This makes Reese Witherspoon the richest actress in America
Everyone has a favorite actress. You know, that actress who makes you happy just by seeing her name in the credits. Reese Witherspoon is one of those for me. And no, not just because of her role as pink power lawyer Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. Reese is a powerhouse herself. Why? Because she juggles a lot of balls and also makes a lot of money doing it. She does this as an actress, mother, boss of a clothing brand, book club, and a production company. Curious how she does this and how it made her the richest actress in America? Scroll on.
Yes, it's true: Reese is the richest actress in America. And she had to climb many ladders and break many glass ceilings to get there.
In the producer's chair
After the huge success of Legally Blonde in 2001, it was inevitable that a sequel would come. Part two was not just a new acting job for her, but also her first introduction to producing. Because yes: who knows Elle Woods better than the actress who played her? No one. Reese enjoyed producing so much that she started to focus more on the other side of her work. She took fewer roles and dove into the studios. A few years later, she was sure and put on the wrong loafers: she wanted her own production company, Hello Sunshine. And not just any production house, but one with a feminist undertone. She told Glamour: “Men move up the ranks because they have ‘potential’, but women? They have to prove themselves while having children and not getting time off to run a household. Women are not hired for their potential, so that’s what we want to invest in. In more female potential.”
The actress, and now producer, realized that there was a market that was under-invested: book adaptations, female stories, and especially female writers. At Hello Sunshine, this was not a goal, but the standard. She combined her love for literature and film by giving female writers a chance to adapt their popular books into films. You know: the movie Gone Girl? And Game, for which Reese won an Oscar? That’s what she chose. Now, more than ten years later, this is her biggest source of income. By producing big stories like Big Little Lies, The Morning Show and Where the Crawdads Sing for major streaming platforms like Apple TV, HBO, and Sony, she knows how to attract the right clients. All those rights? She owns a large part of them. And that means: cash. The success was so great that Candle Media wanted to buy the company at all costs. That merger was successful: Reese sold her company for 900 million dollars and she still remains the one who holds the reins daily. If that’s not winning, then I don’t know what is.
No movies, but books
Besides acting and producing films and series, Reese loves to read books. On this platform, Reese shares which month features books where women are central. This started as a hobby, but it has now grown into a platform where other messages, a female perspective, feminism, and female writers are central. There’s a podcast and a blog where everything about books is shared.
Although that book club is of course a nice outlet, she also earns something from it. This book club has become her testing ground for her adaptations. She is right in the business of books that are popular with her direct target audience: women. She doesn’t need field research or a marketer to explain this to her. By being an expert herself, it saves her money and keeps her involved in the choices of what hits the theaters.
And she has another clothing brand. Obviously.
As if acting, producing, being a mother, and running an international book club isn’t enough, Miss Witherspoon has another source of income: her clothing brand Draper James. This started as a clothing line in 2015, with a nod to her southern roots. It is named after her grandmother Dorothea Draper and grandfather William James Witherspoon. I think that’s so cute. After almost ten years, in 2023, Reese sold a large portion of her clothing brand to Consortium Brand Partners, but just like with her production company, she remains a big face within the brand. So yes, earning that? She definitely does.
If there’s one thing you can learn from Reese Witherspoon, it’s that you shouldn’t wait for someone to give you a seat. Just build your own table and pursue your passions. This may sound very ‘inspirational’ now, but we could all use a bit of that, right?
