Ross King: Hoots! Reece Witherspoon had to haud her Scottish tongue

YOU’D think Reese Witherspoon was perfect. She’s a brilliant actress, she can sing and…well, just look at her!

But as the headlines that went round the world last week revealed, it turns out she’s not quite great at everything.

My interview with Reese and Matthew McConaughey made the entertainment news, from Los Angeles to Lossiemouth.

That was because during our chat for their brilliant new animated movie Sing, Reese let slip she struggled to master the Scottish dialect.

Like the true superstar she is, she didn’t ask for the interview to be edited.

“Accents aren’t my thing,” said the 40-year-old star of Legally Blonde, who said she had previously quit a film because her Scottish accent was so bad.

“Scottish is really…I was supposed to do…oh no, I don’t really want to talk about it,” she told me.

“I tried to do a Scottish accent once. It was bad, I had to quit the movie.”

At this point, Matthew was chuckling away. He couldn’t believe it.

“It’s not my finest moment,” added Reese. “I don’t want to talk about it any more! That just came out and I really wish it hadn’t.”

Your secret isn’t safe with me, Reese!

I don’t blame you Reese – the Scottish accent is very difficult if you’re not from here.

Just ask Robert Duvall following his role in A Shot At Glory in 2000 – where he played the only Scottish football manager to have a Pontypridd-Mumbai accent.

From Mumbai to mums!

Reese told me her role in Sing – as an animated pig who’s also a parent – helped show mothers in a new light.

“Sometimes you forget that moms have their own dreams and desires,” explained Reese.

“This movie kind of reminds you that moms are people before they were moms. Her children finally see her like that.”

And for Matthew, his role as Buster the Koala was a little like his own dad.

“Yeah, he loved a shady deal. He preferred a shady deal,” he smiled.

“My dad would get out of bed and say, ‘Today’s gonna be the day!’

“And it wasn’t! And he did it every day. But he kept going for it.

“There’s a lot of Buster in that, for him the show must go on.”

It certainly must, Matthew. Next week I’ll be chatting with Casey Affleck about his Oscar hopes.

See you then!