Taylor John Smith, the actor of Where the Crawdads Sing, previously portrayed Reese Witherspoon’s Scream

Queen’s love child. Witherspoon, who produced Crawdads, felt Smith looked familiar but was unaware of their previous roles together.

Taylor John Smith, the actor of Where the Crawdads Sing and producer Reese Witherspoon experienced an unexpected family reunion while working on the movie.

In a recent episode on the program On the List, Smith remembered the moment he told Witherspoon that he had played the love child of Annette of Cruel Intentions, one of her most recognizable characters, inside an unaired pilot for just a TV follow-up to the acclaimed 1999 film.

When we were all doing press together two weeks ago, Smith stated, “I didn’t actually tell [Witherspoon] until then.” We were conducting a live interview that lasted for about 30 minutes, and at the beginning, she kind of looked at me strangely and said, “You remind us of a man I dated during high school.”

Smith went on: “You know I played the illegitimate son about you and Ryan [Phillippe], right? I said. She then exclaims, “Oh my God, no way,” and we have a brief discussion about it. But I kept hold of that because it was in my ammo reserve.”

Witherspoon, Reese Taylor Mr. Smith
Tayler John Smith and Reese Witherspoon | CREDIT: NOAM GALAI/GETTY IMAGES; AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC
Sarah Michelle Gellar reprised her beloved role as Kathryn Merteuil, the seductive and cunning stepsister of Phillippe’s Sebastian, in the Cruel Intentions series pilot, which was shot in 2016. In other words, he was the offspring of the famed incident in which Sebastian steals Annette’s virginity, and Smith played Bash Casey, the character. The story of the series was Bash discovering his late father’s notebook and falling victim to the same lies, backstabbing, & deceit that made Cruel Intentions one of the most exciting films of the 1990s while attempting to establish a connection with the man that never knew. (NBC ultimately decided against the show and chose to air This Is Us in its place.)

Cruel Intentions’ audition procedure, according to Smith, was “very simple.” He declared, “Obviously, Roger Kumble is fantastic and the original filmmaker of the first one. “Then, Sarah Michelle Gellar returned to the scene to reprise the role, which I found to be really cool. But it was never made public. However, that’s odd because I can view numerous stills from it. When I see a still from a moment where I’m inside the shower, I wonder, “How did it wind up out, but the pilot’s not out?”

Unfortunately, viewers may never get to see Smith continue Witherspoon & Phillippe’s Cruel tradition. Nevertheless, viewers may watch the funny moment in the video below when Smith tells Witherspoon of their relationship.