Even as an interviewer who works with dozens of celebrities, it seems impossible to be completely immune from one’s fangirl tendencies.
Reporter Lucy Jayne Ford of Bauer Media in London couldn’t help but showcase her love for Reese Witherspoon when she decided to bring along a copy of a 15,000-word dissertation she wrote in college about Legally Blonde to a junket for A Wrinkle In Time.
4 years ago I wrote my university dissertation on Legally Blonde, and I’m about to give it to @RWitherspoon herself. I may cry pic.twitter.com/AKKtH4BSw6
— Lucy Jayne Ford (@lucyj_ford) March 13, 2018
“I want to start by saying I’m obviously a gigantic fan of all of you; Reese, I actually wrote 15,000 words on you once,” Ford said before handing the actress a copy of her lengthy dissertation, which focused on strong female characters in film, explaining she had watched the film 800 times to write it. “You can read it, you can burn it, you can clean your windows with it, but I feel like this was full circle for me that I wrote that four years ago.”
Witherspoon seemed touched by the gesture and said she noticed it was even sprayed with perfume—an iconic trick her character, Elle Woods, uses with resumes in Legally Blonde.
The moment I handed @RWitherspoon my 15,000 dissertation/love letter to Legally Blonde – and yes, it was scented. I blacked out somewhere between her taking it and Oprah saying ‘wow’ #WrinkleInTime pic.twitter.com/56XV8FElqV
— Lucy Jayne Ford (@lucyj_ford) March 13, 2018
“Thanks to a lot of color correcting in the edit, you can’t actually see my face and chest going as bright as my hair,” Ford joked with People. “Also, Oprah was in the room. Oprah! How can anyone keep their chill in front of the queen that is Oprah? And Mindy Kaling, who I am just the biggest fan of and respect so much.”
As a fellow fangirl myself, I’m happy Ford received the response she got and it inspires me to possibly write about my favorite celebrity for my own dissertation in the future.