LOS ANGELES -- Despite reports of their behind-the-scenes clashes, Reese Witherspoon says she and Vince Vaughn can see eye to eye. At least when she has something to climb up on.

"The top of my head gets to his armpit ... I just drag my apple box with me and stand on it," the admittedly "height-challenged" 31-year-old was telling journalists during a recent press conference.

In Four Christmases, the 5-foot-2 Witherspoon and 6-foot-5 Vaughn play a couple who have to visit each of their divorced parents on Christmas Day.

Even though the movie won't be out until the holidays, much has already been printed and blogged about the duo's stylistically mismatched pairing: Witherspoon, the perky, hyper-professional Oscar winner whose company is branded Type-A Films; and Vaughn, the free-wheeling, ad-libbing motor-mouth. (Then again, maybe this amounts to a welcome diversion for Witherspoon, who is usually scrutinized over her divorce from Ryan Phillippe or current relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal.)

Whether the Vaughn-Witherspoon feud is real, imagined or exaggerated, she acknowledges her latest co-star's penchant for improvisation had taken some getting used to.

"I was scared to death the first day of filming. I was like, 'Oh no, he's going to say a million things and I'm not going to know what to say back.' His mind literally works so fast ... I can't keep up with him. I feel like I've been in Vince Vaughn training."

Part of her education? An expanded -- if unexpected -- vocabulary. "Sometimes I have to call my brother and ask him, 'Uh, what is a Connecticut waffle?' I'm sorry -- I still don't know what it is, so I'm sorry if I've offended anybody. Literally, it will be something I don't even know -- these words I've never heard of."

And ones that she probably won't hear again -- at least until the Four Christmases press junket.

In the meantime, a very different film has Witherspoon hitting the promotional circuit now. Opening Feb. 29, Penelope stars Christina Ricci, James McAvoy and Witherspoon who, as the film's producer, shepherded the self-described modern-day fable from script to screen. This included casting Ricci as a girl cursed with a pig's nose and McAvoy as the suitor who can break the centuries-old spell.

"She's fearless," Witherspoon says of Ricci. "She always plays a very intelligent woman, who's also very sharp and very witty. We grew up auditioning together. For years we were sitting in the waiting room, waiting to get cast or not cast. We made a friendship, so it was great to finally have the collaboration we had talked about for so many years."

More fortuitous was the involvement of McAvoy, now a hot commodity thanks to the Oscar-nominated romance Atonement. "At the time I didn't know who he was," Witherspoon says. "Of course now he's become this big movie star. I said to him, 'I got you when you were cheap.' It's never going to happen again."

Witherspoon cast herself in the minor but memorable part of a bike messenger after toying with the notion of playing the title character, snout and all. "It was fun to be a smaller character and to play a broad, and be ballsy and funny. I love those kinds of characters. You don't know if she's going to kiss you or stab you in the neck."

Was it also presumably a relief to not have to carry a movie herself?

"I carried the weight in other ways," Witherspoon says. "Like, 'How are we going to get distribution?' "

Polley's work inspires

If Reese Witherspoon ever directs a film, we'll all have Sarah Polley to thank. Or blame.

"I'm inching toward it. Be afraid, be very afraid," Witherspoon says of the distinct possibility she'll someday step behind the camera.

"Seeing Sarah Polley -- who I was auditioning for parts with and who I was on the cover of Vanity Fair with -- adapt the Alice Munro short story and direct Julie Christie maybe to an Oscar, that's really inspiring."

Polley is nominated for an Oscar this year for her screenplay for Away From Her. Whether the same accolades might await Witherspoon one day, only time will tell. Then again, it's not like she doesn't already have an Oscar.

"I considered making it into a door-knocker or a necklace," she says of the golden statuette she claimed for Walk The Line. "But neither one of those options was very practical. I just keep it in my living room."

In fact, she says little about how either her life or career has changed since she won for best actress.

"You just are who you are in life. You're just who you grew up being. You know, I still feel like I can barely afford an apartment sometimes ...

"I'm always choosing (films) based on where I am at life. The process of what I've gone through recently is always part of the decision. It's funny how you gravitate toward things you're trying to work out in your own life."

All this said, however, she knows all too well what a loss for the nominees it would have been if this year's Academy Awards hadn't happened because of the writers strike.

"I'm thrilled it's going ahead. You see all these great young people --Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, and you want them to have their moment."


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