Reese Witherspoon Is Hoping Her New Book Has An Elle Woods Effect

Reese Witherspoon is adding author to her long list of credits. The Academy Award-winning actor and Hello Sunshine founder released her first-ever novel, Gone Before Goodbye, on Oct. 9.

To celebrate its launch, Witherspoon, alongside co-author Harlan Coben, kicked off their book tour for Gone Before Goodbye at Hello Sunshine’s annual event, Shine Away, in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 11. The two-day convention brought together fans and readers for inspiring panels, book signings, and activations on Universal Studios’ backlot.

Prior to her “Inside the Writers’ Room” discussion, Witherspoon chatted with Elite Daily backstage about her hopes for her first published novel. “If I’m lucky, I would love to make the movie for Gone Before Goodbye,” she says. “We have to see if people enjoy it first, so I really want to see what readers think and that’ll determine everything.”

My biggest goal for this book is to make as many little girls as possible want to be surgeons as Elle Woods did for lawyers.

Thanks to her vast film experience, Witherspoon has learned to not be concerned with any reviews for her first novel. “I’m less worried about critics,” she said later in the panel. “I really don’t care about [the critics’] thoughts, feelings, or opinions, because half of the stuff I’ve done is not well-reviewed.” Instead, Witherspoon hopes she makes people “feel seen” when they read Gone Before Goodbye. “My biggest goal for this book is to make as many little girls as possible want to be surgeons as Elle Woods did for lawyers,” she shared. “That’s probably the metric for my success, med school rates going way up.”

Reese Would Be A Great Casting Choice For Maggie

If Gone Before Goodbye gets the green light from Hollywood, Witherspoon would be the obvious choice to play the novel’s protagonist, Maggie. The Legally Blonde star voices the former Army combat surgeon in the audiobook edition. “It was fun to write it, and it’s also fun to perform it in the audiobook,” she said.

Co-author Coben shared in Shine Away’s panel that Witherspoon really helped to influence the character of Maggie. He recalled a time when he asked Witherspoon what Maggie should wear in a scene, and she responded by putting herself into the character’s shoes. “Almost verbatim what she said to me is in the book,” said Coben.

A lot of Maggie was inspired by my own family.

Witherspoon also found inspiration for the book from her upbringing. “A lot of Maggie was inspired by my own family. My mom and dad were both in the military when I was growing up, and my dad was a doctor and my mom was a nurse,” said Witherspoon.

Reese Gets Inspo From Her Book Club, TikTok, And Her Daughter

Backstage, Witherspoon also shared that she was inspired to write Gone Before Goodbye after reading Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen, which was one of her Reese’s Book Club selections. “One tiny part of Gone Before Goodbye was from this book,” she says. “I’m always looking for things that inspire me.”

The avid reader, who shares that she always has at least two novels in her bag, also turns to BookTok and her daughter, Ava Phillippe, for reading recs. “My daughter will give me great books that she loves or she’ll tell me who she’s inspired by. It’s always great to read new, upcoming voices,” she says. Gone Before Goodbye may be Witherspoon’s first novel, but it sure sounds like she’s caught the writing bug, and it likely won’t be her last.