I was watching my second favorite version of Emma – the Gwyneth Paltrow version – over the Thanksgiving holiday and I had a brief moment of remembering when Gwenth was truly the hottest young actress out there. Like, 1994 to 2004-ish, Gwyneth could get anything made, she could say yes to any script, and she was one of the most famous women in the world. She also made several good movies in that time period, and some of them were produced by Harvey Weinstein, who assaulted her in the mid-’90s. It was pretty clear that the decade of work and romantic/tabloid drama had left her burned out and needing a life re-evaluation. So she stepped away and for the past 12 years or so, she’s only really taken supporting roles here and there, minus a Country Strong (lol). In a new interview, Gwyneth talked about how burned out she was & when she knew she needed to make a change:
In a new interview on SiriusXM’s Quarantined with Bruce, the Oscar winner, 45, says she was in her mid-twenties, fresh off an Oscar win for Shakespeare in Love, when she realized she didn’t “love acting that much as it turns out.”
“I sort of felt like, well, now who am I supposed to be?” she added. “Like, what am I, what am I driving towards? And, and again, like this wasn’t conscious at the time, but I started to feel, and, you know, frankly, I think part of my, part of the shine of acting wore off, you know, being in such intense public scrutiny, being a kid who’s like living every breakup on every headline… like being criticized for everything you do say and wear… And also, it’s so transitory, you’re always all over. It’s hard to plant roots. Like I’m such a homebody, you know me, I like to be with my old friends and cook and squeeze my kids. Like I don’t want to be alone in a hotel room in Budapest for six weeks. Like, it’s just not who I am.”
“If you compound those things with the fact that like, you know, to be totally candid, I had a really rough boss for most of my movie career at Miramax. Like, so you take all those things [and] you’re like, ‘I don’t know if this is really my calling.’ “
I think Gwyneth has handled all of this – the transition from actress to full-time Gooper – with a decent amount of grace. It always cracks me a little bit that Gwyneth now says that OF COURSE she would never deign to do a big starring role and she waves off all of those scripts and she has done for years. When the truth is that at some point, she just wasn’t getting those scripts anymore. She was no longer the ingenue who had her pick of the best projects. Which is why she started Goop in the first place – she was bored and she wasn’t working. But if she wants to tell us that it was all entirely her call, by all means. Put this on a t-shirt: “Like I don’t want to be alone in a hotel room in Budapest for six weeks. Like, it’s just not who I am.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Avalon Red.
Those quotes are the least insufferable things she’s said in 10 years. Now please excuse me while I remove my jade vagina egg.
Lol you joke, but it’s true. She comes across as… likable? here.
I will never forget that SATC episode when they said she suffers from high self esteem.
SATC = ?????
SATC = Sex and the City
hahahahaha Thats one of my favorite scenes. I love that you referenced it! LOL
Like, I don’t know if, like, I can really feel anything about this revelation. Like, she basically had this career because like you know her parents were famous. And like she had all this success that people spend their whole lives trying to make happen while they like wait tables and stuff. To like live, you know.
She can’t form a simple sentence. I got lost in that mess. Your version made more sense.
It made a lot more sense in only 4 sentences.
I was surprised to learn she speaks fluent spanish.
I really haven’t watched any of Gwyneth’s early stuff so I can’t comment on her talent at all. But I think to be so successful so young, whether she was truly talented or not, and to get an Oscar that young (how old was she? In her 20s?), it’s kind of like, what’s next now? She was basically handed the industry with both her parents working in it since it was really the only life she ever knew. I doubt she considered whether she’d truly enjoy it. She only takes supporting roles to support her Goop empire/lifestyle brand like Pepper in the Iron Man movies and Ryan Murphy projects (Glee, The Politician) and I have no issue with that. The bills have got to be paid somehow.
I mean she did a netflix series last year that’s a high value job no? But it also proves that yeah she’s still willing to work. Many ladies older than her still have jobs and not long ago she was doing marvel right? I feel like if she wanted to network and promote she could keep working. A woman looking old doesn’t hurt thing that much now imo, just saw Julia Roberts in homecoming and she is older than gp.
OMG that dress, that fit… I CAN’T. I don’t remember, is that a Marquesa? Wouldn’t be surprised. Interesting how quickly this PR damage control came out after last week’s post.🤨
Agreed. Awful. Think it was Ralph Lauren.
I always wonder how Ralph Lauren feels when they see photos of that heinous dress. How could they let it leave the fitting room? I have second hand embarrassment looking at it.
She forced them to remove the boning, against the designer’s wishes. Apparently he was crying over it. With the boning it probably fit really well.
