‘What do girls in bikinis have to do with solving crime?’

Growing up, Reese Witherspoon’s father was a huge James Bond fan, which means she also watched a lot of 007 movies.

But she wondered why all the girls were wearing bikinis, as the young woman, Reese, asked herself what their revealing clothes had to do with solving the crime.

The Oscar-winning actress – and now novelist – says that’s why she wanted her new film to focus on a woman with a unique skill, rather than being about her sex appeal.

Witherspoon, 49, is best known for her roles in Legally Blonde and The Morning Show, but she has now written her first adult fantasy book.

Co-written by best-selling author Harlan Coben, Gone Before Goodbye tells the story of a talented surgeon named Maggie who gets caught up in a deadly conspiracy.

Speaking exclusively to BBC News, she admitted that part of her worried, “Oh my God, why did I do this?” — but she also says she was excited to see her idea come to life.

Witherspoon, who already runs an influential book club that has selected hits like Where the Crawdads Sing, adds that she’s primarily concerned with how other writers are receiving them. “I have great respect for authors,” she says.

Witherspoon was born in New Orleans to a doctor father and a nurse mother.

Her breakout role came in the 1999 teen drama Cruel Intentions, alongside her ex-husband Ryan Phillippe.

Legally Blonde, released in 2001, made her a big star, and she followed roles including country singer June Carter Cash in Walk The Line, which earned her an Academy Award in 2006.

Witherspoon says her parents’ work helped inspire the characters in her new novel.

“I grew up in a military medical family, and I grew up on a military base, so I was surrounded by other mothers and fathers who were military medics,” she says.

“There was a sense of service, that what they were doing was an important service to humanity, but also to their country.”

“We both have this view that doctors are heroes,” adds Coben, who is married to a pediatrician. “They really are. I mean, it’s a great career.”

In the book, Maggie loses her medical license after a series of tragedies, but her former colleague throws her a lifeline.

The theme of career setbacks is familiar to Witherspoon, who starred in a series of poorly received films in the years following her Oscar win and her 2008 divorce from Phillippe, with whom she has two children.

In 2014, she spoke candidly in an interview about how the breakdown of her marriage affected her career.

“You can’t be very creative when you feel like your brain is scrambled eggs,” she told CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I was just kind of floundering professionally. I wasn’t making things that I was passionate about.”

When asked if her personal experience with a professional setback inspired the plot of her book, Witherspoon said: “I think every great story has a character on her knees. We started the story with her on her knees.”

It was a “great place to start” the book, she adds, “because it can only go up from there.”

Witherspoon’s acting career is back on track. And through her production company Hello Sunshine, she’s making a point Celebrating strong female characters Through films and television series including The Morning Show and Big Little Lies, which she produced and starred in.

I asked Witherspoon how rare it is to see a female character like Maggie, who’s not about her sex appeal but her special skills.

“Growing up, I was always watching James Bond movies, and my dad was obsessed with them, but I was like, ‘Why? [the girls] “They’re all in bikinis, and I don’t understand what that has to do with solving the crime.”

“If I was going to do a thriller, I wanted the woman to be at the heart of the movie. I wanted her to have a unique skill set that everyone in the world wants, but doesn’t even realize, that she doesn’t have to shoot or punch bad guys. She’s actually very smart, very intuitive, and an amazing surgeon.”

But the film industry still has a way to go in creating such roles for women, Witherspoon points out.

When I ask if Hollywood still has a shortage of strong female roles, the star says, “I always see the gap, I see the white space.

“I started Hello Sunshine in 2011 because I wasn’t seeing complicated stories for women in film.

“So, in a way, I was just taking advantage of the relationships I had from 30 years of being an actor and just helping to shine a light on women who are ready to take those opportunities.”

Entertainment journalist Lauren Morris believes Witherspoon was “very smart” in the way she built her business empire.

“She has her own book club, where she publishes books, often focusing on women’s stories. Then she has her own production company, where she adapts them for television or film, and often stars in them as well,” she says.

“It’s a good business model and it works well for her.”

Celebrity novels have been hugely popular in recent years, and stars like Keanu Reeves and Millie Bobby Brown are among those who have released books.

Often, collaborations involve a ghostwriter or co-author who does most of the writing, with minimal input from celebrities. Reeves admitted this to BBC News last yearWhen he said his novel was mostly written by British science fiction author China Miéville.

But both Witherspoon and Coben insist that wasn’t the case for them. Witherspoon originally brought the idea to Coben, and the pair said they co-wrote, so much so that — according to Witherspoon — “we couldn’t figure out who wrote what.”

A number of Coben’s books have recently been adapted for the small screen, with the mystery thriller Fool Me One becoming a Netflix hit. Most watched dramas last year.

Will the series “Gone Before Goodbye” get the same treatment? For Coben, the answer is yes.

“I think one day it will be adapted. I have someone in mind that I think would like to play Maggie, but I won’t say anything,” he says.

Is he considering Witherspoon anyway? He laughs. “Yes.”

I asked Witherspoon if she saw herself in Maggie.

“Every character I play is a part of my personality,” she answers. “My character is a big pie. Every character is a piece of pie.”

So, having conquered film, television, book clubs and now novels, what’s next?

“Wow, when you say it like that, I want to lie down,” Witherspoon laughed.

“I’m really enjoying this moment. This is a big new frontier for me. It made me feel like, oh my God, creativity doesn’t stop at one age. It goes on and on.”

Gone Before Goodbye was published on October 23 in the United Kingdom.