Reese Witherspoon new movie got her nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. The 38-year-old actress's gritty portrayal of Cheryl Strayed in the movie "Wild" took her out of her comfort zone.

Witherspoon recently admitted that she was told she was too fat or short for Hollywood roles. The comments ate at her self-esteem.

''People may think I have this dream life, but for years I worried about my looks," Witherspoon told The Sun magazine. ''I thought I was too short or not thin enough to be a Hollywood star. I was constantly being told, 'No, not right, not tall enough, not pretty enough, not sexy enough'. I wasn't allowed to audition for roles because they saw me as too cute and girlie. 'So I decided if I was to succeed I had to face facts. I could never be the sexiest, thinnest girl in Hollywood."

The actress turned to hypnosis to boost her confidence before she went for the role in "Wild."

''[Hypnosis] was so helpful. I get panic attacks, especially right before I start a movie. 'Half the time on set I feel like I'm hanging on by the seat of my pants and I don't know what the heck I am doing,'' Witherspoon told The Sun.

Reese Witherspoon won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2006 for her role as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biopic 'Walk The Line." Witherspoon started her own film production company, Pacific Standard, in 2012.

''Other than one studio, literally one, nobody was developing anything with a female lead," she told The Sun magazine. ''It just hit me like a ton of bricks and I was so mad. 'I had stories I wanted to tell and I'd become increasingly frustrated.''

Wild is set in 1995. "Cheryl Strayed decides to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone as a way to heal herself following her divorce, the death of her mother, and years of reckless, destructive behavior," according to Wikipedia.