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A truce has been declared along a frontline of the Cold War. After 18 months of secret
talks and an old fashioned exchange of captured spies, President Obama surprised the world,
on Wednesday, reestablishing relations with Cuba, in a deal guaranteed by the Vatican.
It happened because of accidents of history. A second-term president doesn't have to worry
about losing Florida. For the first time in 2,000 years, the pope is Latin American. And
the last Castro seems somewhat more inclined to evolution than revolution.
It's been half a century since communism staked a beachhead 90 miles from the United States,
half a century since the island was primed as the detonator in a countdown to nuclear
holocaust. Once, the world held its breath over Cuba. But when we arrived there, this
past week, we found a nation still waiting to exhale.
Havana is a city of antiques. An island in the flow of time. Wealthy societies spend
fortunes to recreate what comes naturally to poverty -- a living museum of old models
still running beyond their time; Chevy and Ford, Marx and Lenin.
Wednesday, it seemed to fit the pattern that news of change would come from a classic,
an 83-year-old dictator clothed in fatigue.
Even the music stopped at Havana's University of the Arts, where visiting teachers from
Chicago were interrupted so students could be told their future would not be the past.
A Cuban and an American clasped hands. Orbert Davis and Mark Ingram of the Chicago Jazz
Philharmonic just happened to catch the downbeat of history.
Orbert Davis: It was just a joyous occasion of experiencing change and something that
they've been hoping for, for a very long time.
Mark Ingram: And the cheering, some tears and, you know, just amazed and happy, not
knowing what really that means other than communication with the U.S.
Before now, communication sounded like this. Cultural exchanges have been permitted for
years. And, the Chicago musicians were here on one of those programs. We asked these young
Cuban performers what they would call their generation. One of them said, "How 'bout the
'window generation? Because now we can see the future."
Scott Pelley: Ernesto, how do you imagine your life will be different than that of your
parents?
Ernesto Lima: I don't imagine. I'm sure that it will be different. So it would be better.
So better. And Cuba will be going, a great place.
Scott Pelley: Give me some specifics of things that you think will change in Cuba.
Ernesto Lima: I think the economy. And this is important thing because we can get a better
instrument. We can get computers, Internet.
Scott Pelley: You'd like to be online?
Ernesto Lima: Yes. Yes.
Wendy Ora: It's another perspective.
Scott Pelley: Another perspective on the world if you're communicating with the United States.
Ernesto Lima: I think we will be more of close to the freedom that you always are talking
about your country, and the freedom that we want to make.
But "freedom," remains a distant dream. Among the government graffiti is the slogan, "socialism
or death," which could be read more as a warning than a call to patriotism. Stalin would be
comfortable behind the wheel of this 1950s autocracy, the last Big Brother model in the
West. Housing, medical care and education are all free. But look at what's missing from
this picture. This has to be the only harbor in the islands that has no boats. The government
restricts ownership because many Cubans would sail away.
Every neighborhood is organized under its own Committee for the Defense of the Revolution.
The CDR's hold neighborhood meetings and every Cuban has to attend. A lot of them hate that.
Because the government runs just about everything, 80 percent of the Cuban people are government
employees and they get paid pretty much the same. Somewhere between $20 and $50 a month,
it doesn't really matter much whether you're a street sweeper or an accountant. They also
get one of these. It's a food ration book. It covers things like eggs and milk and meat
and rice. The food that is purchased with these ration books is virtually free, but
it's supposed to last a month, and any Cuban will tell you, it lasts about 10 days.
Stomachs may grumble but not too loudly. Hector Maseda Gutierrez went to prison for criticizing
rations, pay and medical care. And yet he was willing to do it again with us.
Hector Maseda Gutierrez: I have always been and will always be faithful to the truth,
even if it harms me.
Scott Pelley: What is the truth that needs to be known?
Hector Maseda Gutierrez: What happens in Cuba every day, the way people suffer, the shortages,
the deprivations. The government simply does not care about what happens to the Cuban people;
it only cares about its own interests.
