''Love'''s Lady Talks

After charming critics and crowds with her performance as Viola
in "Shakespeare in Love," Gwyneth Paltrow talks with EW about
her life on and off the movie screen.

By David Hochman

With critical raves and a best actress Golden Globe nomination
for ''Shakespeare in Love,'' Gwyneth Paltrow looks as if she's
heading down the road toward Oscar. In her role as Lady Viola,
she dons a mustache and manly swagger, infiltrates an all-male
theatrical troupe and becomes -- when she puts her dress back
on -- Shakespeare's muse; it's what the New York Times has
called the ''first great, fully-realized performance of her
career.''

A few weeks ago, Paltrow had a conversation at a cafe in
Hollywood with senior writer David Hochman, who wrote the
January 8 cover story about her for Entertainment Weekly
magazine. At the time, she had just recorded a song with Huey
Lewis, who will co-star as her father in an upcoming movie
about karaoke singers. The film is directed by Gwyneth's real-
life dad, Bruce Paltrow, who kept her in good spirits on the
set. ("My dad's very funny, and he's definitely not trying to
be a bossy director.") Read on for more of Paltrow's online-
only comments about ''Shakespeare,'' Hollywood, and her private
life:


Do you agree with the New York Times that ''Shakespeare'' is
the best work of your career?  
I think that's true, although I think I did some interesting
stuff in ''Sliding Doors,'' and I liked my work a lot in ''Hard
Eight'' and ''Flesh and Bone.'' Otherwise, it was just tiny
moments in movies here and there that I liked. There wasn't one
whole role like this to sink my teeth into.

What made ''Shakespeare'' different? 
I've never worked so hard on anything in my life. I was so spent
to the bone every day. I was using everything that I had, not
only because I was dealing with research of the period, but also
I had to keep everything straight about whether I was a boy or a
girl.

And there was the matter of your mustache... 
Yes! I mean, physically it was challenging because there were so
many hours getting ready, and the costumes were incredibly heavy.
I don't think anyone [on the set] was convinced I was a 14-year-
old boy. I had this big beanbag down my pants and this kind of
swagger. When I walked around in costume, I usually just acted
like a really effeminate guy.

Looking back on another recent project, what happened with ''A
Perfect Murder''? 
Well...

You got the script and you thought... 
I got the script, and I thought it was really fun. With a movie
like ''A Perfect Murder,'' my thinking was, this could be one of
those movies you watch on Spectravision when you drive up to
Santa Barbara for the weekend and get in a hotel and cuddle in
bed. That sounded like fun. Looking back, there really wasn't
anything to sink my teeth into. My role wasn't particularly
interesting, but I wanted to work with Michael Douglas, and I
had never done a big studio movie like that. I've done lots of
these little movies, and, maybe people are seeing me as too
precious. I just couldn't believe they wanted me in a big movie
like that. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with doing a fun,
Hollywood movie. Do I point to that one and I say, 'I'm really
proud of my acting in that?' No. But I don't think it discredits
me.

It doesn't look as if Harvey Weinstein [at Miramax] wants you to
do another big-studio movie anyway. 
I know. He's been good to me, but we definitely fight. We fight
about money a lot. One day, he'll be saying we have to cut your
price to do this kind of film, that it's an artistic movie; the
next day, he'll be announcing that it's a $40 million co-
production with Universal for which I've made about 10 cents to
the dollar. Or we fight about artistic things. Sometimes he'll
want to change something that would make the movie conceivably
more commercial. Sometimes he's absolutely right, and sometimes
he's absolutely wrong.

Yet you've become the poster child for Miramax. 
In the beginning of my career, everybody else seemed like a
complete Hollywood phony, but Harvey handed me scripts and said
`I want to work with you.' He's a real movie maker and he can be
brilliant. I definitely have a lot of respect for him. But, you
know, if I want to pay rent, eventually I have to do another
movie somewhere else.

They're getting you a lot of publicity, that's for sure. 
I'm so sick of myself! I am sick of it. This is the last cover
of a magazine [Entertainment Weekly] that I'm doing until I'm 30.
I can't stand myself anymore. I'm so sick of my face, and my
boring sound bites, my stupid interviews. The funny thing is,
people still have the wrong image of me.

Who do they think you are? 
They think I'm this very cool, stuck-up blonde. That I'm either
classy or bitchy. In this culture, if you're smart and blonde,
you're a bitch and you're cold and you're stuck up. But I am so
goofy and I am so not what they think. Yet, I kind of like the
fact that people perceive me differently, because I can keep the
best parts of myself private for my friends and my family. [Two
nervous fans approach Paltrow, who graciously signs an autograph
for them.]

Do you worry about never having privacy again? 
Some days. But I guess you only feel as exposed as you let
yourself. So I've felt far more exposed in my life than I do
now. I sort of learned how to keep what I need to keep to
myself, and I learned how to feel like my own person, since
it's possible that my every thought can be documented somewhere.