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- by Dan Epstein -
(Journalist In Love)
Gwyneth Paltrow is kind of cool to sit across from
being that she's a very sweet - and young - lady. While never a monstrous
fan of hers, I could still appreciate the fact that she was willing to
work in an eclectic range of movies, such as Shallow Hal and Wes Anderson's
The Royal Tenenbaums.
Certainly, it is another thing to work with someone
as controversial as Neil LaBute whose films have divided audiences, critics
and sometimes, even couples. Gwyneth talks about working with Aaron Eckhart
[I heard they had conflicts on the set of Possession] and if she would
have liked to have been the deaf secretary in LaBute's In the Company
of Men.
The website for Possession is:
 Why
do you have this natural affinity for roles in movies that take place
in England?
I don't know. I think that I was lucky that I was born with the ability
to imitate people and do accents. I was born with a musical ear, so that
helps with accents. Then, I think that I have an advantage as an American
that understands British culture. I spend a lot of time there, so I have
a real sense of the differences between them and an American's behavior,
sense of humor and thinking. I like British people. I like working there,
and I think I have insight into them.
Did that understanding predate Emma? [Released in 1996]
No, definitely not. I hadn't spent really any time over there
until Emma. But I grew up around theater people, and there were always
a lot of Brits around.
What made you want to do Possession?
It was Neil LaBute. I just think he has a great brain and has
a real point of view, which is rare. I always feel that, if I can work
with somebody who has a unique way of perceiving human beings and the
way they interact...he does that. The films he made previous to this [Your
Friends & Neighbors and In the Company of Men] were very strong. Nurse
Betty came out during the shooting of this. Those other films were strong,
and sometimes difficult to watch, but I like that. I like people who push
buttons and challenge sociological ideas. I think he was a really interesting
choice for the material.
 Had
you read the book previously?
No, I read it when I knew I was going to do the movie. I thought
Neil did an amazing job of adapting it, because the book is so dense,
and he was able to boil down the most cinematic aspects of the story and
change the necessary things.
What about the idea of being an academic detective? That's kind
of unusual for a movie.
It was intriguing. That's the thing that's big. I just did Proof,
in London [Proof is the story of an enigmatic young woman, her manipulative
sister, their brilliant father, and an unexpected suitor. They are all
pieces of the puzzle in the search for the truth behind a mysterious mathematical
proof.] These academics have a lot of drama in their lives. We just watched
a documentary about Andrew Wilde while we were doing Proof, the guy who
proved Fermat's Last Theorem, and it was so much drama. There were tears
and a race against time. It is very dramatic, especially when you are
trying to solve mysteries. That's what they do in their research.
Since Neil and Aaron have worked together so much do they even
talk on set, or is it all just telepathy?
They have a real ease with each other, and there is something
that feels very familiar between them. You can sense their comfort level
with each other. Also, in a way, it's almost like they are working together
for the first time. There's not a lot of inside jokes. They have a sort
of gentlemanly kind of formality, but then you can see them laughing in
the corner during breaks.
 Have
you ever obsessed over anyone from the past like that?
Not really. Sure, there are people I've connected to, but no
one I've ever been obsessed with.
Aaron has a very intense screen presence. What is it about him?
He takes it very seriously, which is nice. He works very hard,
does a lot of research and approaches it from the method standpoint, which
gives it a lot of weight and sinks him into it. He kept journals, because
his character did. It's very interesting to watch and work with that.
How does that contrast with the way you work?
I do all my work at home. Then, when I am at work, I am very
much myself when I am in front of the camera. It helps me to snap in and
out of character. I don't know why that is, but I don't feel like I ever
take the character home with me. I don't keep doing the accent between
takes. I really let it drop, then bring it back. It's nice to work with
someone who does things completely differently. You learn things.
Like, when I was doing Proof for six weeks in London, that was the perfect
amount of time. Jennifer Jason Leigh, an old friend of mine, was doing
Proof in New York at the same time, and she would email me, "I have
74 performances left." She was in it forever. I could imagine that
doing it for a year would be difficult.
Would you do the film adaptation of Proof?
If it ever comes up, I would definitely like to do it.
 If
Your Friends & Neighbors and In the Company of Men had come your way,
would you have wanted to be in them?
I'm not sure. Probably. I don't know about In the Company of
Men. That might have been a little tough [laughs]. But Your Friends &
Neighbors was really interesting, provocative and very well written. Again,
the thing I love about Neil's writing is that he doesn't write in movie
dialogue; he writes in the way people speak, and I love that. They're
speaking with truth. So often, with movie dialogue, you have this barrier
between what you are saying and what feelings you are bringing up.
