Reese Witherspoon has had it with actresses fighting over Hollywood’s scraps

Reese Witherspoon -- actress, producer and lifestyle guru -- has a lot to say about women in Hollywood and her efforts to advance the cause in Tinseltown and beyond.

In the 10th anniversary “Power Issue” of Women’s Health, the Oscar winner spoke about ambition, opportunities to give back and the motivation behind several of her upcoming projects: empowerment.

“How wonderful it would be for our culture not to see ambition as an ugly thing within a woman’s personality!” the “Legally Blonde” alum told the mag. “In our society, when we see women who want to succeed or who view themselves as leaders, it’s like ‘How arrogant!’ Well, I think it’s fantastic.”

Witherspoon, who started up the lifestyle site Draper James to “give back to women who are entrepreneurial” and donates a portion of sales to the nonprofit Girls Inc., is looking to do the same with her production company, Pacific Standard Films, which she launched with Australian producer Bruna Andrea in 2012 after she saw six of her favorite actresses “fighting over a really crappy role in a movie.”

“It came out of looking at scripts that were coming down the pipeline in Hollywood and just feeling really ‘I think we can do better. I think we can create more female roles and different ways of seeing dynamic women on screen,’” she told the mag.

The company has produced “Gone Girl” and Witherspoon starrers “Wild” and “Hot Pursuit.” Witherspoon said she’s really excited about the company’s upcoming projects, including an adaptation of Jessica Knoll’s thriller “Luckiest Girl Alive” and “Ashley’s War,” a true story about the first female special-ops unit in Afghanistan.

“I’m really inspired by those women and excited to bring their story to the screen,” she said. “We have a lot of different projects -- women who are astronauts, women who are working on Wall Street -- we are just trying to diversify the idea of how you see women on screen and portraying real women, all ethnicities, all ages. It’s a really exciting time.”

Though the “Walk the Line” star’s activism hasn’t come without setbacks, Witherspoon remains optimistic about her efforts.

“I really feel like if I can help one other woman tell her story, or help one other woman get a show on a network, or make a movie about something that she’s passionate about, then I’ve done my job,” she said. “It’s hard to get to the place where I’m at, but it feels really good to be able to use the opportunities that I’ve had and the relationships that I have in order to create new opportunities for other creative women.”

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