Reese Witherspoon
June Carter, Walk the Line
Age: 29
Birthplace: New Orleans
Essential filmography: The Man in the Moon (1991), Pleasantville (1998), Cruel Intentions (1999), Election (1999), Legally Blonde (2001), Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash writes of his wife, June Carter Cash, “[She] said she knew me—knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness.”

One gets the sense that Reese Witherspoon was born with a similar preternatural understanding of June, whom she portrays in James Mangold’s rousing and romantic Walk the Line. “I think the biggest connection we have is that we’re southern,” says the actress, who grew up in Nashville.“It’s a very particular thing to grow up southern. There’s a sensibility of focus on family and community and also a certain accessibility of your personality.”

Witherspoon prepared for the role of Johnny Cash’s savior and paramour by spending hours watching videotapes and listening to the couple’s music. She also benefited from conversations with the Cashes’ children. “There was such warmth when they talked about her,” she says. “She was down-home and sensible, but she was also very much a professional and could carry herself as such in any kind of company. She was just as comfortable having dinner with the postman as having dinner with the queen. And she would do it with such grace. That really helped me figure out where to begin.”

Yet despite the shared Dixie roots and all of the preparation, Witherspoon found the part deeply challenging. “I was frightened to my core about singing in front of people,” she says. “I would sweat and shake all day long because I was so afraid of messing up. It was really intimidating, but it’s also the greatest feeling of . . . well, relief when you’re done, but of achievement too. You feel like you got through it. Whether or not you were good or bad or what people were going to say about you, at least you overcame your fears. That was a big thing for me.” —Rachel Clarke