13 Best Reese Witherspoon Performances, Ranked

Published Oct 11, 2022

•

8:06pm

Reese Witherspoon is America’s sweetheart. She’s blonde, she’s feisty, she’s Southern, she’s fashionable. She’s also made a whole lot of movies (61 to be exact). Some were great, others were...not.

Here are 13 of Witherspoon’s best roles, ranked.

Paramount Pictures

1. Election (1999)

We pick Flick. You should, too.

MGM

2. The Man In The Moon (1991)

One hell of a debut film. Then again, how can you resist tragic young love on tractors?

20th Century Fox

3. Walk the Line (2005)

She won an Oscar for a reason.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

4. Wild (2014)

Again, she was nominated for an Oscar for a reason.

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/courtesy of HBO

5. Big Little Lies (2017)

Madeline Martha Mackenzie...need we say more?

Apple TV+

6. The Morning Show (2019)

After getting snubbed in 2020, Witherspoon received an Emmy nomination for this memorable role. #JusticeForBradleyJackson

MGM

7. Legally Blonde (2001)

“It has come to my attention that the maintenance staff is switching our toilet paper from Charmin...to generic. All those opposed to chafing, please say ‘Aye.’” Solid gold.

ERIN SIMKIN/HULU

8. Little Fires Everywhere (2020)

Another Emmys snub. But that doesn’t make us love her performance as Elena Richardson any less.

Buena Vista Pictures

9. Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

If only we could all go from getting engaged to the mayor’s son at Tiffany’s to opening a Soho boutique with your glass-blowing ex-husband.

Lionsgate

10. Mud (2012)

Girlfriend should ditch rom-coms more often, especially when Matthew McConaughey is involved as a weirdo fugitive.

Warner Bros. Pictures

11. Inherent Vice (2014)

Trippy as hell but any Reese/Joaquin Phoenix collab is always welcome.

New Line Cinema

12. Pleasantville (1998)

The film is about two high schoolers in the ’90s who are mysteriously transported to the suburban, idyllic 1950s that may or may not also hypnotize you. You know, the usual.

Walt Disney Studios

13. A Wrinkle In Time (2018)

With Mindy Kaling and Oprah Winfrey at her side, it was bound to be legendary.