Reese Witherspoon Recalls How Scared She Was to Park Denzel Washington’s Porsche as an Intern

Reese Witherspoon had her taste of luxury sports cars before she ever became famous.

The 43-year-old actress revealed she once drove Denzel Washington‘s car when she was an intern on the film Devil in a Blue Dress, which came out in 1995.

“He had this Porsche and I had to park his Porsche,” Witherspoon said on the WNYC Studios podcast Sooo Many White Guys. “So I was at the front desk and he was like — he was like ‘Hey’ and he had to go into a casting session and he handed me the keys.”

The situation was intimidating for Witherspoon, who had never driven a Porsche before.

“I was like, ‘Holy s—, I can’t drive that car.’ First of all, I’m going to wreck it,” she said. “I’m the worst driver in the world. Second of all, you get in it and I’d never driven a Porsche but really like — it’s a stick.”

Witherspoon did end up having a hard time driving the actor’s car, saying, “And I stripped all the gears and was like he’s going to really not — I’m going to like burn out his clutch.”

Witherspoon also touched on messing up an audition with Robert De Niro at 14, explaining she had “no clue who he was.”

“I went in and I remember I was going in and I was in the taxi and the man said what are you doing and I said — my mom was with me too,” she said. “And she like knew who Robert De Niro was but it wasn’t a big deal.”

She continued, “And I said, ‘I’m going to see Robert De Niro.’ He’s like, ‘What?’ And then I got so scared and nervous I shook through the whole audition.”

Her nerves got the best of her, as she explained De Niro “had to say all my lines for me.”

“I was like, ‘Oh, but he’ll never remember that.’ And then I saw him 10 years later and he’s like, ‘Remember that audition that you did and you were so bad for Cape Fear?’” Witherspoon said. “And I’m like I’m so embarrassed. That was so bad. And there’s a tape out there somewhere. I always think where are my old tapes? That would be funny to see. Because I took myself very seriously. As I’m sure you can imagine there’s a little Tracy Flick in there.”