Reese Witherspoon: When I first came to LA all I heard was 'not tall enough ...
08.05.11
While filming the sweeping Depression-era drama Water for Elephants, Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon fell hopelessly in love. Not with her leading man, the devastatingly attractive Robert Pattinson – although she does describe the British Twilight star as ‘handsome, sweet, thoughtful and sensitive’ – but with her other, decidedly wrinkled, 9ft-tall co-star: Tai the 42-year-old elephant. It was, the actress tells me, love at first sight.
The director, Francis Lawrence, took Reese to the California elephant sanctuary Have Trunk Will Travel to meet Tai, who plays Rosie in this compelling love story set in an American circus, and she signed on for the film without a second thought.
‘I couldn’t say no,’ she says.
Reese shines as Marlena, the equestrian star of the Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a struggling but colourful circus. When Marlena’s horse has to be put down, the circus owner buys the elephant to pull in crowds and revive his ailing fortunes, taking on Robert’s character as Rosie’s keeper.
Source: Daily Mail