Despite appearing in one of the greatest s-x sequences in cinema history (Cruel Intentions 4-EVA), Reese Witherspoon isn’t known for playing seductive parts. The idea of getting down-and-dirty for her new picture, Wild, was terrifying to her.

Cheryl Strayed, played by Reese, is the real-life Cheryl Strayed, whose blockbuster novel of the same name describes her difficult solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail at the age of 26.

The Oscar winner spoke to Harper’s Bazaar UK about her fears in relation to the part.

“There were small descriptions in the script,” she said of the film’s extreme s-x scenes, “but when he [director Jean-Marc Vallée] started describing what we were going to do, that’s when I started to panic. I was like, ‘Wait. What are you talking about?’

“It’s like three percent of the movie,” she noted, “but it took up a tremendous amount of fear in my head because it’s daunting. I never looked ahead at the schedule. I would wake up in the morning and say, ‘What are we doing today?’ And, I’d prepare on the way to work. Sometimes I was just terrified. Like a cat on a raft…’You can’t make me do it.'”

She continues, “I would have fired myself a couple of times during rehearsals because I was so scared, oh my God. I got my s*it together, but it took me a while.”

The actress also confessed that the drug addiction moments in the film were difficult for her. “I’ve never done drugs, so I was really confused,” she told the publication. “I didn’t know what I was doing. It just required being in a really raw emotional place that didn’t feel good.”

When it came to battling for the role of Chery Strayed, Reese admits plainly, “It wasn’t as if there was a lack of roles being offered to me. It was the dynamic aspect of playing a really interesting, complicated person that was not readily available. Honestly, I don’t know a woman who isn’t complicated. It’s strange that you don’t see many complicated women on film; complicated meaning complex, I should say.'”

“[When I was 18] I was like, ‘My parents can’t pay for me to have a life or go to college.’ Whatever I was going to do in my life, I had to do it myself. Then when I had a little girl at 22, I was even more determined to, I don’t know… I went from just surviving to, ‘Who do I want to be for this other person?'”

The actress, who received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Nancy Carter-Cash in Walk The Line, says she dislikes being stereotyped because of her attractive appearance.

‘Don’t put me in that box. Or any box, for that matter. People are complex, on-screen and off. Can’t we do justice to that?’ she told the magazine.

The label of “America’s Sweetheart” clearly annoys the Southern beauty, who also told Glamour magazine in a new interview that she doesn’t relate with it.

She says, “I certainly didn’t self-identify as anyone’s sweetheart. I’m friendly, but I don’t think I’m sweet. I’m honest.”