Reese Witherspoon attributes her success as an actress and businesswoman to anxiety and perfectionism

Reese Witherspoon is learning to relax these days, but she says her rise to success as an Oscar-winning actress had, in part, a complicated motivator: anxiety.

“I was probably successful because I had a lot of anxiety. They go together,” she told Harper’s Bazaar UK.

The “Legally Blonde” star began her career at a very young age — appearing in commercials at the age of 7 — and has never stopped working since. Witherspoon also founded her own media company, Hello Sunshine, which in 2021 was sold for $900 million to two former Disney executives (although she still oversees operations and remains on the company’s board).

Currently, it is estimated that she has accumulated a net worth of at least $440 million. But now, at 49, the actress has openly admitted that her journey to the top has taken a heavy emotional toll.

“I put pressure on myself to extreme levels to show up at work in perfect shape,” she said. “Now we all know: perfection is not achievable. It is not sustainable. I stressed myself out in the name of my work — and it took me very, very far. I was rewarded for my anxiety and my perfectionism.”

After four decades of intense work, Witherspoon says she’s finally learning to let go of the pressure she used to put on herself.

“I’m getting older and starting to relax into the idea that I’ve done enough,” he said. “I mean, I’ve had an abundance of good luck, great job opportunities, and I’ve worked with some of the best people in the world.”

Perfectionism Drives Leaders—From Hollywood to Silicon Valley

Witherspoon isn’t the first celebrity to attribute her success to anxiety. Actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds stated that this characteristic helped him protect himself from future adversities in his career.

“My work benefits a lot from this,” he told People last year. “Anxious people are constantly thinking about the future: ‘What if this happens? What if that happens?’

“You’re always telling yourself stories. So when we’re filming Deadpool & Wolverine, I’m also sitting in the audience like a cautious critic, thinking, ‘I don’t believe this’. Anxiety creates an ecosystem of consciousness that I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Outside of the red carpets, the motivating fear of failure also appears among the world’s top business leaders.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may lead a company valued at $4.9 trillion, but according to his biographer Stephen Witt, fear of failure is the fuel that drives him as he leads one of the biggest chipmakers on the planet.

“That’s his fuel,” Witt told CNBC in June. “What keeps him going is this anxiety. I think the most surprising thing about Jensen is that he is almost entirely driven by negative emotions,” Witt added.

“He is deeply motivated by fear and guilt: fear of failure, paranoia about competition, and guilt about letting people down.”