Reese Witherspoon’s ‘Morning Show’ Look Was Inspired by ‘Walk the Line’

Apple TV+’s The Morning Show turns American sweethearts Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon into morning news anchors Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson. Both characters have a magic onscreen that’s all their own, and both are aggressively ambitious power players behind-the-scenes.

Hair and makeup play a huge role in transforming Aniston and Witherspoon into their Morning Show characters. Jennifer Aniston looks very much like a slightly newsier version of herself. Her make up is a bit heavier, per the rules of news television, but her hair still bears the Jennifer Aniston trademarks: perfect layers, and even more perfect golden highlights. However, Reese Witherspoon has adopted a thicker Southern drawl and a darker hair color to play Bradly Jackson. Her auburn hair wasn’t added on a whim, but part of director and executive producer Mimi Leder‘s grand design for the character.

“Every detail is always discussed in terms of when you create a character and you are creating a show, and you’re creating a look,” Leder told Decider. “Both Reese and Jen had a lot of input into who their characters are, and what their characters look like. It’s a very collaborative process between all of us, between costuming all the way to Reese’s hair color.”

Yeah, so about Reese’s hair… We’re pretty sure it’s a wig, but either way, the dark auburn caramel shade was inspired by another Reese Witherspoon role.

“I did this mood board for Reese. (I did it for both Jen and Reese.) All these different pictures of Reese’s hair and I really wanted her to be a brunette in this show. I just felt for this character, I felt it worked,” Leder said. “I had all these pictures of her, and on the center of my board, I had an incredible picture of her from Walk the Line.”

Witherspoon went dark chocolate brown for the 2005 film Walk the Line and won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as real life country star June Carter. Leder told Decider she asked Witherspoon if she would consider darkening her hair for The Morning Show and the Academy Award winner was “all for it.”

So there you have it: that’s why Reese Witherspoon’s not blonde in Apple’s The Morning Show.

The first three episodes of The Morning Show are now streaming on Apple TV+. A new episode will premiere weekly on Fridays.

Where to stream The Morning Show