IT shows you just how political Hollywood has become when even all-American girl-next-door Reese Witherspoon is courting controversy.

After her Oscar winning glory, the blonde beauty signed up for Rendition, which comes out this Friday.

The film explores the US government’s policy of ‘extraordinary rendition’ – the abduction of foreign nationals deemed a threat to national security, for detention and interrogation in secret overseas prisons.

Reese plays Isabella El-Ibrahimi, an American woman married to Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar. Suspected of a terrorist act, he is stopped by the American secret services after arriving on a flight to Washington from Cape Town. He is then secretly shipped to Morocco on the orders of the CIA’s head honcho Corrinne Whitman (Meryl Streep), where he is tortured by the secret police.

“I was drawn to the role of Isabella because I have a lot of curiosity about what it must be like to be living as part of a Muslim family in America,” says Reese. “We have a lot of ideas about certain religions, and a lot of fear has been propagated. I was interested in dispelling some of that fear.

“I also wanted to personalise a lot of these issues. We become more anaesthetised as we see more news and coverage of things that I just don’t connect to any more. I watch CNN and I read the paper and it feels suicide bombings are so prolific. Sometimes you don’t find the stories of reverberation, culture and society and how the families are affected as much.

“There’s not much of a human face on these issues. Reading the script, I thought, what better way than to have the family members, the spouses, the mothers, the fathers and their experiences put on to a film, so we really do understand the ramifications of some of these actions.”

Reese approached playing Isabella by reading books on Muslim Americans and research through online communities.

“For me, growing up in the middle of America and never being touched by racial profiling or religious intolerance, this movie was a very educational experience,” she admits.

“It’s fascinating that in this country we have so many different kinds of people and as many different religions. It’s part of the real beauty of America. But then again, since 9/11, it has clearly been a more difficult situation for some families.”

Following her husband’s disappearance, a frantic Isabella enlists the help of old flame and Senator’s aide Alan Smith (Peter Sars- gaard). They then make the shocking discovery that Anwar is suspected of having terrorist links.

“My reaction when I first learned of ‘extraordinary rendition’ was pretty much disbelief that it was happening,” admits Reese. “It just doesn’t seem altogether American, to detain people without due process and without the opportunity to be charged with a crime and to go through a proper trial.

“That there is no legal recourse for people who have endured this type of torture is shocking. I think any mistreatment, and procedures that appear in the film, are absolutely inexcusable.

“I’m really proud to be part of a project that is bringing this practice to the public’s attention,” she adds. “At the same time, it’s a very complicated issue. I’m an actor. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have the responsibility for maintaining national security. There are always two sides to every coin, and I hope this movie shows both sides of this issue.”

But the 31-year-old star isn’t interested in answering questions about her own personal politics, shying away from giving a direct answer on what she thinks of the Iraq War, for example.

“Actors have this influence – people ask about our clothes and things like that. I don’t want my politics to become part of that. It’s personal to me.

“As an actor, all you can really hope to do is look at the character you’re playing, discover and open up a world of thoughts and ideas that weren’t open to you before and hopefully find a share of humanity in these characters. If anything, that’s the biggest part of this movie that excites me. It’s that it has a message of commonality.”

Also off-limits is her rumoured relationship with co-star Jake Gyllenhaal, who the star has been spotted with in Hollywood following her split with actor husband Ryan Philippe. As a result, Reese has been the target of the LA paparazzi.

“Certainly I feel a loss of privacy in my life,” she admits. “But it’s also a concern of citizens in general. Certain laws have been passed about information and the sharing of information.”

Her two young children – four-year-old Deacon and eight-year-old Ava – have long become accustomed to their mum being stopped in the street by fans. “They know what I do and they think it’s very dull,” she says, smiling. “They’re pretty used to me being approached by people.”

As a busy mum, one of the reasons Reese agreed to sign up to Rendition was ‘better working hours’, although the attraction of a good script helped too.

“I really liked the script,” she says. “It was the story of a lot of people’s lives – living in isolation, making decisions by themselves, but in a world where we’re all very communication orientated. It was really about disconnection and that makes you aware of the repercussions of your behaviour.”