He's a man of extraordinary courage -- a nuclear engineer by training -- Maseda Gutierrez started
an opposition news service. He was jailed in 2003 in a roundup of 75 dissidents. His
wife led a protest movement that Cubans called "The Ladies in White." In 2011, Maseda Gutierrez
was released into her arms but eight months after this picture she was dead. It was a
sudden illness. And he will not forgive missing her last eight years. After so much sacrifice
we wondered what a man like him thought of America establishing relations with the regime.
Hector Maseda Gutierrez: I think this is a very interesting, very intelligent and very
positive move by the U.S. government. We applaud this and will support it. It is what the people
need. Even if only some of this is achieved, it will be a substantial leap forward, regardless
of the Castros.
Any connection to America, he told us, will inevitably increase pressure for reform.
Scott Pelley: Are you in favor of the embargo being lifted?
Hector Maseda Gutierrez: I am against the lifting of the embargo. It is a way to pressure
the Cuban government to really achieve things for the Cuban people and for the world.
Scott Pelley: Do you have hope for Cuba?
Hector Maseda Gutierrez: Yes, I have great hopes for Cuba, as I never have had before.
The hope of a relationship dimmed in 1961 when the U.S. took it's flag and went home.
One of the diplomats closing the embassy then was Wayne Smith.
Wayne Smith: I remember it very well. The Cubans, as sort of a farewell, had brought
a battalion of women militia members to the embassy to protect us. We didn't need any
protection-- except for-- dozens and dozens of people trying to get visas before we left.
Months later, America organized the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs. Then came the
trade embargo JFK signed after he took delivery of 1,200 Cuban cigars. Wayne Smith, who's
famous among diplomats for his work on Cuba, returned in the Carter years in another failed
attempt to patch up relations.
Scott Pelley: There are a lot of reasonable Americans who argue, "Why reward the Castros?
You're caving in to the Castro regime."
Wayne Smith: We haven't gained anything in 50 years with this refusal to have a dialogue,
embargo, all that. That hasn't gained anything. Why keep repeating the same old mistake year
after year when it isn't achieving anything? It was time to change, time long ago to change.
And at last, sensibly, we have.
Scott Pelley: You probably know Fidel Castro about as well as any American. How do you
think he's reacting to this?
Wayne Smith: I think he's reacting very favorably. They didn't do this against his will.
Smith thinks the embargo should end too. But it won't. Only Congress can do that. The U.S.
Treasury will continue to enforce the rules as Orbert Davis and Mark Ingram discovered.
Scott Pelley: You wanted to bring some things to these students?
Mark Ingram: Yes. 'Cause they have limited resources here. I mean, they have 12 music
stands.
Scott Pelley: How many do you need?
Mark Ingram: Well, it's a 60-piece orchestra. You know--
Scott Pelley: What else do they lack?
Mark Ingram: Reeds. We have one student who's a saxophone player. They're playin' reeds
from 1970. Old dried out reeds, you know, paper.
Orbert Davis: Music paper--
Scott Pelley: Did you bring this stuff to them?
Mark Ingram: We weren't able to bring any of this stuff to them. You can't do that.
Scott Pelley: So because of what they call the embargo here you couldn't bring music
paper, you couldn't bring reeds?
Orbert Davis: To use, but not to give.
Scott Pelley: You couldn't give it to them?
Orbert Davis: No. We're using the music stands, but they are ours.
Mark Ingram: We cannot donate them.
Scott Pelley: You have to take them back with you.
Orbert Davis: Yes.
Scott Pelley: You'd like to leave them?
Orbert Davis: Can we say that?
Mark Ingram: We would love to leave them. Yes, we would love to leave them.
Scott Pelley: But the United States Treasury will not let you?
Mark Ingram: Well, yeah. No. They told us we can't do that. And the Cuban government
says you can't do that.
They can't make extra copies of the sheet music either.
Orbert Davis: Unfortunately, we could not Xerox the music because there is no Xerox
machine.
Scott Pelley: At a university?
Mark Ingram: At a university.
Orbert Davis: A university, right.
Mark Ingram: No copy machine. Can't afford one.
And they can't e-mail it. Only five percent of Cubans are connected to the world wide
web, it's about the lowest percentage on Earth. In the new agreement, America added an exception
to the embargo, U.S. Internet technology.
Jeff DeLaurentis: This could be a game changer down the line.
Jeff DeLaurentis is America's top diplomat in Havana.
