Reese Witherspoon on her new 3-D adventure flick Monsters vs. Aliens, her kids and turning 33.

B-movie monsters must be in your debt, wouldn't ya say?

“I was really into the idea that 1950s B-movie monsters became heroes. I watched a lot of those movies as a kid with my dad. Every Saturday night, they would be on, so it was a really good modern concept and then to put a woman at the center of the film was pretty amazing.”

And your fave was ... ?

“Creature From the Black Lagoon. That was very scary.”

Your kids get that most moms don't get to play superheroes, right?

“I talked to my kids a lot about ‘Who’s your favorite superhero?’ While my son can name 27 different male superheroes, my daughter is like, ‘I don’t know. The girl with the … I can’t remember any of them.’”

And they're dealing with it how?

“My kids managed to maintain their coolness for awhile, but literally it has hit fever pitch at my house. They are rabid, and they wake up in the morning like, ‘When can we watch this movie?’ My daughter, who’s 9 and is trying to be cool, she’s like, ‘It’s OK, it's just ... how many people can I bring to the screening?’ I think she invited the entire third grade. I’m really enjoying this moment because usually my kids think I’m a gigantic dork, and they are so in love with me right now. It is great.”

We bet you have a lot in common with this 49-foot woman, doncha?

“Maybe at the end, [she has] a sort of tenacity, fierceness, taking care of the group. I'm kind of a mother hen that way even on movie sets.”

Give us the gossip on the Europe press tour!

“We got to see a lot of great stuff. In Madrid, we went to the Prada Museum, that was very cool; and in Paris, we got to go to the Musee D'Orse. Mr. Katzenberg is really nice because you can either have lunch and stay in the hotel or he'll say, 'Come on! Let's go see a museum!' and it motivates you to actually do things that are culturally interesting.”

Happy belated birthday! How's 33 treating ya?

“Older, yeah. I think I actually shrink. My mother is now four feet tall … It is a great thing to be able to be doing things with my kids and having them be proud of me. What’s better than feeling like you’ve accomplished things in life?”