Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon: A look back at their friendship

True friends are the ones who reach out to you during the hard times. And Reese Witherspoon has proven herself to be one good pal to Robert Pattinson as he's dealing with the fallout from his girlfriend and "Twilight" co-star Kristen Stewart's public admission that she cheated on Pattinson with her married "Snow White and the Huntsman" director Rupert Sanders. Witherspoon went as far as to offer her $7 million ranch in Ojai, California, about 85 miles outside Hollywood, as a place for the actor to retreat from the media spotlight.



[Related: Robert Pattinson hides out at Reese Witherspoon's vacation house]

So how did Pattinson, 26, and Witherspoon, 36, become so close? While filming last year's romantic drama "Water for Elephants," the two revealed that they had worked together on 2004's period drama "Vanity Fair" — in which Witherspoon played Pattinson's mother! By the time the two reteamed to play lovers last year, they were quite comfortable, as evidenced by Pattinson's comments about filming a love scene with Witherspoon. "I was doing it when I had a really bad cold," Pattinson told MTV. "My nose is running all over the place, and it was in one of the additional photography scenes, and Reese had this wig on, and literally, I was wiping my nose on her wig." While many women would love to kiss RPattz anyway, Witherspoon admitted that for her, "It wasn't appealing; it wasn't pleasant." A happier on-set experience was when Witherspoon introduced Pattinson to her now 12-year-old daughter, Ava, who reportedly had a crush on him!

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The two have often teased each other in public, such as when Pattinson, Patrick Dempsey, and Chelsea Handler presented Witherspoon with the Generation Award at the MTV Movie Awards in June 2011. When it was the Brit's turn at the mic, he made several inside jokes, such as that for Witherspoon, "tequila is like a Lay's potato chip — you can't just have one," that left Nashville native Witherspoon alternately laughing and hiding her face from her seat in the audience. During her acceptance speech, Witherspoon retorted that Pattinson should have declared himself the "best motherf----- in Hollywood." But it was obvious that their friendship went deeper. Almost a year after "Water for Elephants" was released, Witherspoon was still raving about Pattinson. "He's professional, hard-working, so appreciative, more grateful than I've ever seen anyone for where he is in life," she told MTV. She also talked about his phenomenal fame. "I've never experienced what he has – going to premieres and there's just millions of people waiting for him to touch them. I think it must be strange, but I don't even know how to process what he deals with ... He's a really cool guy."



Get More: 2012 Movie Awards, New Movies, Robert Pattinson, Chelsea Handler, Patrick Dempsey Present MTV Generation Award


Besides the fact that they're good friends, Witherspoon certainly empathizes with Pattison and his current troubles. In 2006, her ex-husband and "Cruel Intentions" co-star Ryan Phillippe allegedly had an affair with Australian actress Abbie Cornish. She's since remarried to Jim Toth last year – at her Ojai ranch! – and they announced in March that they're expecting their first child together.

Do you think her pal Pattinson will find happiness, too?



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