Blonde Southern belle Reese Witherspoon admits most people back home are surprised she's the one who became a movie star.

The petite bundle of energy says that when she goes back to Tennessee "someone will always say, 'You're a movie star? Why did that happen to you?'".

She laughs, adding: "I'll say, 'You got me'."

The 29-year-old A-lister, who was raised primarily in Nashville, seems genuinely surprised she's made it in Hollywood.

"I'm shocked every day, I can't believe this is what I do. I just feel lucky to work. I feel like I'm in such a rare position to have gotten this far in this business as a woman," she admits in her down-to-earth Southern manner.

The mother of two has a spiritual take on why good fortune has visited her in a business where rejection is the norm.

"I do think things were meant to happen. I'm just this little girl from
Tennessee and here I am today. I think a lot of things are just out of your hands."

After making a name for herself with Election and Cruel Intentions six years ago, Reese became hot property in Hollywood in 2001 when she bubbled up as Elle Woods in the comedy Legally Blonde.

Her next starring role is in the ghostly romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, where she plays a spirit who enchants the heart of a handsome slob, played by Mark Ruffalo, who moves into her old apartment.

"We had so much fun in the beginning where we get to fight like cats and dogs. I love having that antagonist relationship and being equally as strong as each other and bullheaded.

"It kind of reminded me of a Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn type movie," she enthuses.

The supernatural element in Just Like Heaven gives a new twist to the romantic comedy genre, Reese says.

"Romantic comedy has really evolved since the time when there used to be all sorts of reasons why people couldn't be together," she explains.

"Now it's hard to really create that tension where they really want to be together but can't. I thought this was a fresh idea and a modern take on romantic comedy."

The fact that he's the only one who can see and hear her - but they can't touch - makes for "a doozy of an obstacle".

Her character Elizabeth starts out as a career-driven professional who doesn't allow much time for an emotional life until a car crash puts her into the afterlife.

"It contains a nice spiritual message about how important it is to nurture yourself. Women are great at taking care of everyone else but they don't take a moment for themselves.

"I liked the It's A Wonderful Life quality to this film," she says. "A woman gets to see how she helped everyone around her but not herself."

Reese takes a on a very different role with her portrait of country singing legend June Carter in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

Not only was it a very different world, but the film included the unnerving task of singing.

"I went into that with a lot of trepidation," admits Reese. "I am a perfectionist and totally afraid of stinking on screen."

While she makes a decent go of the singing, she jokes that she had to do one particular song hundreds of times before it came out right.

The first time she had to get up and sing in front of the cast and crew was terrifying, she says. "They literally had to push me to get me up there on the stage. I thought I was going to throw up the whole first day."

It was the imposing confidence of Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash which gave her confidence, Reese says.

"He just didn't break, he wasn't nervous or insecure. Maybe he was on the inside, but from what I saw he really inspired me."

Like Just Like Heaven, the biopic is really a love story, she says.

"They were just two people who were deeply in love with each other and couldn't be together at first.

"It portrays a real relationship, a real marriage where there are forbidden thoughts and fallibilities. It's about compassion in the long haul, not just the sort of easy solutions."

Coming from the South gave her an advantage in depicting June Carter, she adds. "There's a strong sense of family and taking care of people. It's just a personality trait you can't sort of fake."

Raising two kids - daughter Ava, six, and two-year-old son Deacon - with actor husband Ryan Phillippe, as well as acting and running her own production company, Type A Films, means life is pretty hectic.

"You work harder and harder to achieve more and more," she admits. "You think I'll make time for love later, but everything can be gone in the blink of an eye. You have to remember that."

Although she's had her odd confrontation with paparazzi, Reese says she simply ignores stories of problems with her six-year-old marriage.

"I just focus on what's really important and not on the foolishness," she maintains. "We really try to keep our privacy and never let our public persona get out of hand."

For her next project, Reese is producing and acting in Penelope, a rather odd fairy tale about a girl with a pig's face seeking love. Christina Ricci will take the starring role, while Reese plays her quirky best friend.

"It's sort of a family curse and in order to get it off her family she has to go through this process," she explains.

She's also going to play a couple of tough characters in two new dramas.
One is a photojournalist who goes to Indochina to look for missing American soldiers from the Vietnam War in The Reckoning. She'll also play a US Marshal hunting a killer in Antarctica in Whiteout.

It's a busy life - but Reese says she loves every minute.

"I know why I make movies. Life is hard. It's nice to escape and have a good time. If I can give people a movie about hope, love and the future, then I've done my job."