Actor Reese Witherspoon wanted a skilful woman at the heart of her debut novel, whose character arc was not reliant on sex appeal or violence.

The 49-year-old actress has collaborated with best-selling author Harlan Coben on the thriller Gone Before Goodbye, which centres on Maggie, an accomplished surgeon who is trapped in a deadly conspiracy.

“Growing up, I always saw James Bond movies, my dad was obsessed with them, but I was like, why are (the girls) all in bikinis, and I don’t understand what that’s got to do with solving the crime,” Reese told BBC News.

“If I was going to do a thriller, I wanted the woman to be at the centre of it. I wanted her to have a unique skillset everybody in the world wanted… She’s actually just very smart and very intuitive and an incredible surgeon.”

Witherspoon explained that her parents’ jobs – her father was a medical doctor and her mother was a nurse – were a source of inspiration for the characters in Gone Before Goodbye.

The Legally Blonde star recalled growing up in a medical military family on a military base and being surrounded by other parents who were also medical professionals.

“There was this sense of service, and that what they were doing was an important service to humanity, but also to their country,” she said.

Witherspoon is pushing for more strong female leads in Hollywood and is determined to use her successful Hello Sunshine company to fill “the gap”.

“I started Hello Sunshine in 2011 because I just wasn’t seeing complex storytelling for women in the movie space,” the Oscar-winning star said.

“So, in a way, I was just taking the relationships I’ve had from 30 years of being an actor and just helping shine a light on women who were ready for those opportunities.”

Witherspoon has followed the likes of Keanu Reeves and Millie Bobby Brown by penning a novel.

“This is a big new frontier for me. And it just made me feel like, gosh, creativity doesn’t stop at any one age. It just goes on and on,” she said.