If she didn’t want to be traveling for work she could have just done tv or taken local jobs. I agree it sounds more like excuses for realizing she wasn’t an it girl anymore.
sounds like she burnt out and not from acting as much as from doing publicity and having to deal with celebrity. acting is pretty fun, it’s doing publicity that sucks, most actors hate it. sad to hear that even a superstar like her could not enjoy acting without having to do the chores if she didn’t want to
Insufferable entitlement
She was a decent actress in the old rom com niche. I still love Sliding Doors. She’s been cleverer than most in her generation – she knew she didn’t have the talent to keep getting good scripts outside the rom com niche, and she found something silly and easy to do, helped by her fame and connections. To me it shows a basic level of self awareness… No rehab stints, no bankruptcy, kids seem to be doing OK – she’s a bit silly, but she’s harmless.
Great comment!
I loved Sliding Doors too! I also thought she was really good (perhaps because she was just playing to type) in Mordecai.
Remember that old article about her being a mean girl at Spence and making fun of Brad? Someone posted a link to it on this site years and years back. Having said that, I think Goop is generally harmless excepting some of her health advice. She’s always been sensible and her private life is in good order and her kids seem to have been raised in a good environment despite the parents divorcing. Initially she did have foot-in-mouth but IMO in recent years she does those outrageous quotes to get free advertising for her site – and it’s worked; GOOP was valued at $250 milllion early last year or this year, after some venture capital rounds.
Sliding Doors, Bounce, Duets, Shakespeare in Love, Emma. She was amazing in Flesh & Bone…a hard movie to watch. Gwyneth did some good flicks that I still watch. However, the minute she opens her mouth as CEO of GOOP, she looses me. I have always adored Blythe Danner who comes across as talented, self effacing, kind and humble. I have a hard time equating her with her self-absorbed, elitist daughter.
Well maybe it’s true. Or not. Gwyneth says what suits her best.. But I kind of believe her?
And I know no one agrees with me but I did enjoy Country Strong. The soundtrack was gold and I’m a sucker for musical movies. And dance movies as well FWIW.
That reminds me I have to watch Tracee’s new movie.
Funny–I also thought she was very good in CS–and I am hardly a GP fan, to say the least. (As well, it was a solid look at mega-country-stardom burnout/not being able to keep outrunning your demons.) That said, it’s a shame she can’t help other actors who aren’t as lucky as she was instead of wasting time rooking folks.
It’s funny how differently we can perceive people. One poster just wrote she couldn’t fit in movies outside the romcom niche.
I’m basically aware of her because of Flesh and Bone, Seven and Two Lovers, and some Tv drama with Robert Urich.
So to me, she’ s pretty good in dramas.
I know Seven is one of those films always cited to highlight Pitt’s chops ( too many schticks and overacting for my taste) but the most touching scenes really are with her and Freeman.
She’s so full of it. Her name was never box office draw,, her name and image was best to sell fashion magazines. She was never nominated for anothet Actademy award again, forever a presenter. She left acting bc she was not Julia Roberts or Meryl Streep. She still acts, but she’s doing that fox and grapes thing of disdaining the thing you can’t have. Go ahead G, get your coin.
Goop is a retail endeavor with limited life. She will always have an audience, yes, but she s staried positioning Apple for pimping out
She’s 48, not 45.
She is exhausting to read about, must be extra-exhausting to be around.
I kinda believe her. She was the big it girl-Jennifer Lawrence is the closest I can think of to compare her 20s to. And an actress like that if she wanted to could continue. I think she started GOOP while she was in London being a full time mom when her kids were young and found she preferred that lifestyle over the acting lifestyle. It never appealed to me either not just the location shooting which takes you from your home base but just having to constantly find new jobs. Then once she was out of acting for awhile people forgot about her like they will any actor that stops working for a couple of years.
I agree she could have kept doing movies if she wanted. She was huge back in the day.
I thought she left acting because 1) she wasn’t getting the roles she wanted like others mentioned above, and 2) Chris Martin wouldn’t support her in everything it involved – travel, being out all day, publicity – and so she found something to do from home. And she turned it into something lucrative, albeit stupid.
I wonder if she would have continued acting if she’d picked a different first husband? I think she’s a pretty good actress but she doesn’t have the depth of some of her contemporaries, like Cate Blanchett.
Yes, she’s a decent but never great actress.
Didn’t her dad die that year? That would throw a shadow over any professional accomplishment.
He died a few years later in 2002, but yes, he was sick when she won the Oscar.
If you look at her filmography it’s pretty obvious that had a big effect on her career. She was still being offered all sorts of prestige films back then, but during his illness and after his death she just wanted to do light and silly stuff as a sort of reprieve, so she turned down great roles for things like Shallow Hal and View from the Top. She returned to serious dramas a couple of years later, but even then she was pretty open about it not feeling like it used to.