“I Couldn't Keep The Lights On”: Reese Witherspoon Recalled Facing Major Financial Troubles At Her Production Company Even After “Big Little Lies” And “Gone Girl” Were Huge Hits

Reese Witherspoon is one of the most powerful women in Hollywood today, although her success didn’t come without a few learning curves.

In 2012, frustrated by the lack of roles for women in Hollywood, Reese cofounded the production house Pacific Standard , which went on to create movies like Wild and Gone Girl — both of which were based on books by female writers.

A few years later, in 2016, Reese founded Hello Sunshine, a production company with a goal to change how “ all women are seen in media .” Hello Sunshine absorbed Pacific Standard, and since then, Reese and her team have produced hit projects like Big Little Lies , Daisy Jones & the Six , and The Morning Show .

With such huge titles attached to the company, it’d be easy to assume that things at Hello Sunshine were always plain sailing. However, Reese recently revealed that she had to make some serious changes before the business could thrive.

Speaking at Hello Sunshine's second Shine Away event on Saturday, the Oscar-winner recalled a difficult time after Big Little Lies first aired on HBO in 2017, saying she could barely keep her company running despite the show’s huge success .

Amid the rough patch, Reese realized that there were some aspects of the business that she simply couldn’t manage on her own. Recalling the decision to have a friend help her create a business plan, she said it’s “good to know what you're not good at.”

Hello Sunshine soon brought in Sarah Harden as CEO, and Reese admitted that she spent much of the first year asking her “the dumbest questions you can possibly imagine.”

Reflecting on the realization that she had to make changes and be proactive, Reese said there’s “a moment in all of our lives when you realize, ‘No, wait, no one's coming to help.’”

In 2021, Reese sold a majority stake in Hello Sunshine to Blackstone-backed Candle Media. The deal — worth upwards of $900 million — made Reese the highest-paid female actor in Hollywood at the time, and now one of the wealthiest self-made women in America.

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