Why “Wild” author gave her book to Witherspoon

She doesn’t look like you think she will — sun-dyed hair, dirt under her fingernails. She shouldn’t, of course: It was nearly two decades ago that she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, brave and alone at 26.

But this is the image of Cheryl Strayed that has been immortalised in her memoir, Wild. Its cover — with its decaying hiking boot and Oprah Winfrey’s all-powerful stamp of approval — is omnipresent at airports and bookstores, two years after its publication. But that book jacket will soon change, replaced with a picture of Reese Witherspoon, face caked with earth. The Oscar winner plays Strayed in a new film about the author’s 1,100-mile solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail, which she set out on in 1995 after her mother’s sudden death and the end of her first marriage.

Strayed, at 46, doesn’t look like you think she will because, standing in the lobby of the Pretty Woman hotel where she is staying, someone has put fake eyelashes on her. Her hair has been blown out, and she’s wearing motorcycle boots that hit midcalf. It’s October, and she’s just introduced Witherspoon at a fancy Beverly Hills luncheon. The actress, she says, has become a “dear friend”. She loves the film, and she loves its stars. As of late, her Facebook page has been filled with pictures of her looking chummy with the cast and posing on red carpets. “In case you were wondering,” she captioned one photo of herself sipping tea with Witherspoon, “I love this woman deep.”

The admiration appears to be mutual. Witherspoon posted the same picture on Instagram, writing that Strayed “is hands down the best author/friend/therapist any girl could hope for!”

Witherspoon was looking for stories for strong women. She devoured the Wild galleys in a weekend and immediately called Strayed. “Reese and I talked — and that was important,” Strayed says. “I wanted to give it to somebody who wanted it for the right reasons. This book — I put everything into it. It’s me.”

Strayed was on set for the majority of the 35 days that the production shot in Oregon, where she lives in Portland with her husband and two children. She served as a resource for both Witherspoon and director Jean-Marc Vallee, who could often be heard advising crew to “Ask Cheryl! Ask Cheryl!”

The answer that Witherspoon really wanted, though, was one that has stayed with most readers of Wild. Before Strayed sets out for her journey, she is sitting in a motel room, staring down her oversize backpack. When she tries to put it on, it’s so overstuffed that she literally cannot stand. It’s one of the more comical moments in the story: this blond twentysomething, completely unprepared except for her iron will.

“Reese would ask, ‘Why did you put on that backpack that you couldn’t lift? Why didn’t you take stuff out or say ‘... this, I can’t do it?’” Strayed says. “But it never occurred to me not to go. And that is what Wild is about. How we bear the unbearable.”

It’s this grit that has drawn so many to Strayed — both with Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, a 2012 compilation of advice columns she wrote under the pseudonym Sugar for the website the Rumpus. And she’s facing what feels like another insurmountable challenge now: writing her next book. After Wild was an Oprah’s Book Club pick. And a New York Times bestseller. And got turned into a film from awards powerhouse Fox Searchlight.

“For a long time after Wild’s success, I would say, ‘I don’t think it’s gonna impact me at all,’” she says. “But now I’m like, ‘Oh, can I write anymore?’ There’s that voice of doubt, like, ‘Maybe now you should just go live in a beach house and become a sailor or whatever.’”

She has started two potential books — one a memoir, the other a novel — one of which she plans to dive into after the film is released December 5 in the US (it does not have a UAE release date. She’s scared, but she’s not one to let insecurity overwhelm her.

“I’ve never wanted fear to be my ruler. I’ve just never been a person who was willing to have that be my narrative. Ever,” she says forcefully. “Maybe some of it is that I grew up poor and working class, and I had to do everything myself. I paid off my student loan from my undergraduate degree on my 44th birthday from the money I made from Wild. Nothing was ever given to me. Except now I got a gift bag after this luncheon.”