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Reese Witherspoon Gets Emotional Talking to Oprah Winfrey About Empowering Women

By Jackie Willis‍ 10:09 AM PST, January 12, 2018

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Reese Witherspoon is taking Oprah Winfrey's advice and speaking her truth.

The 41-year-old actress joins America Ferrera, Natalie Portman, Tracee Ellis Ross, producer Shonda Rhimes, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and attorney Nina Shaw on this weekend's CBS Sunday Morning for a talk with Winfrey about empowering women in the entertainment industry and beyond.

Witherspoon gets emotional, nearly tearing up, talking about this moment in time for women. "There are moments that you have to evaluate whether silence is going to be your only option,” she says. “And certain times that was our only option. But now is not that time.”

The ladies have banded together to form the anti-harassment movement, Time's Up, with the hope that they can be a voice for all women.

“You know, we have public voices. We have resources,” Witherspoon says. “But women who are workers in this country have nothing to gain in certain times by coming forward. But we want to help. It gives me strength to hopefully help other women.”

Winfrey asks, "How do we as a society have a mature, nuanced conversation about how men and women should be relating to each other? Because there’s so many men and women now who are uncomfortable in their workplaces because of all that’s been uncovered and aren’t just really sure how to be. What do we say to them?”

"We’re humans. We’re all humans,” Portman responds. “And I think it’s treating people as fellow humans -- and it’s not because you have a daughter that you respect a woman, it’s not because you have a wife or a sister, it’s because we’re human beings, whether we’re related to a man or not. We deserve the same respect."

Here's an inside look into the Time's Up movement:

Rose McGowan Calls Time's Up a 'Band-Aid' to Make Hollywood 'Feel Better'

The Time's Up Movement Continues at 2018 Critics' Choice Awards: The 5 Most Empowering Moments