Reese Witherspoon Explains ‘How Do You Know’ Black Eye & Bloody Nose

Who says romantic comedies aren’t a contact sport?!?

While shooting her latest film, “How Do You Know,” Reese Witherspoon took one for the team – literally – as she suffered a black eye and a bloody nose during the movie’s brief softball scene.

“I got popped in the eye. I got a black eye. Oh, I got a bloody nose,” Tony Potts at the film’s junket over the weekend.

“It was kind of cool. I was kind of into it,” she laughed.

While the film (co-starring Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson) doesn’t revolve around softball – in fact, it’s just a 20-second scene which shows the actress playing the sport in the film – Reese took her preparation for her craft very serious, even enlisting the help of some softball professionals.

“I trained for four months with all these softball Olympians and an incredible coach, Sue Enquist, who was an 11-time national champion,” Reese revealed. “They taught me, you know, how to basically look like I play softball.”

So how did the mishap happen?

“Were you not paying attention?” Tony asked.

“You sound like my coach!” Reese laughed.

“I was just practicing at home with friends and stuff and I just, you know, throw to keep my arm in shape and stuff. You know how we do – we’re professional athletes! Um, it’s called keeping it warm!” she joked. “But I told my coach, I said, ‘I got the ball in the eye’ and she was like, ‘Oh really? Who was wearing the glove?’ I was like, ‘Ugh, dude alright.’ I expected a little sympathy.”

But what did her kids think of her war wounds?

“They were there when I got it and I hit the ground – that freaked them out little bit, but then they thought it was cool,” she told Tony. “It’s like I’m the only mom at school with a black eye!”

“You drive up and nobody is going to mess with you, right?” Tony joked with the star.

“Yeah. I used to joke – you should see the other mom,” Reese smiled.