Jeff DeLaurentis: The government here did its best to restrict the flow of information.
And they have committed to providing more access to the Internet to the Cuban people
in the course of our discussions.
DeLaurentis works in the same building that America abandoned in '61. It won't fly the
flag as an embassy until next year. But U.S. diplomats have been back since the 70s trying
to pry Cuba open. For example, Castro first permitted cell phones in 2008. And after that,
the U.S. brought in tens of thousands of phones and gave them away for free.
Jeff DeLaurentis: We believe that lighting up the island is gonna make a major change
here.
Scott Pelley: Lighting up the island in terms of connecting it to the worldwide web?
Jeff DeLaurentis: Yes, yes.
Darkness has been lifting slowly. Raul Castro, who took over from his brother, has allowed
some small business and real estate ownership. And, last year, he largely lifted the ban
on travel.
Scott Pelley: And I wonder now, in this building, how many Cubans come to you, looking for visas
to the United States?
Jeff DeLaurentis: 500 a day, sometimes more--
Scott Pelley: 500 a day?
Jeff DeLaurentis: 500 a day.
Scott Pelley: You process 500 Cubans a day, looking for visas to go to the United States?
Jeff DeLaurentis: Yes, we do.
It seems remarkable, when you consider that an entire generation of Cubans has been taught
their suffering is imposed by America and its embargo. But even that was something most
Cubans couldn't buy. They're too far from Marx, too close to Miami. They pirate American
TV signals, love jazz, baseball is the national pastime, and two million family members live
in America. Most any Cuban will tell you, in a whisper, they're poor because socialism
is bankrupt.
Scott Pelley: We were driving through town today and I was struck. I looked up at an
apartment building and somebody had hung a Cuban flag and an American flag, side by side.
I have to imagine on Monday somebody would've gotten arrested for that.
Jeff DeLaurentis: Yes. I suspect that's probably true. And I suspect we're going to see more
and more of that.
Tom Coburn, the conservative Republican senator from Oklahoma, announced earlier this year
that he has prostate cancer and will be ending his term two years early.
This is an interesting man. He's an obstetrician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. Called
the "Godfather of the Tea Party," he has been a powerful and effective force against government
spending. He opposes gay marriage, he's against abortion rights and says global warming doesn't
exist. And yet, he became one of Barack Obama's closest friends in Congress. It may be Washington's
most unlikely friendship, but it is a lesson that political opposites can work together
in highly partisan and dysfunctional times.
In this, Coburn's farewell interview before leaving the Senate at the end of the month,
he says some things you may never have heard a conservative Republican say about this president
of the United States. Tom Coburn: My relationship with Barack Obama
isn't based on my political philosophy or his.
Lesley Stahl: What's it based on?
Tom Coburn: It's based on the fact that I think he's a genuinely very smart, nice guy.
I just love him as a man. I think he's a neat man. You don't have to be the same to be friends.
Matter of fact, the interesting friendships are the ones that are divergent.
That Tom Coburn is close to Barack Obama is seen as a betrayal by many of his fellow Republicans,
but he doesn't care. Tom Coburn: I'm proud of our country that
we elected Barack Obama. I mean, it says something about us nationally. You know, it's kind of
like crowning your checker when you get to the end of your checker board. Here's another
thing that says America's special: Barack Obama, president of the United States.
The friendship began in 2005 as freshmen senators, Coburn the conservative obstetrician from
Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Obama the liberal state senator from Chicago. They often teamed
up to pass important pieces of legislation.
[Tom Coburn: It's my pleasure to introduce to you a good friend of mine, since we went
through orientation together, Senator Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: Thank you, Tom.]
Last year, TIME magazine named Coburn one of the 100 most influential people in the
world, and it was President Obama who wrote the tribute...and this year, after learning
that Coburn has cancer, the president spoke about him at a Prayer Breakfast.
[Barack Obama: A great friend of mine who I came into the Senate with, Sen. Tom Coburn.
Tom is going through some tough times right now. But I love him dearly even though we're
from different parties.]
Lesley Stahl: It's interesting that you're friends with the president because--I guess
people think he doesn't have any friends in the Senate.
