Paying homage to a ‘real woman’

“Oh my goodness. I never thought I’d be here in my whole life, growing up in Tennessee,” Reese Witherspoon said, holding the Oscar statuette she’d just received for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line.”

Frankly, Reese, it didn’t much surprise anyone else. Even Charlize Theron, nominated in the same category for “North Country,” told the press, “I love Reese, and it’s definitely her year.... “

Witherspoon veritably channels June in “Walk the Line”: the booze and pills, the angst, the voice, the unbending spirit -- and perhaps remnants of Carter remain in the 29-year-old actress still.

Carter was a “real woman who has dignity and honor and fear and courage,” she said, looking as if she was on the verge of tears.

“My grandmother taught me to be a real woman,” she said. “To have strength and self-respect, to never give those things away.”

Backstage she said those lessons “really helped my performance with June, because I sort of came in with an innate knowledge of who she was as a woman.”

It’s easy to say that this role was a divergence for Witherspoon from cutesy roles such as those in “Legally Blonde,” but even in her ditzy manifestations Witherspoon has chosen characters with some degree of panache.

Citing Johnny and June Carter Cash’s “wonderful tradition of honoring other artists,” she ran through a laundry list of those who had contributed to her performance as well as to the film in general.

-- Steven Barrie-Anthony