You're probably as likely to spot a ghost in Hollywood as you are a successful showbiz marriage, but with Reese Witherspoon you get both. Here the 29-year-old blonde-with-brains tells how she'd love to take some of her Just Like Heaven supernatural powers home with her, how she's still madly in love with her man and reveals her own idea of heaven

The plot
In Just Like Heaven, Witherspoon plays Elizabeth Martinson, a dedicated doctor who's workaholic nature leaves her no time for fun and one fateful day, no more time for life.

Killed in a freak accident, Elizabeth returns to the land of the living as a rather sexy spirit. Of course she doesn't take to being a ghost easily and it's only when a new hunk (played by Mark Ruffalo) moves into her apartment that she comes to terms with her supernatural state.

The twist comes when her haunting of her former home's new tenant is transformed into a bizarre love affair - think Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in Ghost but with more laughs.

The interview

In Just Like Heaven, your character is forced to face the consequences of her life after death. Have you been in a situation where you've thought of your own mortality?

'That would probably be giving birth to two children - I don't think you could ever imagine that much pain in your entire life and you just hope to never have to do it again - and then you do (laughs) and you're fine. But that's definitely the time where you really think about how tenuous life is. There are so many doctors around but scary things happen.'

There's some great scenes with you coming to terms with being a ghost and nobody being able to see you. Would you like to be invisible in real life sometimes?

Ooh, what a great question. It would be a good thing. That's what I thought was really funny about those scenes when people got to talk about my character when they thought she wasn't there, I thought that was really funny.

So you'd like to hear what people say?

Probably not, because I'd be horrified about it, how people really perceive me as opposed to how I think they do. It would be really weird.

Your character Elizabeth is a bit of a control freak. How much of a control freak are you?

Oh honey! You don't even know the half of it (laughs). It depends on the day, it depends on whether I've been on vacation or not. Usually if I've been working, working, working, I'm pretty bad. I'd say I'm pretty controlling, I guess, but I just like people to be professional because I work really hard too and I try to be really professional.

One of the big themes of this movie is missed opportunities? Do you believe in fate and that things are meant to be?

I think there is definitely a grand design for people's lives. Otherwise I wouldn't be a little girl from Tennessee in the middle of Hollywood (laughs). I have no reason to be here, so yeah, I definitely believe in destiny.

Your character struggles with her work life and personal life - do you have that problem and how do you find the right balance?

There are times when I'm very busy in my career and there are times when I really have to pull back. It's nice to have those choices in life, I'm very fortunate. There are moments in my life where I feel I worked a lot, like film after film, back to back and sometimes that's hard. You forget to calm down and relax and it's important to take time off. Since I finished this film in February, I've taken time off and I'm not working for the next year so it's been nice. It took me about three months to calm down and now that I'm relaxed I'm enjoying it.

You've been with Ryan Phillippe for seven years now, married for six. Do you need to put in any extra effort to avoid the seven-year itch?

We're just like a pair of socks. We go together everywhere. Things are really good. Ryan is about to start Clint Eastwood's new film Flags of Our Fathers, so that's really exciting, and he's had some great films out this year. It's been nice for me to take a back seat and watch his career ascend. It's exciting for me. We've been partners for a long time, we're good friends. Really good friends.

How do you keep the romance in your marriage?

(laughs) It's all about cooking, honey! It's all about being able to cook a really good meal. No, I just try to be conscious of what he needs and he's really sweet. He buys me little presents and gets me my favourite chocolates. I don't know. Just taking care of each other and having compassion for one another, I think it's important.

Does it help having two children to put things in perspective?

Yeah, absolutely. There's no thinking, 'I'm fabulous!' when one child is on one leg and one is on the other saying, 'Mommy, pick me up!' So, I think it's a very grounding element in my life and Ryan's life. There's nothing better than a day sitting on the ground with my kids and making them laugh. It's very fulfilling.

What's the greatest challenge you've ever had to overcome?

I think everybody has their own set of problems and sometimes I think I'm in the middle of the biggest challenge of my life just trying to maintain normality in a crazy lifestyle. I think it was definitely hard being 22 years old and having a child and not having any family around and not knowing what to expect, I was completely overwhelmed. That was a very formative experience for me.

How do you stay looking so good? Do you have any beauty tips?

I try to exercise, eat well, take care of myself - a lot of sunscreen. That's probably about it. I don't really think about it much. I'm lucky to have other people who worry about how I look.

What's your own idea of heaven?

I like the idea of being able to meet your family in heaven and other people who have passed on that are really close to you. I think about those things a lot. I had grandparents who I was really close with and sometimes I thought I saw them. I think I saw them maybe once when I was giving birth to my son, my grandparents were definitely there with me. That would be nice.

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