Reese Witherspon talks "Water for Elephants"

Reese Witherspoon is the star attraction in "Water for Elephants" -- as Marlena, the former orphan transformed into circus act. She's married to the owner/operator of a traveling circus (played by Christoph Waltz), who treats her as well as he does the animals, which is to say, not that well. So when Robert Pattinson comes along to play vet, it's no wonder the two start to fall for each other. Witherspoon talks about joining the circus, getting atop an elephant and loving her curves.

Q: Do you think this film, even though it's old-fashioned, has something to say about contemporary times?

A: It's sad to call it old-fashioned, because that's like it's the last of a dying art. I wish it were something we can preserve, because they don't make movies like this anymore, with all the costumes, and animals -- those were real lions running in the bleachers. The costumes are authentic. My hair style is modeled after Jean Harlow. Every frame had to look like it was really the 1930s. It was the Depression and people were looking for entertainment for a reprieve from drudgery.

Q: So it's a reprieve itself, as well as a reminder.

The stock market had crashed. There were no jobs. And people were hungry. Those characters were struggling to survive. And the movie is about second chances, how you can be trapped in a circumstance and someday, someone comes along and throws you a rope. My character has no way out. She has no education, no opportunities and she's in a volatile relationship. And here Jacob is trying to get her to leave, and she has to make a decision, to jump out of her life and into his.

Q: To play Marlena, you had to do her act...

A: I trained for five months to learn those routines! Because she rides several horses and has mastery over them. I had to do a lot of work with horses and elephants. I had made this conscious effort to not end up in a bathing suit in so many of my films, and here I am in a leotard! [Laughs] Which was horrifying, but the costumes are beautiful. It was a different time, when women loved their curves, and I think the ones we used in the film were flattering for women.

Q: Robert Pattinson said he fell in love with Tai, the elephant who plays Rosie...

A: Tai's my favorite co-star! She's quiet. She's always on time. She was so intelligent and so intuitive. It was a bit scary doing an act with her at first, and I fell off a few times. I was crawling all over her ears and trunk and she was never startled by that. She was like, "Come on, lady, get back up here!" It's amazing, too, because she had to perform and convey emotion, like stay calm if people were screaming.

Q: And there was a lot of screaming...

A: You've got one of the greatest circus disasters of all time -- albeit a fictional one -- but it's still full of peril and danger. But I like the quiet moments too, with the nonverbal communication. I thought the parts where we see each other from a distance but don't speak, that was told beautifully in that capacity.