Did you meet A.S. Byatt? [The author of the original book, Possession]
Yes. She came to set one day. She's fantastic. I was a little
intimated. She wrote the book of the movie I was on, and she won all these
awards. She was very nice, and happy that I was cast as Maude.
You're doing another book from British culture with the movie
based on Sylvia Plath. Is she going to be a victim or a monster? [Paltrow
is to star in a BBC Films co-production about the tragic love affair between
poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes]
Not at all. I'm not interested in vilifying people. I don't
think there is anything interesting or informative to be derived from
that. It takes two people to compose a relationship. I wanted it to feel
like a documentary. I wanted his side completely represented as well.
I think he loved her always, and it was one of those relationships that
was so full of passion. They both informed each other's work. I want it
to be about them, but also what was between them. I don't subscribe to
the view that he was a misogynist and he was responsible for her demise.
I think life is far more complicated than that.
We just hired another director Christine Jeffs, director of Rain. I think
she's amazing. Rain was such a beautiful film. I was really happy with
the idea of a woman doing the film.
You have any good stories from the set of Possession?
I am so bad at this kind of thing. I can never remember anything.
It was kind of funny the day that Aaron had to jump into the waterfall.
He was acting like it was the biggest deal ever. It did look kind of scary.
It was this brown murky water, with all these minerals in it. He was making
such a big deal out of it and then I got down there and it was really
scary. But he dove right in.
 You
seem to have two careers going. One is a mainstream movie actress and
the other is an independent, riskier film actress. Is this by design?
It's by design that occasionally you have to do something commercial
because your agent is about to weep from frustration. I obviously prefer
to do the smaller films that have much more artistic integrity. Although
I had a great time shooting Shallow Hall [released in 2001 starring Jack
Black]. It was really fun to do something that was mindless, funny and
silly. It was a nice break for me to get to be in a Farrelly Brothers
movie.
But I feel that there aren't a lot of films that have integrity, are
highbrow and are commercial at the same time. I feel like there used to
be films like Thelma & Louise, Silence of the Lambs, movies that had
women in them that were well written, well directed and made a ton of
money. They just don't seem to make them anymore. The people who make
the high quality films that are commercially successful, like Peter Weir,
Ridley Scott, they make boy movies. So its very hard to find something
that does to do both. I haven't made any money in a year, and I have a
whole new year where I am not going to make any money because I have three
low budget movies. Next year, I will probably have to do something commercial.
Last question about Possession. At one point, the Victorian
character of Christabel LaMotte writes that she ended up where she was
because of a miscarriage. Your character Maud says that she can relate.
That was never expounded on. Was there a scene that was cut out?
No, it wasn't. It's just a non-Hollywood movie where you have
to connect the dots yourself.
Thank you so much.
- by Rebecca Murray -
(Shallow Hal as 'Rosemary')
What attracted you to this role?
I thought it was a really sweetly written movie. It was so, so funny -
it's the usual Farrelly Brothers fare in that way - but at the same time
it was so sweet and kind of ultimately protective and championing heavier
people. So I thought that was something really nice, and something I wanted
to be a part of.
 This
is departure from your usual roles.
I thought doing this movie would be a nice kind of paradox.
Was it not to have to wear corsets on set for a change?
It was very nice not to have to cry, or wear corsets, and to just have
some fun.
What did you learn when you wore the "fat suit" out
in public for the first time?
It was a very upsetting day because I got on the make-up and went downstairs
and walked thru (the lobby) and nobody would make eye contact with me
at all. Everybody was very dismissive. I got a real sense of what it's
like to be a heavy person in this country and how people are so insensitive
and degrading. It gave me great empathy for people who are heavy.
Did it change your way of thinking?
Yes, I would never have any concept of what it is like to be a heavy person,
had I not done this movie and actually lived a good portion of my day
and work week as a heavy person.
- by Susan Stark -
(Bounce as Abby Janello')
 For
starters, she's eye-catchingly blond again. In sharp contrast to the loose-fitting,
mostly pastel wardrobe for her character, she wears the cutting-edge Manhattanite's
classic autumn wardrobe: knee-high black leather boots, a black calfskin
skirt and a simple black skimp of a top.
For all the nonsensical stuff she has inspired from tabloids
at home and paparazzi abroad during the last few years, Gwyneth Paltrow
seems encouragingly calm, grounded, open.
So far, your choice of roles makes it impossible to identify
a typical Gwyneth Paltrow movie. That's totally enviable, from the professional
point of view. What are the three essentials you look for when choosing
roles?