Tom Coburn: The president hasn't done a great job of reaching out. It's not his personality
style. I mean, you know, he's not well-suited to be a back slapper, sit down and let me
tell you this dirty story before we get down to business. I mean, he's not one of those
kinds of guys. He's a serious guy.
And so is Coburn. He's also a maverick who is always making someone angry.
Tom Coburn: Am I frustrating the senator from New Mexico? You bet!
He has called his colleagues cowards, called Majority Leader Harry Reid "a complete a-hole,"
for which he would later apologize, and says anybody off the street could do a better job
than the senators there now.
Tom Coburn: I see 'em make decisions every day that benefit their career, rather than
the country. And that's what's so sickening about Washington. To me, it's about our future.
It's not about the politicians. And we've switched things around where now it's about
the politicians and not the future of the country.
It seems the public agrees with him: one poll showed that Americans have a higher opinion
of witches, the IRS and hemorrhoids than Congress.
Lesley Stahl: Congress's approval rating in the last poll I saw, seven percent.
Tom Coburn: Who are the seven percent of the people who actually think we do a great job?
Lesley Stahl: You have said, "Let's get rid of them all and start all over again."
Tom Coburn: If ya wanted to fix things, that's what I would do.
Lesley Stahl: Get rid of everybody?
Tom Coburn: I mean, if I was king tomorrow, that's what I'd do.
And if he were king he would take a meat ax to the federal budget. He has made cutting
out fat in government programs his Holy Grail.
[Tom Coburn on Senate floor: Actually I'lI think I'll just tear it up. It's time we stop
borrowing money against the future of our kids.]
His power comes not from creating legislation, but from killing it with procedural roadblocks
that have gummed up the works.
Stephen Spaulding: I think he is the number one champions of gridlock in the U.S. Senate.
Stephen Spaulding, who focuses on the Senate for the political watchdog organization, Common
Cause, says senators often have to go to Coburn to get their bills released and that has given
him significant power.
Stephen Spaulding: He has found every loophole in the Senate rulebook that he can to grind
things to an absolute halt.
Lesley Stahl: He says he does it so the government won't grow out of control?
Stephen Spaulding: There's a question there as to whether he has been substituting his
judgment for that of the Senate, and I think that's what has led to absolute political
paralysis in Washington.
What Coburn does is put a "hold" on the legislation -- as he did this week on a Veteran Suicide
Prevention Bill -- and a hold stops a bill in its tracks and paralyzes the Senate. That's
how he got his nickname Dr. No.
Lesley Stahl: How many holds have you put on?
Tom Coburn: Thousands.
Lesley Stahl: Thousands? Let me ask you about some of the holds that we've come up with.
Extending unemployment insurance.
Tom Coburn: Uh-uh.
Lesley Stahl: Veterans' benefits. You even held up a bill called "The Paralysis Bill"
to help people in wheelchairs.
Lesley Stahl: Thirteen veterans' groups attacked you when you wouldn't agree on the veterans'
benefits.
Tom Coburn: Yeah.
Lesley Stahl: You're the reason the place has shutdown!
Tom Coburn: No it isn't.
Lesley Stahl: Well, all these holds, you're one of the reasons.
Tom Coburn: The holds...there's no debate on those anyhow. Nobody ever knows about 'em.
Lesley Stahl: Well, they would pass if you didn't put the holds on them.
Tom Coburn: That's right. And you'd grow the government and our problems would be worse,
not better.
The thing is -- Coburn is proud of his contrariness and his refusal to "go along." He got his
values growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma - where he says he had a happy childhood. It's a church-going,
Middle America kind of town where he was taught to be independent and not waste money. He
still lives there on a 40-acre farm.
[Tom Coburn: I got three stalls out there for horses and it got a big hay loft in it.]
He and his wife Carolyn, a former Miss Oklahoma, raised their three daughters here, one is
a nationally known opera singer.
Carolyn Coburn: We've known each other since the first grade.
Carolyn Coburn: Third grade I was on his list of girlfriends.
Lesley Stahl: How many did he have?
Carolyn Coburn: Three! I was the last.
Tom Coburn: She's telling the story.
Carolyn Coburn: I remember the list. Dun, Sara, Ditten.
The biggest influence on Tom Coburn's life was his father. After graduating college,
he went to work for his dad in the family optical business.
