‘Big Little Lies’ Star Reese Witherspoon Reveals A Studio Head Once Mistook Her Daughter Ava For Her

Reese Witherspoon looks so much like her daughter Ava that a studio head once mistook her eldest child with Ryan Phillippe for her.

“I had a premiere for that movie 'Sing!' over Christmas, and the head of the studio went up to Ava and congratulated her on the movie,” Witherspoon revealed to Entertainment Tonight during Elle’s Women in Television event in West Hollywood, California on Saturday, Jan. 14.

While some people are having a hard time telling them apart, the mother and daughter don’t think they look that alike. In the Dec. 13 episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Witherspoon said that “everybody keeps saying” she greatly resembles her 17-year-old daughter Ava. “[But] she and I are always like, ‘We don’t see it!’” the actress explained.

Whether or not they are lookalikes, Witherspoon said she’s just very fortunate to have a daughter like Ava. “I just love her,” she said of her firstborn. “I’m so lucky to be her mom, and I just love having her in my life and getting to go everywhere with her. It’s a great honor.”

Witherspoon gave birth to Ava in 1999 — just three months after the actress tied the knot with Phillippe in Old Wide Awake Plantation in Hollywood, South Carolina. Four years after, Witherspoon and Phillippe welcomed Ava’s younger brother, Deacon. Ava and Deacon got a little brother when Witherspoon gave birth in 2012 to Tennessee James, her first son with husband Jim Toth.

Witherspoon will be next seen on HBO’s comedy-drama miniseries “Big Little Lies,” which also stars Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgård, Laura Dern and Adam Scott, among many others. The David E. Kelley-created series is set to premiere on Sunday, Feb. 19.

Witherspoon also headlines the upcoming romantic comedy film “Home Again,” which is expected to open in theaters sometime this year.