Instead, let's jump straight into the '80s, as we did during Tuesday's "MTV First: This Means War" live stream event, to learn a little bit about what the future Oscar-winner was like before showing up on the Hollywood scene. Because it was back then that Witherspoon was just a tween with a dream — a dream named Johnny Depp.

Regarding the first celebrity object of her affection, Witherspoon confessed during the interview, "I have to say probably Johnny Depp in '21 Jump Street.' I just had a really major crush on him. I used to pull pictures out of Teen Beat and put them on my wall."

And now, a couple of decades later, she's finally admitting it to the world, because she certainly has never told Depp. "I don't think he knows," she said, laughing. "I'm not sure it would faze him: I'm sure he's heard that quite a bit."

Depp, of course, graduated from "Jump Street" to big-screen icon, never once joining in a traditional, shoot-'em-up action flick — much like Witherspoon herself, until "This Means War." The decision to sign on to one at this point in her career (opposite Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) stemmed from never wanting to repeat herself.

"I try not to make the same movie twice," she explained. "I try to explore and push out in new areas, and I thought it was a nice way to get comedy and action together. I've never really been in a movie with a bunch of guns and action sequences. I'd turn to Tom and Chris and say, 'The bad guys are chasing us — this is hysterical!' It would just make me laugh. I think it's ridiculous — me running from the bad guys. But it was really fun."