, "What?" I said, "Now we're gonna have to make them really good movies." I was like, "We can't just make an OK movie. "We have to make really good movies!" And she's like, "I know." I'm like, "That's so much pressure. She's like, "We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it." I was like, "OK."
BRUNA PAPANDREA: The fact that it happened kind of at the same time was, you know, a bit of a whirlwind and a happy, happy whirlwind.
JACKIE FRANK: The whirlwind and has taken Bruna far from where it all began.
You're beautiful Like diamonds in the sky... #
JACKIE FRANK: What do you miss about Australia?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Everything. I mean, like, you'll never meet another person who, like, loves Australia more than I do.
JACKIE FRANK: So, do you think you'll move back one day?
BRUNA PAPANDREA: Yeah, I definitely will. 100%. I mean, one day. I can't say it's gonna be tomorrow.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Bruna...wants to move the whole production company to Australia! But we're happy to be, sort of, bi-coastal for now.
JACKIE FRANK: For Reese, having Bruna close by is the best of both worlds.
REESE WITHERSPOON: Well, the Australians that I know that have done really well in Hollywood, I mean, they're so charismatic. You just want to spend time around them. They just sort of pull you in with their friendliness and their humour, but also they're just willing to take chances and a lot of risks that other actresses and actors don't take, and I think that's really... ..that courage, that sense of bravery is really attractive.
Shine bright like a diamond Shine bright like a diamond. #