Lesley Stahl: So you told me in Washington that your father was an alcoholic.
Tom Coburn: Uh-huh. (affirm)
Lesley Stahl: Now that can't be easy when you say that you had a happy childhood.
Tom Coburn: Well, it doesn't take away from the great things that my dad did.
Lesley Stahl: Did it change you... Did it... Is it kind of a key to you?
Tom Coburn: (pause) Mmmm...I don't know
Lesley Stahl: But why is it welling up like this?
Tom Coburn: (long pause) I think clinically if I were to analyze it, probably didn't do
good grieving.
Carolyn Coburn: We could spend about a week grieving over all the things we've missed
grieving over. That'll be a fun week. (chuckle)
At the age of 31, Coburn left his father's business and went to medical school. After
practicing as an obstetrician for 11 years --
Carolyn Coburn: One day he came home and said, "I'm gonna run for Congress." I said, "Congress
of what?" (chuckle) I mean, I'm-- like, "what is he talking about?"
Lesley Stahl: Do you know anything about politics at this point in your life?
Tom Coburn: No.
At their favorite BBQ restaurant in town, he told us being a doctor didn't hurt in his
first campaign in 1994 for the House of Representatives.
Tom Coburn: You deliver 2,000 babies or better-- 3,000 by that time. And that's, you know,
at minimum, three people each. And then if you take grandparents or grandparents of siblings
and aunts and uncles, you know, you get-- a 100,000 votes outta that (laughs).
After three terms in the House, he returned to Muskogee and continued to deliver babies
until 2004 when he won a Senate seat. One of the first things he did - true to form
-- was pick a fight - with the late Republican Senator Ted Stevens who had been the chairman
of the Appropriations Committee. Stevens wanted to build a bridge project in his home state
of Alaska.
Tom Coburn: We're gonna put $456 million to go to an island of 50 people? You know, I
ask--
Lesley Stahl: The bridge to nowhere, right.
Tom Coburn: The bridge to nowhere. And-- and this is right after Katrina happened. And
so I offer an amendment to take that money from Alaska and repair the stuff in Louisiana.
[Ted Stevens from floor debate: So I have been asked several times today will I agree
to this version or that version of senator from Oklahoma's amendment? No.]
Tom Coburn: I lost that. But I won that. I absolutely won that because the American people
saw that and they said, "Wow."
Lesley Stahl: But what happened to you? They really came after you over that. You were
still practicing medicine.
Tom Coburn: Yeah, they-- they--
Lesley Stahl: You were still delivering babies.
Tom Coburn: They took that away.
Lesley Stahl: They took that away.
The Senate ruled that it was a conflict of interest to be a senator and practice medicine
on weekends and made him stop.
Tom Coburn: There were several people that I really irritated with this bridge to nowhere.
And they happen to sit on the Ethics Committee, you know.
Lesley Stahl: They shut you down?
Tom Coburn: They whacked me pretty good.
He says he was persona non grata with his Republican colleagues. But he did have his
alliance with the senator from Illinois.
[Obama in press conference: I've had the pleasure of working with Sen. Coburn on a range of
issues, but I can't think of one that's more important and more timely.]
Tom Coburn: The one thing we did is we got our staffs together and said, "We wanna do
some things together, find the areas you think that we can work-- together. And let's do
'em." And so we did.
Lesley Stahl: You wrote bills together?
Tom Coburn: Uh-huh (affirm). And got 'em passed.
Lesley Stahl: You got 'em passed?
Tom Coburn: And got-- and got 'em signed. We did a lot of stuff on lowering the rates
on student loans and re-calculating all that to save a lot of people a lot of money in
the future going forward.
They did that and more together, despite their many philosophical differences - on global
warming and all the social issues. But none of that has disrupted their friendship.
Tom Coburn: I've told him, "Don't let the S.O.B's get you down," when he's been getting--
he-- I'll call him up and say, "Hey, I'm pulling for ya," you know.
What's funny is that he himself has been one of the S.O.B's, railing at the president when
he disagrees, say on health care or immigration.
[Obama at prayer breakfast: I keep praying that God will show him the light and he will
vote with me once in a while. (laughter) It's going to happen, Tom.]
