Reese Witherspoon has explained why she won't ever star in a horror movie.

The 47-year-old actress has become known for taking roles in comedies and dramas over the years and is rarely seen in anything too "dark" or "intense" but she's now explained she deliberately stays away from heavier projects because she thinks her fans only want to see her in "light" roles.

Speaking at her Hello Sunshine media company's Shine Away event in Los Angeles on Saturday (21.10.23), she explained: "I’m not meant to be doing dark, heavy, intense, horror, gore, darkness movies.

"People like to see me do light movies, and I was like: 'OK. It doesn’t put you in the cool kids club a lot but I don’t care, I don’t want to be in the cool kids club'.

"I want to make optimistic stuff that makes girls excited to be women in this world, because it is a wonderful thing to be a woman in this world."

During the event, Reese appeared at a discussion with Mindy Kaling and Jennifer Garner and said: "These two women are two of the first people that I called when I did Hello Sunshine. I was like: ‘Will you work with me, how can we work together?’ I pitched Mindy 17 podcasts that we still never did. I was like: ‘What about this one where we just a watch a rom-com and drink wine? Is that a podcast or is that like a Friday night?'”

Reese also revealed how she usually gets in touch with her pal Jennifer when she has a role she might like.

She added: "I called Jen every time I’d read a great book like: ‘Do you want to star in this?' OK, but Jen,’ I’m like: ‘I want to be protecting your time with your kids because I know you’re going through a lot right now and this is a lot so is this a good one or not?’

"It was just about the excitement of being able to work with my very dearest friends, too."