Panic attacks, loneliness and hypnosis: Reese Witherspoon reveals the difficulties of filming 'Wild Soul'

Loneliness can be a tougher company than any other. Actress Reese Witherspoon discovered that when she shot between 2013 and 2014

, the adaptation of the book

(

, in the original), the best-selling author Cheryl Strayed. If for Strayed —who had lived it in the first person in addition to writing the story— it was hard to walk in almost complete solitude for almost 1,800 kilometers, going through all possible climates and moods, the challenge was not easy for the actress either. Now he has said that facing such a shoot caused him to have terrible panic attacks, which he managed to overcome only through hypnosis. But, in the end, she says, it became the film that moved her the most inside, that changed her the most.

It has been Witherspoon herself who has told it in an interview with the publication

, which has also been carried out by the actress Tracee Ellis Ross. "I was very afraid to do it, Tracee," confesses the actress about how it was the process of facing the film and its filming. “I underwent hypnosis, I was so scared. I had panic attacks for three weeks before I started [filming], ”he explained.

The most curious thing is that it was Reese Witherspoon herself who decided not only to enter that project, but to take it to the big screen and produce it herself. The star thought Strayed's story, set in 1995, could be a success, as it did: With a budget of $ 15 million, it grossed more than $ 52 worldwide, and garnered two Oscar nominations: for Laura. Dern for supporting actress and for Witherspoon herself for lead actress (although Julianne Moore eventually took it for

).

The film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, tells the real story of Cheryl Strayed, who after going through a stage of self-destruction, heroin addiction and personal and family problems, decides to walk the more than 1,700 kilometers of the route called the path of the ridge of the Pacific, on the west coast of the United States.

She does it alone, without any preparation, previous experience, help or almost money, on a journey that changes her and helps her heal.

In the end, the story was a real boost to Witherspoon's reputation as a producer but also as an actress.

Author Cheryl Strayed between actresses Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon at the premiere of 'Wild Soul' in Los Angeles, California in November 2014.Vince Flores / Vince Flores / startraksphoto.com / Cordon Press

A whole story of overcoming that, when the moment of truth, Witherspoon saw that it had several elements that were difficult to deal with, both in terms of the subject - that's why the actress preferred to produce it herself, she says, so as not to face the restrictions of the studies traditional - as well as the recording itself. "There was the issue of nudity, sex, the question of taking drugs ... But also being alone in front of the camera without more actors," she reflects. “I had never been shooting scenes alone for days and days. There were about 25 days of filming where I didn't have an actor in front of me. It was me, the camera and my backpack. It was like, 'Is this really going to be this boring?'

However, in the end it became more of a mental challenge than a bore. In fact, in 2014 he told the

media

that this had been “by far” the most difficult film of his life, also physically, where he repeated and repeated scenes carrying a backpack that weighed 30 kilos. “We literally wouldn't stop shooting in those remote locations. We didn't stop to eat, we just had

. We didn't stop to go to the bathroom. It sounds crazy, but it was amazing. It was a complete immersion, I have never felt so close to the team. We literally pushed each other up the mountains and we carried each other ”.

All this helped her to understand the adventure that the original protagonist of the book also lived. In fact, they became friends, and Strayed accompanied her to the 2015 Golden Globes, for which she was nominated. They posed together on the red carpet. “Cheryl Strayed's book became something precious and sacred to me, because it spoke to me deeply about how we can save ourselves, as women,” the actress recounted on

. “There is no mother or father who comes to save us. There is no spouse. I thought that was something radical at the end of the film, which ends without a family, without money, without a job, without a partner, and is happy ”. The interviewer replies: "It's something radical ...". She responds, "I don't know if I'll ever work this hard again, but it changed me down to a cellular level."