What's The Frequency Gwyneth? An Interview with actress Gwyneth Paltrow
By A.J. Claire

http://www.drdrew.com/publish/profiles/A390.html


Brad Pitt's girlfriend. That's what they used to call
Gwyneth Paltrow. Of course, that was before Shakespeare
(and the rest of us) fell in love with her. For her
brilliant performance in Shakespeare in Love, Ms.
Paltrow was rewarded with an Oscar, a Golden Globe for
Best Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award. With the
films that followed (Great Expectations, Sliding Doors
and A Perfect Murder), Gwyneth has become Hollywood's
It Girl, nabbing leading roles while rubbing elbows
with the Tinseltown's elite. In other words, she has
arrived.

Gwyneth began acting at age 11, tutored by her actress
mother, Blythe Danner, and her director/producer father,
Bruce Paltrow. She made her feature film debut in 1991's
Shout, and after a few mildly successful films, Ms.
Paltrow won the hearts of both moviegoers and critics
with her performance in Emma. Paltrow, who can currently
be seen in The Talented Mr. Ripley, recently wrapped
production on Bounce with on-again, off-again boyfriend
Ben Affleck. The film was written and directed by Don
Roos, who requested she change her hair color for the
part. "I think he was sick of the whole blonde Gwyneth
Paltrow person, as was I," she told drDrew.com. "I made
it brown and I'm keeping it for awhile." Blonde,
brunette, bald...it makes no difference to us. We're
hooked.

drDrew.com: So are people treating you differently as a
            brunette?
Gwyneth Paltrow: Well, people don't know who I am, which
is great. Now I can get around much easier. I’m in New
York City with my parka on and a pair of sunglasses and
nobody has a clue who I am. It's nice to feel like I can
be a part of life instead of being on the outside. It's
great to feel like I can observe humanity and not be so
isolated and stared at.

drDrew.com: Was it getting a bit dicey there for awhile?
GP: Yes, after the Oscars it was very dicey. It was
difficult for me to move around and I felt so exposed
and in everybody's glare. It became very overwhelming
and I just wanted to go hide somewhere. I felt like I
couldn’t sustain the energy that comes with all that
attention.

drDrew.com: You seemed to handle it very well.
GP: I think I was just on another planet. I was so
disassociated from what was going on, and the stress
level was really high for me. It was incredibly
surreal and I just couldn't make sense of it all. I
was just trying to get through it.

drDrew.com: You recently filmed Duets with your father.
            What was that like?
GP: It was so great doing a movie with my dad. He's so
loving and hilarious. He totally spoiled me the entire
time. We were shooting and Hole was doing a concert in
Vancouver. It started at seven and I was like, "Daddy,
Courtney's playing tonight--can I get out of work
early?" He was like, "Of course you can get out of
work." It was so great.

drDrew.com: How did you become friends with Courtney Love?
GP: Through the famous people club, I guess. You meet
people and you're like, "Hi, you're famous and we're
supposed to act like we're friends." But then you
actually become friends with some people. I've spent
some time with [Courtney] over the years--I think she's
really incredible. She has a lot of personal power and
she's pretty cool.

drDrew.com: Who are some of your other celebrity friends?
GP: I'm really good friends with Madonna. I have some
other celebrity friends like Drew Barrymore, who I love
a lot. I don't get to see them much or spend time with
them, but I love when I get a chance to chat with them.
We're all so peripatetic, it's hard to be in the same
place or make time for each other.

drDrew.com: How did you meet Madonna?
GP: When I was 12 years old, Leo Penn, who is Sean
Penn's father, was directing some episodes of St.
Elsewhere for my father and he caught me trying to
smoke a cigarette. So Leo asked Sean to ask Madonna
to write me a letter saying that she didn't smoke. So
I have this letter from Madonna saying don't smoke.'
That's sort of where it started, and we have mutual
friends, so we met later on through them.

drDrew.com: Are you content with your life right now?
GP: I'm content a lot of the time and I think it comes
from taking the time to just be with myself, meditating,
doing yoga, connecting with what's real. The
relationships in my life have improved. It's a matter
of getting things in the right perspective and putting
things in order.

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