Reese feels at home in Sweet Home Alabama

Being a good 'ole Southern States Belle has given actress Reese Witherspoon some awkward moments ... but the beautiful 26-year-old doesn't mind taking the homeward path for her latest film, Sweet Home Alabama.

She's actually from another of the romantic Old Confederate States, Tennessee (born in the Country capital of Nashville, no less), but once a Southerner, always a Southerner.

"I have always had to deal with stereotypes of being Southern," says Witherspoon, with that unmistakable twang, "People hear a Southern accent, and automatically figure you have seven children and are barefoot, living on a farm, married to your cousin. OK, so you can see I'm wearing shoes right now, but I have had to fight the image. When I started acting, I was told to lose my accent, or I wouldn't find too much work. But I still have and it comes out whenever I go back home."

In Sweet Home Alabama, Reese plays Melanie Carmichael, a fashion designer who suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. He's what every young lady longs for: handsome, wealthy, well-connected.

But Mel has a secret from her past - she's still married to a red-neck husband who refuses to let her go - and when she returns to Alabama to confront it she discovers that you can never go back and that you can take the girl out of the South, but you can never take the South out of the girl.

And when it comes to character, Reese is one heckova Southern lady ... with a mind of her own.

"I'm good at letting my opinions be known. What I'm bad at is probably the vulnerable side of characters. That's always been difficult for me and it's a challenge I'm facing ... to make myself be more vulnerable."

It has also helped her to "get stupider every year" ... she taught herself to read when she three, but she reckons those early advanced years have evened out: "I really thrived in a school environment, but I somehow don't have that now. I'm not pushed to read or write papers or have intellectual discussions every day ... I feel like I'm getting more and more stupid."

She was, growing up, a typical tomboy - "always running around in my brother's old clothes and scraping my knees" - and extremely independent: "I see myself as a very private and very quiet person who has always been serious about what I do. I know what I want out of life, and I try to focus on those things. I've always wanted to have a long career ... and to be taken seriously.

"I've worked hard at taking roles that were unique. I think I've done a pretty good job at establishing myself, and I'm in this for the long haul.

"When I was a child I was always very driven. I always did extra schoolwork and activities, even before the teachers assigned it. I probably don't stop long enough to relax. Well only in one respect ... I love to bake, that's my way of beating stress."

Reese (her mother's maiden name) majored in English Literature at Stanford University and she has built a reputation for turning down roles ... she refused the female lead in I Know What You Did Last Summer in l997 and in Scream in l996 and Urban Legend in l998. She was considered for the role of Juliet in Romeo+Juliet in l996 ... and she regularly appears at the top of such lists as the 50 Most Beautiful People, Most Powerful, People of the Year.

She runs her own production company, Type A Films, with Debra Siegal, one of her ancestors, John Witherspoon, signed the Declaration of Independence, her mother has a PhD in pediatric nursing and her father is a surgeon ... she's no dumb Southern blonde!

"The joy of being an actress is out of transforming ourselves into something that's not necessarily anything true to ourselves. And it's a power ... not being yourself, and being in the role; it's just like another prop."

What's important to this fine young actress is retaining the moral certainties: "The longer you can keep your values and your morality intact, and keep your head on your shoulders, about what is important at the end of the day, you can get the most out of this business and really emerge with something wonderful."

In director Andy Tennant's Sweet Home Alabama, Witherspoon stars alongside Josh Lucas, Candice Bergen, Patrick Dempsey and Fred Ward.