Reese Witherspoon believes the decline of romantic comedies has made dating harder for a new generation.
The Legally blonde actress, 49, made the claim in a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair expert podcast.
“There’s been this decline in rom-coms or big movie stars doing rom-coms over the last 10 or 15 years,” she said. “But this is where we learned social dynamics.”
Witherspoon explained that romantic comedies and coming-of-age shows used to teach young people how to approach relationships. “The show you watched when you were 11, 12 or 13 made you imagine dating skills,” she said, citing Young Sheldon, The Goldbergs and Everybody Hates Chris as examples.
Shepard, 50, agreed, saying boys especially benefit from seeing examples of vulnerability on screen. “Someone has to tell you that everyone is equally afraid of it, and you just have to do it,” he said.
Witherspoon, who herself has starred in several rom-coms, including Sweet Home Alabama and Your place or mineadded: “We started saying rom-coms are creepy, but that’s actually where we learned how to relate from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.”
The actress shares three children, including Ava, 26, and Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, and Tennessee, 13, with ex-husband Jim Toth and is currently dating German financier Oliver Haarmann.
