Reese Witherspoon Says Ryan Phillippe’s Joke About Her Making More Money At The 2002 Oscars Was Not Planned

Catch Reese Witherspoon on the right day, and she might talk your ear off about herself. But catch her off guard, and you might find her totally speechless! Like when her then-husband Ryan Phillippe cracked a joke about her making more money than him when the two presented at the 2002 Academy Awards. All Reese could do was twist her face into an awkward smile while gasping nervously. And 18 years later, Reese has said she had no idea Ryan was going to publicly call her out as the biggest moneymaker in their marriage.

Reese, who would have been 26 at the time, and Ryan, who would have been 27, had been married for a little over two years when they presented at the 2002 Oscars. Right before announcing who won the Academy Award for Best Makeup (it went to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Ryan pops open the envelope, and Reese says, “Let me read it? Can I read it?“. Ryan then lets her do the honors, because according to him, “You make more than I do, go ahead.”

E! News says that Reese’s revelation about that paycheck joke happened on a recent episode of The HFPA in Conversation, during a conversation about money. Reese says she didn’t know what to say because Ryan’s comment wasn’t planned and he didn’t warn her about it ahead of time. And it was awkward because she doesn’t exactly love the stigma that can sometimes come from a woman making more money than her partner.

“You’re reminding me of that! I forgot that ever happened. But you’re right, he did say that, and no, it wasn’t scripted, and he didn’t tell me he was going to say that before it happened on air. So I was a little bit flummoxed in the moment, too.

There’s so few women that make a lot of money that sometimes they’re shamed for it, and sometimes they are expected to give more and do more and be more to others in the same position that, say, a male movie star would not be expected to. But I do think gender norms have changed quite a bit since that moment in 2000 or something.”

A few years after that moment at the Oscars, Reese says her daughter Ava Phillippe, then in the second grade, came home from school crying because kids were teasing her that her mom was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. Reese says she told her to never feel ashamed or embarrassed by a woman making money.

In 2002, when Ryan made that joke, Reese placed in the 10th spot of Forbes’ highest-earning actresses list. Ryan didn’t place on Forbes’ list that year. It was also the year after Reese made Legally Blonde, which was a massive hit. Ryan didn’t exactly have a Legally Blonde on his resume, so yeah, his comments might have come from a place of bitterness.

I wish that Reese would have been asked about it right after she and Ryan exited the stage. Like, what was Reese thinking as it was happening? You know what, the most likely answer is that she couldn’t come up with a witty comeback on stage because she was too busy calculating which bus Ryan would have to take to get home that night. A limo ride, courtesy of that Legally Blonde paycheck? After a comment like that? I don’t think so.

Pic: YouTube