Reese Witherspoon believes the decline of romantic comedies has made dating more difficult for a new generation.
THE Legally blonde The 49-year-old actress made the assertion during a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s show. Armchair expert podcast.
“There’s been this decline in the number of romantic comedies or big movie stars doing romantic comedies over the last 10 or 15 years,” she said. “But that’s where we learned about social dynamics.”
Witherspoon explained that romantic comedies and coming-of-age shows teach young people how to approach relationships. “The show you watched when you were 11, 12, 13 made you imagine dating skills,” she said, citing Young Sheldon, The Goldbergs and Everybody Hates Chris as examples.
Shepard, 50, agrees, saying boys especially benefit from seeing examples of vulnerability on screen. “Someone has to tell you that everyone is afraid of it, and you have to do it,” he said.
Witherspoon, who herself has starred in several romantic comedies, including Sweet Home in Alabama And Your place or mineadded, “We started out saying that romantic comedies were cringe, but that’s actually where we learned to communicate from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.”
The actress shares three children, including Ava, 26, and Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and Tennessee, 13, with ex-husband Jim Toth and is currently dating German financier Oliver Haarmann.
