the Mr. Showbiz Interview - Gwyneth Paltrow - the "Pitt" girl

http://mrshowbiz.go.com/interviews/314_1.html


Gwyneth Paltrow fights the glare of the spotlight on her way to
film superstardom and a storybook marriage

By Michael Szymanski


GWYNETH PALTROW knows how to make an entrance. Clad in a long red
dress and sporting a short, Funny Girl-style hairdo, the lithe
actress strides into a Beverly Hills hotel looking the very picture
of Hollywood glamour. Just then, an autograph-seeking fan accosts
her with a tabloid bearing her likeness on its cover. "I can't
believe that someone at my engagement party sold their photographs
to the Globe!" she grimaces, shaking her head in astonishment. But
her statement of disbelief is just force of habit. After spending
the last couple of years as a rising movie star and as half of the
world's hippest, most beautiful couple, the future Mrs. Brad Pitt
is all too aware of the pitfalls of celebrity.

It's easy to see why the media and the public are so fascinated
with this talented, pedigreed showbiz princess, who is the daughter
of producer-director Bruce Paltrow (St. Elsewhere) and actress
Blythe Danner. Given all the attention, her upcoming wedding to
Pitt is bound to take place one of two ways: under wraps, with
secret-service-grade security; or exposed to a SWAT team of
helicopters, paparazzi, and other hangers-on. Bet on the former
scenario, as the actress is beyond weary with all the attention
she and her fiance have gotten. "I need something that is for
myself," she pleads. "I need something that other people don't
know about and shouldn't be privy to."

Paltrow would rather not discuss her personal life at all. She's
here to promote Hard Eight, an independent film about a gambler
(Philip Baker Hall) who takes a luckless stranger (John C. Reilly)
under his wing; she plays Clementine, a cocktail waitress and part-
time hooker who befriends the pair and quickly finds herself in
trouble. The film's director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has nothing
but praise for his leading lady: "Gwyneth has this aura about her,"
he says. "You know she'll be a big star someday and make it on the
cover of all the magazines--not just because of who she's marrying,
but because of her talent." That talent will be on display in a full
slate of upcoming movies, including Great Expectations, in which she
stars opposite Ethan Hawke and Robert De Niro; Kilronan, with
Jessica Lange; the quirky English picture Sliding Doors; and a
karaoke comedy called Duets, in which she'll co-star with Mr. Pitt
himself. Sitting down for a chat with reporters, she gladly
discussed all of these films, pled for her privacy, and reluctantly
let slip a few words about her storybook romance.

Mr. Showbiz: With Hard Eight, you've taken what seems to be an
essential step in the career of any successful actress: playing a
prostitute. Did you have any trepidation about taking on that kind
of role?

Gwyneth Paltrow: No, not really, most importantly because I didn't
view her primarily as a prostitute. This was a woman who behaved in
a very complicated way which she did not understand, and her being a
prostitute was incidental to me. So it wasn't like I set out and said,
"Oooh good, I'm going to be a hooker," and have my little rite of
passage into Hollywood actress-dom.

MS: How did you prepare for this film? Did you talk to any of the
working girls in Reno during the shoot?

GP: No. I just approached it like I would any other character that
I've played. It was so well written and specific in the script that
I didn't feel the need to do that.

MS: Is that what drew you to the film?

GP: Yes, I really jumped at the chance to play this girl. Although
she's not a role model and shouldn't be a role model for young women
across the land, I love that she was so specific. She had problems
and she was very three-dimensional. She's very complicated, she's not
intellectual whatsoever, she's not cerebral in any way. She just reacts
to things.

MS: A lot of gambling takes place in Hard Eight. Did you do any
gambling off the set?

GP: No.

MS: You weren't tempted to join any of the games?

GP: No, I don't do any gambling. I left that to Philip [Baker Hall].
Well, I did blackjack. I did play a couple of hands one night, but it
didn't go so well. So I just stopped; I quit while I was ahead.

MS: I've heard that you had a lot of fun shooting the wedding scene
in Hard Eight. It certainly looked like a lot of fun.

GP: It was the most surreal experience. We were in a real wedding
chapel in Reno, and it was so cheap and so depressing. You could not
believe that anyone would really get married in a place like this.
There were polyester red curtains, fake lattice work on the walls.
The owner was this lady, and her daughter was there, and they were
totally confused about what was going on. They thought it was a real
wedding. The guy who was performing the ceremony didn't really know
what was going on, and in the movie, when he puts the video in you
see me laughing hysterically, and that's totally real and
uncontrollable. I thought I was going to completely lose control.

MS: While we're on the subject of weddings . . . There aren't too
many people who get on the cover of People magazine when they get
engaged. I have a two-part question: first, what can you tell us
about that--

GP: You can go straight to part two.

MS: What has it been like for you this past year--the magazine
covers, the publicity blitz, and all the attention about you and
your career?

GP: It's been surreal, it's been a strange time. You don't expect
it. You think, "Well maybe I'll be a person that someone wants to
put in movies," but you don't realize everything else that goes
along with it. You don't know going in what it's going to be like,
or how invading it is, and what people will do to get information
and lie about you.

MS: You seem quite a bit more defensive and guarded than you have
in past interviews.

GP: It's not that I'm defensive. Unfortunately, I'm not the one who
decided to become defensive. People have become inappropriate.
People have pushed too far. People have climbed one too many fences.
People have scanned one too many phone calls. You know, it's very
hard. I'm just tired of it. So in order to protect myself and my
life and what's private and precious to me, I just talk less. I need
something that is for myself. I need something that other people don't
know about and shouldn't be privy to.

MS: Has all the attention you've gotten--the magazines, tabloid TV,
and the rest--taken anything away from the occasion of your marriage?

GP: No, we would never let anything enter into our personal situation
in any way. I mean, I think it's flattering when someone says, "This
performance was just terrific and we're putting you on the cover of
People magazine." But to put someone on the cover because they're in
love, or engaged--it's really trivial and it doesn't say good things
about our society and what our interests are. It's just annoying. You
think that people are stupid because they care. There are far more
interesting things to be discussing than how we got engaged or why I
cut my hair. Why don't people go out, if they're that bored? Go out and
volunteer at a homeless shelter, you know what I mean?

MS: But in a sense it's just escapism, isn't it? You seem to live this
storybook, glamorous life, and people just want to know everything they
can about it, and put themselves in your shoes.

GP: Oh gosh . . . I mean . . . well, you know, there's aspects of that
that are true, you know? Just like with any wonderful relationship or
romance, there's always storybook qualities to it, but then again we're
just two people. It's impossible to convey because people don't seem to
get it. But it's true, we're just two people.