Reese Witherspoon has recently released her first novel, Gone Before Goodbye, along with bestselling author Harlan Coben.
Set in a medical world, the Sweet Home Alabama actress said that her “biggest goal” for this book is “to make many little girls as possible want to be surgeons, as Elle Woods did for lawyers”.
Reese, who discussed her debut at Hello Sunshine panel in Los Angeles, told the audience that she had been “cooking up the story idea for two and a half years” but didn't realise how to go about writing a book.
Later, the Legally Blonde actress reached out to Harlan for this book.
“My entire career, my creative career, I kind of just stepped into other people’s visions,” continued the 49-year-old.
Reese noted that there “was already a vision, there was already a book, there was already a movie, there was already a director and I’d come in and play a part, and that’s what I thought I was going to do with this idea”.
However, The Morning Show star explained, “I thought, why don’t I be part of making the whole world? I know what I’m doing. I know how to structure things.”
“I know how to get from the beginning to the middle to the end. And so, it was a big leap for me,” added Reese.
Meanwhile, the Big Littles Lies actress disclosed that the female protagonist in the book, Maggie, was inspired by her own family. Her father and mother were in military when Reese was growing up.
The actress turned author recalled that she lived the first five years of her life on a military base in Germany.