A date with destiny
Gwyneth Paltrow asks herself, 'What would have happened if ...?'

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsP/paltrow_gwyneth.html
Sunday, April 19, 1998
By NATASHA STOYNOFF -- Toronto Sun


HOLLYWOOD -- The irony and ecstasy of the film Sliding Doors -- in
which a woman finds happiness in a new relationship after dumping
her commitment-challenged beau -- is not lost on its star, Gwyneth
Paltrow.

Watching the film now, in retrospect, "I thought, 'this is a dream,'"
says Paltrow, who, at the time of the shoot, was engaged to Brad
Pitt, until he got cold feet as the wedding day approached.

But as Destiny -- the film's grand theme -- would have it, Pitt
exited from one sliding door and Paltrow's current boyfriend, recent
Oscar-winner Ben Affleck, sidled in through stage left.

"I knew they'd win, I told them they would," says Paltrow, excitedly,
of Affleck's and co-writer Matt Damon's Academy Award (for Best
Original Screenplay) for Good Will Hunting.

But some outcomes in life are not as certain as that predicted Oscar.

In Sliding Doors, which opens Friday, we follow Paltrow as a young
British professional rushing to catch the subway.

Then, two stories emerge: One follows the character's fate if she
catches the train, the other trails her destiny if she misses it.

Both stories lead her along two different love relationships, each
with their own tangled webs of deceit and truth.

It was a vaguely similar subway fate, says writer/director Peter
Howitt, that inspired this film.

Rushing toward the London underground one day, Howitt had a phone
call to make and was trying to decide whether to do it before getting
on the train or after.

"Back and forth were these two options," he says.

He chose "before," crossed the street towards a phone, and nearly got
hit by a car.

"I later thought, 'What if he had hit me?'" muses Howitt. "'It would
have affected the rest of our day, the rest of our lives.'

"Then I thought, 'Wait a minute, my day is already different because
I'm not the version of me that was moments before, and neither is he.'"

The eternal question of "What if?" is universal, he says, and a big
part of the wide appeal of this film.

"The idea with this premise is that this is happening all over the
world, every single day," says Howitt.

"Someone's just missed a train right now, and they don't know what
effect it will have on their life."

After Howitt wrote the script and tried to pitch it for nearly three
years ("Everybody said to me, 'You'll never pull something like this
off'"), fate stepped off the curb once again.

"It was a moment like the movie describes," says producer Sydney
Pollack, who had a meeting with Paltrow's co-star, John Hannah (Four
Weddings And A Funeral), for another project the day the financing
for Sliding Doors fell through.

"He was very sad during the interview, and we asked him what was
wrong," says Pollack.

After Hannah's glowing description of Sliding Doors, "we read it and
I fell in love with it right away," says Pollack, who subsequently
put his money where his heart was.

Zigzagging through two storylines became a confusing problem solved
when it was decided Paltrow's Number One character (who catches the
subway) soon shears and lightens her locks after dumping boyfriend
Number One (played by John Lynch).

"It was kind of an 'I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair'
thing," laughs Howitt.

As boyfriend Number Two, Hannah can relate to the wonderings of fate
and destiny.

"We all sort of do that on a daily basis," he says. "Maybe at the
end of the day, we wonder, 'What would have happened if...?'

"The thing so enjoyable about this film is that in life, we never
get to see those other possibilities. We can wonder about them, but
we don't get the option of knowing.

"In the film, as an audience, we see the consequences of actions. It
resonates throughout."

The film also deals with the question of honesty in a relationship:
How much and when?

Both boyfriends in the film have a secret, and must choose to either
be strong and honest with Paltrow, or weak.

We've all had turns doing both, reminds Howitt.

"I think everyone will identify with at least one of the characters
or situations in the film," he says, "and if you don't -- you're
probably lying to yourself.

"The men may not be doing very nice things, but they haven't set out
to hurt. They've just gotten themselves into something they can't get
out of," he continues.

"I've been that weak person myself. I've been in situations I knew I
shouldn't be in and not been strong enough to get out when I should
have."

Now a strong believer of actions and their consequences, Howitt offers
his long-ago near-accident experience as concrete proof.

"If I hadn't decided to make that phone call, we wouldn't be sitting
here right now, because I wouldn't have had the idea of writing this
film."

Paltrow, too, knows the fame and fortune of a good choice.

As a young, unknown actress trying to get a job, she came to a
crossroads when she had to decide whether to hop on a plane for a
movie audition in L.A., or stay in New York and take a bigger part
offered on stage.

"I literally almost did not go," she recalls, "then, at the last
minute, I went."

The audition was for the Meg Ryan film Flesh And Bone, and it was a
bit part that ignited Paltrow's movie career.

"I always think, 'I wonder what would have happened if I didn't get
on the plane?'" the actress asks out loud.

She probably never would have gone to the Pitts with that Brad guy.

THE WHAT IF FILE

WHAT IF SHAKESPEARE LIVED TODAY?: "Maybe he'd be writing movies,"
ventures Hannah. "Or, no, he'd be writing TV. After all, he always
wrote for the common man."

WHAT IF PALTROW MISSED THAT PLANE?: "Well, the girl who did that
part on Broadway only does theatre."

WHAT IF HANNAH WASN'T AN ACTOR?: "I'd probably still be an
electrician, which is what I started out doing. I didn't enjoy it,
but I had no apparent talent for anything else."