Dialogue With Gwyneth Paltrow, Showest 2004 Decade Of Achievement In Film

Gwyneth Paltrow turned heads in 1993 with her performance as Ginnie in "Flesh and Bone." Since then, she has continued to choose daring and unpredictable film roles, from a turn in 1996's "Emma" to one in Focus Features' critically acclaimed 2003 release "Sylvia." Paltrow received a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's muse in 1998's "Shakespeare in Love." She spoke recently from London with Angela Phipps Towle for The Hollywood Reporter about being discovered by Harvey Weinstein, changing her perspective following the 2002 death of her father and fighting morning sickness on the set of Miramax's upcoming drama "Proof."



The Hollywood Reporter: What drew you to acting in the first place?

Gwyneth Paltrow: I always remember wanting to do it, I think because I was around my mother. I would watch her rehearse plays and dress up; it just looked enchanting and magical.



THR: What type of acting schooling did you have?

Paltrow: None. I started as soon my parents (director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner) said I could — which was not before I turned 18. They didn't want me to be an actor; they worried that it was such a difficult way to make a living and that it could be so heartbreaking. My mother wanted me to be an anthropologist or an art historian — one of the areas I was interested in in school — but I just knew acting was what I was born to do, or at least born to try to do. It was so deeply in me.



THR: What was your first big break?

Paltrow: My first real break came when I was doing a play in Williamstown, (Mass.), and I went to New York City to audition for this movie called "Flesh and Bone." I went through a bunch of auditions, and I ended up getting the part. When that film came out, the reception to my performance was amazing. That movie is how my relationship with Harvey Weinstein started because he said, "I saw you in this movie, and I want to put you in movies."



THR: How did that relationship develop?

Paltrow: He sent me a bunch of stuff, and then I read "Emma," and I begged him to let me do it. Then, when "Emma" came out, that was another really big turning point for me.

THR: How did you convince Weinstein to give you that part?

Paltrow: He said, "I'll give it to you, but you have to do another movie in return." With him, it's always quid pro quo.



THR: How did your career change after "Emma"?

Paltrow: After "Emma," I started to get offered really good movies. I suppose people thought: "It's not a fluke. She knows what she's doing." People started to take me seriously.



THR: You won a best actress Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love." Why did you want to play that role?

Paltrow: It was this totally brilliant script that Tom Stoppard had written — it was a perfect screenplay, and you really don't get to read very many of those. But at the same time, I didn't think it was going to turn out to be what it was. I thought it would be a very good Miramax arty movie, so I didn't feel any pressure going into it.



THR: What did you enjoy about a role that took you behind the scenes during Shakespeare's era?

Paltrow: Well, it's totally fictional, but it was amazing to pretend that the "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" sonnet was written about my own character, to immerse myself in all the plays and sonnets. It was very fulfilling.



THR: You've appeared in screwball comedies and films based on great literature. Is there something specific you look for when choosing a role?

Paltrow: There hasn't been any rhyme or reason to it. Some of the choices have been instinctual, and then some of them I took just because I needed to pay rent. There's no common denominator.



THR: Looking back at the past 10 years, how do you feel about acting? What keeps you interested?

Paltrow: I think for a good few years, I worked too much — the joy of it was drained a bit for me. Then I took some time off and did a play over here and rethought my approach. I realized that I would prefer to work less and do things that are really challenging or different — and if that means that I have to do my own laundry, then so be it. The whole business of being a young actress in Hollywood became transparent to me: Everybody wants you to be something, but what do you really want to be? What's important to you in terms of how you see yourself? What kind of woman do you want to be, and what kind of artist do you want to be? Now, I feel like I'm coming at it from a very different place than, say, when I was 25.



THR: What triggered that realization for you?

Paltrow: A couple of things. Doing the play "Proof" in London really connected me to why I was doing this in the first place, and it was such a fulfilling experience. And then my father died, (and) I realized that life is incredibly finite. I'm so lucky because I have this amazing job, and I can leave something in the world when I die — I would like it to be good. Especially now that I'm going to have a child, my priorities changed.



THR: You were directed by your father in the 2000 release "Duets." What was that experience like?

Paltrow: It was very special for us because he had been trying to get the film made for a long time: It was that classic independent-film problem of it coming together and then falling apart three or four times. Finally, it came together, and we were all so excited. Then we found out he had cancer. He had to undergo the surgery and the radiation right before we started filming, so the whole time he was doing that film, he was eating through a tube in his stomach. I literally don't know how he survived that shoot, but he did, and we were all up there together: My brother (Jake) was there every day on-set, and my mother was there looking after him. I'll always remember it as one of the most special times for all of us.



THR: With "Proof," what was the benefit of performing the material onstage then making a film version?

Paltrow: I said to director John Madden, "God, every movie I ever do, I want to do the play of it first!" You get the most incredible insight by doing that: You spend weeks and weeks studying who somebody is, (and) you get to know your part so well — then you learn so much from doing it every night in front of an audience. So to do it as a film, I felt so well-prepared. Thank God, because I was so nauseous every day during filmmaking. I was really glad I had done that homework!



THR: You also are set to appear this summer in Kerry Conran's retro sci-fi film "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." What drew you to that project?

Paltrow: I met up with (co-star) Jude Law and (producers) Sadie Frost and Jon Avnet at an office in London one day. They said, "We want to show you this short film and give you the script." They showed it to me, and I was sold: The look of it was so amazing, and I was so intrigued. As an audience member, I wanted to know what happened next — then I read it, and it was so fantastic. I just signed up on the spot. It's something really special; I feel really excited about it.