But now Tom is retiring. As he moves on to a new battle - with an advanced case of prostate
cancer.
Lesley Stahl: Now, did you have to take chemo and radiation and all--
Tom Coburn: Yeah, I'm in the midst of that right now.
Lesley Stahl: Look at you. You're totally energetic. It's not sapping you of--
Tom Coburn: Well, it will eventually, you know. Yeah.
Lesley Stahl: Will you lose your hair?
Tom Coburn: Maybe.
Carolyn Coburn: Oh. Oh. (chuckle)
Tom Coburn: I got Bill Clinton hair, don't I?
Lesley Stahl: I know.
Tom Coburn: Everybody is gonna die from something. And so the deal is how to use each day to
move things forward for both you and the people you love and the country you love.
Earlier this month, Coburn delivered an emotional farewell speech to his Senate colleagues whom
he has served with - and occasionally blasted over the last 10 years.
Tom Coburn: And a thank you to each of you for the privilege of having been able to work
for a better country for us all. I yield the floor.
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon started making movies when she was 14. Ten years later she
broke into the elite group of "highest- paid" actresses in Hollywood and, at 29, she won
an Oscar for best actress. But her career floundered when she couldn't get the roles
she wanted and so she did something unusual. She started making the movies herself. And
it has paid off handsomely.
Today, at 38, she's successfully produced two of the most talked about movies of the
year: "Gone Girl" and "Wild." She also stars in "Wild." Both are about flawed, dynamic
women and both are getting Oscar attention. Charlie Rose: A lot of people think of Reese
Witherspoon as Southern, blond, friendly, cute.
Reese Witherspoon: I'll take all four of those. Those are all good.
Charlie Rose: "America's sweetheart."
Reese Witherspoon: That's the one that confuses me. 'Cause I feel like I've done such a range
of different roles. Some are sweet, for sure, but all of them have a ferocity of spirit.
["Legally Blonde": Hi, my name is Elle Woods.] Spirit is what her character, Elle Woods,
had in "Legally Blonde."
["Legally Blonde": I'm going to tell all of you at Harvard why I'm going to make an amazing
lawyer.]
Witherspoon played a perky Harvard law student who became an unlikely modern feminist and
the film became an international box office hit. Four years later, in "Walk the Line,"
she portrayed June Carter Cash and won every major award, including the Oscar.
["Walk the Line": Let's go, times a wastin'...)
Yet despite that, she was offered roles as wife, girlfriend and sidekick. All of which
frustrated her.
Charlie Rose: Is the image of you changing?
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah. And I'm ready for a change. I'm definitely ready. I remember
a few years ago, I was asked to do an interview for 60 Minutes. I was too scared.
Charlie Rose: You said no.
Reese Witherspoon: I didn't know what to say. And, now, when I was approached, I was just--
I felt like, "No, yeah. This makes sense. I have something to say now."
["Wild": Oh my God. What have I done?]
She says it through her new film, "Wild."
["Wild": You got to be kidding me.]
She plays a broken woman seeking to reclaim her life by hiking a punishing 1,100 miles
alone on the Pacific Crest Trail.
["Wild": Hey. Where am I?]
It is based on the brutally honest, best-selling memoir by Cheryl Strayed.
["Wild": I wouldn't do a single thing differently. What if all those things I did were the things
that got me here?]
Reese Witherspoon: That is about grief and loss and self-harm and how we have to choose
to save ourselves. In the movie, she shows how Cheryl reacted
to her beloved mother's early death. She became self-destructive, destroyed her marriage,
took drugs and had random sex with anonymous men.
Reese Witherspoon: I don't think I've ever in my life had to do scenes that were so--
exposing. And--raw.
Charlie Rose: So what are you calling on in yourself to make those scenes so real?
Reese Witherspoon: Well I mean a lot of my own personal life experience. I mean, I've
certainly had relationships that didn't work out that were devastating, you know?
Charlie Rose: So you've known unhappiness, you've known--
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah. I've known grief. I've known loss. I've known saying goodbye
to people that I loved.
Reese surprised us when she revealed that her mother, like her character in the movie,
had lost her mother when she was very young. And Reese relived her mother's grief in preparing
for the role.
