An insult inspired Reese Witherspoon to create her own company
An insult inspired Reese Witherspoon to create her own company

An insult meant to drag Reese Witherspoon down actually inspired her to shatter a glass ceiling.

In a new “Vanity Fair” profile of the actress-turned- mogul, Witherspoon says she noticed in 2012 that a magazine dubbed her “washed up” at the age of 36.

The throwaway line was buried deep within a story about another star, but she couldn’t let it go.

She was so bothered by the snub, she teamed up with her talent-agent husband Jim Toth to create a production company called Hello Sunshine.

With a goal of generating better roles for actresses of all ages.

From there, the company launched the hit HBO show “Big Little Lies,” .

She used her leverage to convince the network to pay women on other shows as much as they were paying men.

“An actress came up to me at a party and said, ‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ I had no idea what she was talking about,” Witherspoon told Vanity Fair.

“[HBO] called her agent to rewrite her contract.

She was then paid twice as much as she had been”.

She stressed how important it is for women in Hollywood to share their pay rates to make sure studios are paying everyone equally