She's her own man
Paltrow finally wears the trousers

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsP/paltrow_gwyneth.html

Tuesday, December 22, 1998
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun


NEW YORK -- One of the things Gwyneth Paltrow liked most about
filming Shakespeare in Love is that she got to be one of the boys.

In this romantic comedy, opening Christmas Day, Paltrow plays
Viola, a wealthy, bored Elizabethan woman who longs to be an actor.

Just one problem.

Women were not allowed onstage.

Viola is smitten with the plays and poetry of the budding young
playwright William Shakespeare, who is casting his latest comedy,
Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter.

Viola dresses as a young man and auditions hoping to secure a small
walk-on role.

Surprise! She gets cast as Romeo and thus begins a comedy of
mistaken identities, cross-dressing and star-crossed lovers that,
at times, threatens to rival the play Romeo and Ethel would become.

"Cross-dressing is so much fun. It's amazing to see the different
energy you get from men when you're wearing facial hair, a boy's
wig and men's clothing," recalls Paltrow.

"The days I was in full male makeup, the guys would end up treating
me like one of the boys.

"It didn't take long for them to forget I was a girl."

Paltrow never got around to thinking of herself as a man.

"I'm not very manly, so when I cross-dressed, I tended to think of
myself as this gay Elizabethan guy who wanted to be an actor. The
costume people gave me a bean bag to place in my tights to force
me to walk differently. That helped a great deal."

After a week or so in tights, Paltrow was eager to wear Viola's
sumptuous Elizabethan court gowns.

"Period movies are the ultimate dress-up roles. When you're wearing
period costumes, you don't see yourself in the mirror."

Paltrow gets a few scenes in Shakespeare in Love where she doesn't
wear men's or women's garb -- and this time, she didn't use a body
double as she did in Great Expectations.

"Shakespeare in Love is so beautifully romantic. I felt the nude
scenes worked for the movie, so I agreed to do them.

"Plus, in (co-star) Joseph Fiennes and (director) John Madden, I
was dealing with really sensitive men.

"Joe is very sweet and angelic and very, very shy. I was naughty.
I'm naturally outgoing and loud and I prodded him into fooling
around on the set."

Paltrow's real-life beau, Ben Affleck, has a cameo in Shakespeare
in Love as Ned Alleyn, a haughty actor just returned from a
successful tour of the provinces.

"As soon as Ben read the script, he wanted to be part of the
project.... I always love it when a movie star can lose himself
completely in a role and that's what Ben does in this movie."

Shakespeare in Love was originally developed for Julia Roberts and
Daniel Day-Lewis. When they dropped out, the project languished for
a few years until Harvey Weinstein, the head of Miramax Films,
purchased the rights for Paltrow.

"I don't usually get movies that Julia passes on, so this was a
wonderful surprise. I'm the girl studios think of when Winona Ryder
or Claire Danes have turned them down.

"When Julia passes on a project, it goes through people like Sandra
Bullock and Nicole Kidman."

Paltrow received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in
Shakespeare in Love.