["Wild:" I miss you. God, I miss you.]
Charlie Rose: There's a scene at the end of the movie where you're-- Cheryl falls to her
knees and she says, "I miss you, God. I miss you."
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah.
Charlie Rose: What's that?
Reese Witherspoon: That's probably my mother. My mother's mother died when she was 20. I
didn't understand as a little girl why she was crying. And she would say, "I miss my
mom." And I held her grief in my body. I didn't even realize I held her grief for her for
so long. Then when my mom saw the film, she said to me, "I know that you saw me. 'Cause
that's my story." And she's a beautiful, amazing woman. She's definitely become the woman that
her mother wanted her to be. And I'm named after my grandmother. I hope I make movies
that make them laugh and I hope I make movies that make them feel proud of how strong they
are.
Charlie Rose: There's a tradition of strong women in the South.
Reese Witherspoon: Oh sure. There's strong women everywhere, Charlie. I go all over the
world--
Charlie Rose: It's-- absolutely. It's all over the world--
Reese Witherspoon: --and people say to me, "Wha-- why don't y-- you know, you don't ever
seem to play, like, weak characters." I said, "I don't know any weak women."
Reese grew up in Nashville. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse. No one encouraged
her to be an actor. They wanted her to go into medicine.
Reese Witherspoon: --s-- oh, and some junk.
Charlie Rose: You study over there.
Reese Witherspoon: Wait. Some junk.
Charlie Rose: Oh my God.
Reese Witherspoon: --that's our old mailbox and my mother's old mailbox.
In order to be close to her mother, she is renovating a new home in Nashville.
Reese Witherspoon: It's great, isn't it?
Charlie Rose: Oh, yeah. This is great.
Reese Witherspoon: You have to have vision, Charlie.
Charlie Rose: It's perfect for you.
Charlie Rose: There she is.
Reese Witherspoon: This is my mom, Charlie.
And while she was showing it to us, her mother stopped by.
Charlie Rose: When you saw the movie, what did you see?
Betty Witherspoon: It just tore me apart.
Charlie Rose: Because?
Betty Witherspoon: It was my story.
Charlie Rose: It was your story?
Betty Witherspoon: And I lost my mother. Then I named my baby after my mother. This is my
baby. This is the baby.
Charlie Rose: This is?
Betty Witherspoon: Uh-huh (affirm).
Her baby started taking acting lessons at seven. At 14, Reese went to an open audition
downtown for a major motion picture. She stunned everyone when she won the starring role in
"Man in the Moon."
["Man in the Moon"
Dani: I'm not a little girl. I'm 14.
Court: My goodness.
Dani: You're not much older. 16?
Court: I'm 17.
Dani: My goodness.]
She played an innocent but feisty tomboy who falls in love for the first time.
Reese Witherspoon: I just loved making movies. I was just-- and my mother had to stand in
front of me and say, "You are going to high school. You are not going to do this movie
thing. You know, you're going to have a real job."
Instead of going to Hollywood her parents insisted she go to Harpeth Hall, a prep school
nearby. She was an excellent student who loved reading. And she told us... the school left
an indelible impression.
Charlie Rose: Tell me about Harpeth.
Reese Witherspoon: Well, it's an all-girls school, which I-- I really enjoyed.
Charlie Rose: Why?
Reese Witherspoon: It was just a place that you did not-- you weren't distracted by boys,
and I was boy crazy. I was boy crazy when I was a teenager.
Charlie Rose: Even then?
Reese Witherspoon: Even then, Charlie. No, but-- that and it just-- it had a great focus
on, you know, feminism and that we could accomplish anything we wanted to.
What she really wanted, was to be an actress.
Reese Witherspoon: --that's the phone. (laugh)
Charlie Rose: This is the phone where you called your boyfriends--
Reese Witherspoon: Where I used to call my boyfriends.
It was also how she communicated with her agent. Throughout high school she made movies
in the summer.
Reese Witherspoon: I also used to call my agent on this phone.
Charlie Rose: So you went from boyfriend to agent?
Reese Witherspoon: Well, if-- if he sent me a script, I'd have to call him during L.A.
time, so I'd come down here and I'd be like, "Tell Mr. Wert that I'll be back in class
in just a second," and I would be like, "I read this script and I'm not gonna do it.
