Witherspoon on Arrest: 'We Know Better'

Right to our "gma" exclusive with reese witherspoon, oscar winner, star of the new movie "mud." Welcome back to "gma." You, george. Let's get right to the elephant in the room. Two weeks ago it's a... See More

Right to our "gma" exclusive with reese witherspoon, oscar winner, star of the new movie "mud." Welcome back to "gma." You, george. Let's get right to the elephant in the room. Two weeks ago it's a friday morning I think. You and your husband are arrested. He's charged with dui. You're charged with disorderly conduct. What happened? It's one of those nights, you know, we went out to dinner in atlanta and we had one too many glasses of wine. We thought we were fine to drive and we absolutely were not. And it's just completely unacceptable and we are so sorry and embarrassed and we know better and we shouldn't have done ha. You thought you were okay. That's why -- a lot wondering why didn't you call a car service, a cab? Absolutely. It was just poor judgment and i think, you know, we made a mistake and it was something will absolutely never happen again. Just bad judgment, you know. I think the other thing that surprised a lot of people was the police report. You know, we read these things. Supposedly you said to the police do you know my name. You're about to find out who i am. You've been in the spotlight your whole adult life and this doesn't sound like the reese witherspoon most of us know. I know. I agree. I have no idea what I was saying that night. I -- I saw him arresting my husband and I literally panicked and I said all kinds of crazy things, I told him I was pregnant. I'm not pregnant. I said, crazy things and if you only hear me laughing because i have no idea what I was talking about and I am so sorry. I was so disrespectful to him and I have police officers in my family. I work with police officers every day. I know better. And it's just unacceptable. You had any contact with the police there? Absolutely, yeah, yesterday, you know, I spoke to them and again, just said, there's no reason to be disrespectful to a police officer. I think -- all I can say is i was just panicked. Well, one final question and a lot of people want to know this as well. You talk about the big lesson learned. I think onhe hardest things for anyone caught in a situation like this, how do you talk to your kids about ha. I have to say that's the hardest part about it. Having to tell our kids and, you know, just embarrassed, you know, and we have to say, you know, when you make a mistake you take responsibility and we are taking responsibility and doing everything in our power to make it right and you, you know, you just have to be honest with them. That was definitely the hardest part. And the lessons learned? There's so many lessons learned. You know, absolutely and, you know, I will -- I will always -- when a police officer tells you to stay in the car, you stay in the car. I learned that for sure. You know, I think I played a lawyer in a movie so many times I think I am a lawyer and clearly I'm not a lawyer because I got arrested. So, no, yeah, so I learned a lot. Let's talk about "mud." It is a rich and moving movie. We saw it last night. Set in the deep south, rural arkansas. A world you know. Yes, well, I'm from nashville, tennessee and when i read this script I just was so touched. It's about where I'm from and about these young boys coming of age and learning what love is and a great opportunity to work WITH matthew McConaughey. He's fantastic in it, as well. That's what's so interesting about the movie. Starts out as an adventure story but becomes all about love you play juniper, pretty hard girl right at the center of the story, the love of magnitutthew McCONAUGHEY'S LIFE AND ELLIS Wants to believe in the love. Let's take a look at the clip. You know, you don't know him, right? I know he never did anything for you. Is that what you think? It makes them feel good about themselves. I do love him. He wants to believe that too. Yeah, you know, it's that time in your life when you're 14 and learning what love is and he's so great, that actor, he's just amazing. This is one of his first role, right? He was in "tree of life" as well but this is a breakout performance for him. AND matthew McConaughey, he's been taking all these chances it seems like and this one, I don't know, to me this is the ut performance. So exciting to see matthew. He's working so hard and doing such incredible work and I'm just honored I got to work with him. Two southern people, we've always been satelliting each other -- you never worked before. No, but we had known each other. Critics are saying and I have to agree on this, as well, your best performance since "walk the line." What did you tap into here? You know, she's just sort of a feisty southern woman, which i can relate to. So, yeah, no, it was just great. It was great to get back to my roots and work with jeff, the filmmaker, and the south, so beautiful. New mom, tennessee james, a little over 7 months old. Little tennessee, yes. Doing well. He's doing real well, getting so big. What's next? I'm doing a movie called "the good life" and it's about the lost boys of sudan and how they, you know, three of them came to america and sort of got used to being americans and just having a great time. I'm going to head to africa and do a little research about the sudan. Thank you for making time for us and thanks for coming back and thanks for being so straight about all this. Thank you, george. Thanks for the opportunity. Absolutely. Lara? All right, thank you so much,