“I play a very wealthy Montecito mom,” she says, rolling her eyes at the thought of seeing her scenes.
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On the day of our conversation, she has plans to watch the first episode of Ryan Murphy’s “The Politician,” the Netflix TV series. Occasionally, she’ll agree to a small role. “I will be interviewing experts and asking questions, and then we’ll go out into the field,” she says. Later this year, she’ll star in a Netflix docuseries for Goop that will be similar to the podcast she co-hosts. Her full-time job is as CEO of the lifestyle brand Goop, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company she launched with a newsletter packed with her recommendations of outlandish products - think coffee enemas and $50 toothbrushes - recipes and spectacular travel destinations.
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In person, she exudes the cool demeanor of a business executive rather than coming across as a movie star seeking approval. “It’s so clever in the way it tackles Shakespeare and all the inside jokes of show business.” Our Variety interview is the first Hollywood cover story for Paltrow, 46, in some time. Why does the movie work so well? “Honestly, it’s the screenplay,” Paltrow says. “But in my husband’s wedding vows, he actually said it’s no coincidence that I played this muse, because that’s who I am to him, and his perception is that’s who I am in real life. “I hope this isn’t too personal,” she says. Paltrow reveals that when she got married last September to the TV director and writer Brad Falchuk, he referenced “Shakespeare” at their ceremony. She wore the pants in the relationship with a young playwright named Will (Joseph Fiennes), who relied on her for inspiration. If the sunny ’90s launched with Julia Roberts as a prostitute in distress in “Pretty Woman,” the decade closed with Paltrow in “Shakespeare in Love” as the cross-dressing Viola, an empowered heroine who didn’t need to be rescued by a man. It boasted an ensemble of high-minded heartthrobs - Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Ben Affleck - in character parts. It made Judi Dench the grandest dame in the industry for portraying Queen Elizabeth in a brief, but deliciously tart, Oscar-winning supporting role. “Shakespeare in Love,” directed by John Madden from a script by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, still holds up. “A movie is not going to be successful if it’s not a good movie, not like that.”Īnd giving Weinstein all the credit underestimates the movie’s charms. We had a lot of fights.” She doesn’t believe that Weinstein’s involvement with “Shakespeare in Love” tarnishes the picture’s legacy. I also felt for a period of time, I was the consumer face of Miramax, and I felt it was my duty to push back against him. “I never had a problem standing up to him. Paltrow is honest about her own struggles with the volcanic producer. He proved that with enough spending and smearing, you could go up against Hollywood’s most successful filmmaker and win. On the business front, Weinstein introduced guerrilla tactics to push “Shakespeare” past the finish line with a campaign war chest of $15 million (unheard of for Oscars races back then). The mogul, later accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of actresses (including Paltrow), was kicked out of the Academy in 2017 for his alleged predatory behavior. The movie, which nabbed seven Oscars, defeated Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” for the best picture trophy in a cutthroat campaign led by Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein that borrowed from the playbook of political races with much higher stakes.
“Shakespeare in Love” had a similar crater-size imprint on Hollywood. “It happens in steps and stages, but that was like, ‘OK, you’re categorically not this anymore.’” She looks up. “I think you cross into some hemisphere of being recognized,” Paltrow says. Some 46 million viewers tuned in to see her in a pink Ralph Lauren ballgown, guaranteeing that she’d never be able to anonymously slip into a restaurant again. Her teary Academy Awards victory speech became an instant classic on the Oscars reel of memorable waterworks.
Though Paltrow had carried other films, including crowd-pleasers such as “Emma” and “Sliding Doors” - and she’d been a fixture in the tabloids for dating Brad Pitt - “Shakespeare in Love” cemented her status as a one-name brand. “I don’t think it ever went back to normal.” “It just changed my life,” Paltrow says on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles, reflecting on the impact of the 1998 romantic comedy that grossed nearly $300 million worldwide - a staggering achievement for an independent movie. Gwyneth Paltrow never felt the same after making “ Shakespeare in Love.” The movie that earned her the best actress Oscar 20 years ago transformed her into a global star.