Okay, thanks, bye."
She did well enough at Harpeth Hall to be accepted by Stanford but dropped out after
a year and moved to Hollywood. There she successfully made the transition from child actor to movie
star. And, by age 23, she was married to actor Ryan Phillippe and had started a family. At
29, she had a series of box offices hits and an Oscar. Reese Witherspoon was at the peak
of her career.
Charlie Rose: So the Hollywood community says, "Here's an Oscar. Big moment? Big moment.
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah.
Charlie Rose: What follows?
Reese Witherspoon: That was a tough year that followed.
Charlie Rose: What's tough?
Reese Witherspoon: I got divorced the next year and I spent, you know, a few years just
trying' to feel better. You know, you can't really be very creative when you feel like
your brain is scrambled eggs.
Charlie Rose: Feel like you failed in your personal life?
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah, and then I was just kind of floundering career-wise, 'cause I
wasn't making things I was passionate about. I was just kind of working, you know. And
it was really clear that audiences weren't responding to anything I was putting out there.
Charlie Rose: There's a story that you read New Yorker magazine.
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah. Oh, lord.
Charlie Rose: And there was a list of people who were no longer box-office magic.
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah. I was one of 'em. I thought I was reading, like, a profile on
another actor. Then somewhere down-- at the end, it said, you know, 'The people who are
washed-up,' and I think it included me, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson. And I remember just being
like, "OK." I-- that just-- I mean, it really hurt my feelings. Really hurt my feelings.
Charlie Rose: And your self-esteem.
Reese Witherspoon: And my self-esteem. And made me feel like I contributed nothing. And
that you're only as good as your last movie. Which is a pretty crummy feeling for an actor.
But it's also a great motivator.
Three years ago, Witherspoon decided to make her own movies. She and seasoned producer,
Bruna Papandrea, put up the money to start a production company. Called Pacific Standard,
it focuses on projects that feature interesting, complicated women in leading roles.
Charlie Rose: But yours is a lean and mean company. I mean, you guys figure out a way
that you can get it done by total involvement yourself.
Voices: Yeah, yeah.
Charlie Rose: Choosing the writer, choosing the director, choosing the material. Yes?
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah, we make all the phone calls. We-- she does all the budgets. She
looks at the budgets, goes over everything.
Bruna Papandrea: We are ultimately the two decision makers.
Their first two decisions have been right on the money. "Gone Girl" has brought in nearly
$350 million at the box office so far. "Wild," which opens nationwide this week, has gotten
strong reviews. Both movies are based on books they optioned before publication.
Reese Witherspoon: I think right when "Gone Girl" and "Wild" were both number one on the
New York Times best seller list at the same time. I think that's when people started going,
"Whoa." Charlie Rose: Whoa.
Reese Witherspoon: "What are they-- (laugh) how did they get--" and people started calling
us and like, "Wait, how did do you guys get that book?"
Bruna Papandrea: Shocked.
Reese Witherspoon: Because we're not the big powerhouse. But we read and read and read
and read.
Charlie Rose: You know it says Hollywood is a boy's club in part. That more of these films
aren't being made. Yes?
Bruna Papandrea: Yes. 100 percent.
Charlie Rose: Is it cracking?
Bruna Papandrea: Yes, may be a little bit, yeah. The thing that really needs to change
is this idea that "Wild," for instance, a movie about a woman who goes on a hike is
not just a movie for women. You know, they would not put that label on it if it was a
man who was taking that hike. They would assume that women would want to go see that movie
as well. But they do put the label on it. And I think that's really the big thing that
we're trying to break down.
Their fledgling production company is off to a good start. It has 16 television and
movie projects in development.
Reese Witherspoon: I'm at a point in my life, it's like, I can make 20 more movies. But
I want to make 20 more movies that matter to me. I just don't want to just do anything.
Charlie Rose: And at long last, you feel in control.
Reese Witherspoon: Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And I feel like my perspective matters, for
the first time.
Charlie Rose: And if you succeed, that it will change Hollywood.
Reese Witherspoon: I hope so. I think it's time. I think it's time that we start seeing
women for how complex they really are. I want to see those movies.