Reese Witherspoon’s performance in the 2005 film Walk The Line was unforgettable.
That was made abundantly clear by all of the awards that the actress raked in for portrayal of June Carter Cash. Witherspoon took home an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and was also recognized as Best Actress at the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes.
Reese – opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash – brought compelling emotion to the role of June Carter and captivated audiences. The movie still holds up to this day, and something that still jumps off the screen are the musical performances included in the film, which were actually performed by Phoenix and Witherspoon.
Though according to Reese, she never planned on actually singing June Carter’s parts when she signed the contract to join, as she told Conan O’Brien in an interview:
“I was a little bit hoodwinked there. They told me I had this job and I was going to be doing the acting part and play June Carter. Then, about two weeks after I signed all the contracts, the director called me up and said, ‘I want you to come to my house.’ I came to his house and he said, ‘Sing a little something for me.’ I was like, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Oh, because I’m going to have you record all her tracks.”
How about that for a curveball?
Looking back on it all these years later, as jarring as that revelation must have been, having Witherspoon and Phoenix actually sing as Johnny and June Carter gave a sense of authenticity to the movie. It was a great call by director James Mangold, but it didn’t go over well initially for Witherspoon:
“I freaked out because I’d never sung professionally before and, moreover, I have stage fright, terrible stage fright. I sweat, my knees sweat, my ears sweat, when I see more than 20 people, it makes me very nervous.”
Witherspoon went on to explain that after she hesitantly agreed to sing her parts, the actress paired up with her co-star on a long road of voice lessons and rehearsals. Reese suggested that she wasn’t much of a singer before she accepted the role, so vocally, she had to start from the ground floor:
“We did six months of voice lessons, and then we recorded an album over six months. That is a long time to rehearse for a movie. You usually rehearse for a week. And I got to learn how to sing basically. This man, Roger Love, taught me how to sing.”
My personal favorite moment of Reese’s interview with Conan was the story she told after elaborating on her extensive preparation for her role as June Carter Cash. After she had done another media appearance at Good Morning America, she found herself in quite the interesting situation.
I’ll let you read for yourself what went down, but it involved someone complimenting her singing, Garth Brooks and a jam-packed elevator:
“I was in the elevator with Garth Brooks. There’s like 12 people in the elevator and then there’s Garth Brooks – this big country music star. Someone across the elevator, across Garth Brooks to me, goes, ‘Reese! I heard you are such a good singer in the movie. You’re so good! I didn’t know you could sing.’ I kept looking at Garth like, ‘I can’t sing.’ I was so embarrassed.”
And hey, while we are on the subject, we might as well check out one of Reese Witherspoon’s performances, right?
I’m not the first person to do this (the movie came out almost 20 years ago), but it’s always fun to see how moments from the 2005 movie stacked up against actual Johnny and June Carter Cash duets:
“Jackson” by Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon
“Jackson” by Johnny & June Carter Cash