Reese Witherspoon Says Her New VOD Channel Is Dedicated to ‘Female Storytelling’

By Marc Malkin

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Reese Witherspoon really is sunshine personified.

The Oscar winner was all smiles and full of energy Monday night at the launch of her media company Hello Sunshine’s new AT&T Video on Demand channel on and DirectTV Now.

“You guys, I cannot believe it,” Witherspoon said on stage at NeueHouse Hollywood. “It’s so amazing to think that a year ago we were talking about this project and here we are with all of you and it’s actually happening. I turned on the TV the other day and there was a banner that had my face on it and it was like, ‘channel 1-1-1-3.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is really happening. This is so exciting.’”

The new VOD channel programming includes “Shine On with Reese,” a weekly series in which Witherspoon interviews other remarkable women. Guests include Dolly Parton, Ava DuVernay, Pink, poet Cleo Wade, journalist Elaine Welterworth, Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson, author and activist Glennon Doyle and her wife, Olympic gold medal soccer player Abby Wambach and Simone Askew, the first female First Captain at West Point.

“I said, ‘I really want to shine a light on other women,’” Witherspoon said. “We kind of talked about this idea of one person shining a light on someone and that person shining a light on someone else and creating this kind of collective glow.”

Another series is “Master the Mess,” a decluttering makeover show hosted by professional organizers Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. “They’re from The Home Edit and if you don’t follow them on Instagram, you should,” Witherspoon said. “They go in and just do incredible work and they transform people’s lives by cleaning out their lives — literally, emotionally and physically. They’re [also] hysterically funny.”

Also in attendance were 20 girls from the AT&T Filmmaker Lab, an eight-day filmmaker immersion program in Los Angeles.

“I want to thank everyone at AT&T for making this possible because when I pitched this idea of creating a channel that focused on female storytelling, they were all in — chips on the table,” the “Big Little Lies” star said. “They just got it immediately and have given us all their resources and time and attention and that’s what it takes to make something like this successful.”

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