First is script. That's the whole thing because it would just
be like an exercise in ego to pick something that was just a showy part
if it is something that ultimately doesn't have very much that's redeeming
about it. Then it's the people involved -- director, actors. And then
the role itself is third, I think.
Shakespeare in Love has all of that, and the third essential
must have just leaped out at you. What was your on-impact reaction to
that script?
I was absolutely blown away by how perfect that script was. I
think it's the only perfect script I've ever read. How he (Tom Stoppard)
managed to weave in the humor and the backstage, inside joke and the deep
romance and pathos of this love story where they don't end up together:
It was perfect. I think Tom Stoppard is the greatest living playwright-screenwriter-writer.
I was lucky. I was really lucky.
 How
hard, annoying, pleasant or all of the above is it to be known as the
golden girl? And how much effort does it take to maintain that image?
I'm not very attached to what people think about me or write
about me. I don't read anything -- not reviews, interviews. I don't get
sent any of that stuff any more. I stopped getting sent all the clippings
about a year and a half ago, after the Oscars and it has changed my life.
It's so unhealthy (the other way). I mean, who needs to come home at the
end of the day and there's this stack (of stories) in the fax machine
about all this ridiculous stuff? It's just so unhealthy. I've come to
a place in my life where I understand that people are gonna project things
upon my image, upon my two-dimensional image.
On your persona?
Exactly. On my magazine, film, TV image. And that's all fair
game. But I can't let any of those projections sort of get into my perception
of myself. So therefore it's neither annoying nor flattering nor hard
work. I see myself as very separate from my public self.
 Yet
what of the uncounted people who, at a young age, have been thrown off
balance if not destroyed by celebrity?
When you're young, when you're in your 20s (as Paltrow is), you
have no real sense of who you are; no sense of what's important to you;
of what kind of choices you want to make. You don't do anything mindfully,
unless you're, like, an incarnation of the Dalai Lama or something and
you're taught to (do that) from birth. It's all a game of where the chips
may fall and is that gonna give me a clue who I am. If at 20-whatever,
grown-ups start catering to you and start removing your obstacles, you
absolutely lose sense of what the world is like. You have no idea who
you are so that combination is deadly, absolutely deadly. You asked before
what's hard about my situation in life right now. What's hard is that
I have to actively seek normalcy. Because if you don't set your mind on
that course, you'll get swept up into the celebrity thing and you'll be
changed.
In your own mind, has celebrity changed you at all?
I don't do it perfectly. I know I've changed. My father (veteran
director Bruce Paltrow) tells me that I am impatient in ways that I shouldn't
be at this age: "People can't do things fast enough for you."
It's unhealthy. And so I just don't know what I'd do without my parents
making observations like that, being honest with me. Because then you
start to say to yourself, "You know, this is really true."
Plus you know they're on your side, right?
Of course. So it's not like someone trying to submarine you in
some way. All they want for me is to be happy. And they know that being
a good person and being content is what I want for my life. So they help
me and they're honest with me.
You already have an Oscar to your credit. The bar has been raised.
For the next stretch -- say 10 years -- have you set specific professional
goals for yourself?
No. Because I think if you do that, you limit yourself in some
way. The only professional goal that I have is that I'd like to do more
theater in the next 10 years.
Do you have any firm plans to get on the stage?
I may go back to Williamstown (home of a famed summer theater
in Connecticut) this summer and do a play.
You feel you are not ready for the West End (in London) or Broadway?
(Paltrow sighs deeply). Maybe. I could be persuaded. I'm scared
to, but I'll do it.
 You
come from acting/directing royalty: Your dad Bruce Paltrow is a veteran
director; your mom, Blythe Danner, is a veteran actress. If the chairman
of the world had said you could have no career in the arts, what work
do you think you would have chosen?
I would have been a chef. I really enjoy cooking, although I
would have liked to go to school and learn how to do it properly. And
I LOVE eating. I know that I'm cursed with one of those really fast metabolisms,
but I do love to eat. I do work out every day, though. I do yoga every
day. And I sweat.
For a lot of people over a lot of years, when they think of you
it will be you on Oscar night: Whisper thin in pink taffeta and diamonds.
You own that diamond necklace and earrings. Your parents bought them for
you. Have you worn them since?
(Laughing as if still in disbelief) Can you believe they did
that? And I bought myself the bracelet. Now, I keep everything in the
bank, in a safety deposit box. But when I first got them, I would wear
them around the house. You know, with my pajamas and stuff.
(Shrugging and smiling) Well, some day, if my granddaughter wants to
go out on Halloween as Gwyneth Paltrow 1998, she can have the whole outfit.
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