Reese Witherspoon admitted that she initially refused to portray the sex scenes for "Wild" because she was having difficulty recreating the emotional and drug-fueled scenes, Channel 24 reported.

Witherspoon stars in "Wild," a film based on the memoirs of Cheryl Strayed titled "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail." In an effort to find herself, Cheryl decided to embark on a 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.

During the filming, Witherspoon, who was playing Strayed, was asked to recreate a scene where she has sex while under the filming of drugs. The 38-year-old actress admitted that she found it difficult and initially did not want to do it.

However, she eventually decided to do the scenes and complimented Strayed on her courage to tell her tale despite having to relive any unpleasant memories or having her children read it.

"I had to make a choice as an artist," she said. "I couldn't honor and do justice to her story by just picking the parts that I was comfortable with."

Strayed's decision to backpack more than a thousand miles at only 26 years old follows a series of devastating events in her life, according to MSN.

Her mother died when she was 22 years old, which ended up with her becoming distant to her stepfather and siblings. She also started taking heroin and ended up being divorced from her husband.

Filming the sex scenes is not the only part Witherspoon had to struggle with, as Director Jean-Marc Valee also asked her not to perform physical training prior to the filming, according to an interview with Hollywood Reporter.

Valee wanted to be able to capture Witherspoon's real struggles on film and when the time came for the shoot, the actress was overwhelmed.

"I call my husband crying. I said, 'I ain't taking this. It's so cold.'," Witherspoon said.

She also recounted the emotional challenges in the film, saying, "Like one day I was getting divorced, and the next day my mother died, and the next day I was having sex with a stranger and shooting heroin."