‘Four Christmases’ Star Reese Witherspoon Once Said She Was Too Short to Kiss Vince Vaughn Until He Came up With a Clever Solution

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn were at the peaks of their careers when they made Four Christmases together. Witherspoon had won the Oscar for Walk the Line just a few years before, and Vaughn was on a comedy roll with Old School, Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers and The Breakup. 

There was just one problem. Vaughn is 6’5” and Witherspoon is 5’2”. At the Four Christmases press conference in 2008, Witherspoon discussed how they dealt with the height difference so both stars could share the screen together. 

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn played a couple in ‘Four Christmases’

The height difference was further complicated by the fact that Witherspoon and Vaughn play a couple in Four Christmases. That meant they had a lot of scenes together, including romantic kissing scenes. 

“Well they couldn’t make Vince smaller,” Witherspoon joked. “We tried. We tried to get him to take his shoes off. He’s 6’5” and I’m 5’2”.”

‘Four Christmases’ made a joke of Vince Vaughn towering over Reese Witherspoon

Although it landed on the cutting room floor, Four Christmases originally thought to address the size disparity. It was likely a hindrance to the couple’s daily lives.

“We had a really funny scene, I don’t know if it’s in the film any more, where he rolls over onto me,” Witherspoon said. “We were in bed and then at the very end he rolls over and goes to sleep but he rolls over and lays on top of me. It was like a tree trunk had just landed on me. I kept going, ‘Tim-berrrrr!’ It was really funny.”

Vince Vaughn helped bring Reese Witherspoon up to his level 

Witherspoon acknowledged there were many Hollywood tricks to make her character appear taller. 

“I stood on a lot of boxes and they had to build ramps that were about the same size as where I should be,” Witherspoon said. “It was a challenge, especially the kissing scenes.  It was hard to get up there to kiss him but we worked it out.”

However, Vaughn took it upon himself to shoulder the load in one scene.

“He had to pick me up for half the dancing,” Witherspoon said. “He’s actually holding me in the air so we can stay in the same frame. He’s a fantastic dancer. A very very good dancer which you’d probably figure from Swingers. They were teaching us dance moves. I just couldn’t keep up and he was like, ‘Oh, it’s a one-two cha cha cha.’”

Reese Witherspoon wasn’t the only vertically challenged ‘Four Christmases’ star

Witherspoon was not alone in these accommodations, although she had more scenes with Vaughn. Kristin Chenoweth co-stars in Four Christmases, and she’s three inches shorter than Witherspoon. Witherspoon said she often got mistaken for Chenoweth.

I used to get stopped all the time and people asked, ‘Are you on West Wing?’ And I’d say, ‘No, I’m not on West Wing,’ and my girlfriends would say, ‘Oh, have you seen that girl? She looks just like you and talks just like you and she’s just like you.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, really?’ and then I ran into her at an awards show and I realized I’d seen her in Wicked  and all this stuff and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if we got to play sisters?’  It turns out she’s just the sweetest, nicest, little country girl from Oklahoma.   She’s just sweet and wonderful so it came up and I called her and asked her to do the movie and she said, yes.  We lucked out.  She was very busy at the time too.

Reese Witherspoon, Four Christmases press conference, 2008