After a seven-year hiatus, Gwyneth Paltrow is back on the big screen doing the kind of independent moviemaking she says has always been her favorite. Her return in Marty Supreme is certainly worth waiting for, even if it is in a supporting performance. As Kay Stone, a former actress now living another life as the wife of a business mogul (played by none other than Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary in his acting debut), she proves she hasn’t lost a beat in terms of creating fascinating, three-dimensional characters. Marty Supreme broke records when it opened in a limited six-theater platform run last weekend, and the critically praised movie that stars Timothée Chalamet goes wide on Christmas Day.
Paltrow joins me for this week’s special holiday edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side; we have been waiting many years to welcome her to our set for a wide-ranging discussion that touches on just about everything. Of course we talk Marty Supreme and learn that before signing on for this return to movie, she had never seen Chalamet in anything or, for that matter, a Safdie movie, but she says it is nice to come back with a film that is getting this kind of reception.
We also discuss the irony of playing a person who is coming back to acting herself, but in a very different kind of way. Paltrow confesses to having been a bit insecure about whether she still had it, and it is a different world in moviemaking than the one she left (she started her own wildly successful business with Goop), and that includes working with intimacy coordinators for her sex scenes with Chalamet, as well as flipping the usual Hollywood script and playing an older woman involved with a young man. We also talk about the remarkable marketing tactics for the film for which she gives all the credit to her co-star. Paltrow is getting good notices for her performance but confesses that she hasn’t read any of the review. In fact, she never has read reviews in her career and doesn’t intend to start.
We also talk about many of those past films and how she looks at them now, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s debut, Hard Eight, Emma, Sliding Doors, Iron Man, Seven and more. She even mentions one movie she wishes she had turned down. Paltrow confesses that she doesn’t remember anything about her Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love at only age 26, except maybe that the iconic pink dress she wore is more famous than she is. We also talk about how her godfather, Steven Spielberg, gave her an early break, casting her as Wendy in Hook. We discuss her Miramax years, working with Harvey Weinstein and all the conflicted feelings, but she says she is proud of the movies they made and has no regrets about those films. We also talk about how important it is to keep indie movies alive along with the theatrical experience.
There is so much more here including wanting to fulfill the promise she made to her mother, Blythe Danner, that she will return to her roots on the stage one day (it has been 23 years since she did Proof in London), and why she has not yet committed to making another film after Marty Supreme.
To watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Gwyneth Paltrow, just click the link above.
Join me every Wednesday this Oscar season for a new episode of The Actor’s Side, and every Monday for a new edition of Behind the Lens.