Reese Witherspoon Blasts Renee Zellweger's 'Cruel, Rude and Disrespectful' Critics

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Reese Witherspoon has got Renee Zellweger's back.

After intense media speculation about the drastically different look the 45-year-old Bridget Jones' Diary star sported in October, Reese blasted the haters during The Hollywood Reporter's recent actress roundtable.

"It's horrible," Reese, 38, said bluntly about Renee's treatment. "It's cruel and rude and disrespectful, and I can go on and on and on. It bothers me immensely."

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She also blasted women who "tear other women down."

"I know this is so Pollyanna of me, but why -- and it's particularly women -- why do they have to tear women down?" she lamented. "And why do we have to tear other women down to build another woman up? It drives me crazy. Like, this one looks great without her makeup but that one doesn't look good without her makeup, and it's all just a judgment and assault that I don't -- look, men are prey to it as well. I just don't think it's with the same sort of ferocity."

Renee herself commented in October on all the media attention about her speculated plastic surgery, crediting her changed appearance to a happier life.

"I'm glad folks think I look different! I'm living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I'm thrilled that perhaps it shows," she told People.

Though Renee's treatment isn't the only thing the recently more candid than ever Reese is opening up about.

Reese has been getting plenty of Oscar buzz for her new role as a heroin addict in Wild, and admitted that having to do a sex scene with two guys is her bravest moment yet as an actress.

"I called Cheryl Strayed [the woman Wild is based on] that night, and I was like, 'I can't believe I have to do that,'" she said. "And she was like, 'Sorry I was such a slut in the '90s!' Laura [Dern] was on the set because she's an apparition, watching me. She had to literally watch me, and she told me a great story that helped me get through that."

And if you're wondering just what type of story would ease Reese's nerves in a situation like that, luckily, Laura was on hand to tell it.

Laura recalled shooting a love scene in the 1996 film Citizen Ruth -- in which she plays a drug-addicted pregnant woman in the middle of an abortion debate -- with a man director Alexander Payne simply "picked up at the bar down the street."

"He came in and he was like, 'I am so excited to be here! I just went down to the 7-Eleven and I got some Arrid Extra Dry and some breath mints. Let's go!'" Laura recalls. "I'm just like, 'Oh my God, day one of Citizen Ruth.'"

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Earlier this month, Reese told ET all about her role in Wild, which is quite possibly the most challenging ofher career to date.

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