Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for BFIReese Witherspoon is reflecting on her April 2013 arrest for disorderly conduct.
While promoting her new movie Wild during a press conference at the BFI London Film Festival Monday, the Oscar winner opened up about her drunken run-in with the law, which shocked many fans at the time.
"I think it was a moment where people realized that I wasn't exactly what they thought I was," the 38-year-old actress told reporters (via THR)."I guess maybe we all like to define people by the way the media presents them, and I think that I showed I have a complexity that people didn't know about. It's part of human nature. I made a mistake. We all make mistakes. The best you can do is say sorry and learn from it and move on."
Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth were both arrested last year in Atlanta after Toth was pulled over under the suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Witherspoon was charged with disorderly conduct after trying to defend her hubby to officers.
After news of her arrest broke, Witherspoon released a statement regarding her uncharacteristic behavior, saying, "Out of respect for the ongoing legal situation, I cannot comment on everything that is being reported right now. But I do want to say, I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said. It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse."
Arrest drama aside, Witherspoon also opened up about playing a woman who goes on a 1,100-mile solo hike in Wild. "When you see me putting together the tent, that's literally me putting together the tent," she dished. "It took me two hours. I could not figure out the f--ing tent. And when I kicked the stove, it's because I couldn't make the f--ing stove work."