Golden Globe snub doesn't bother Paltrow

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsP/paltrow_gwyneth.html
Sunday, December 26, 1999

By LOUIS B. HOBSON
Calgary Sun


 HOLLYWOOD -- Gwyneth Paltrow would have us believe she's breathing
much easier this week.

 Paltrow was not nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance
in the erotic thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley.

 Her co-stars Matt Damon and Jude Law were, and it's likely they'll
received an Oscar nod in February.

 Last year, Paltrow was the golden girl of the award season for her
performance in Shakespeare in Love, winning both a Golden Globe and
an Oscar.

 "It was such a nerve-racking experience I'm not sure I'd ever want to
go through it again," says Paltrow.

 "I only got to feel the traumatic part of the whole exercise. I didn't
experience any of the giddiness and joy. It seemed like a popularity
contest. It was all about clothes and smiles and it went on for months."

 The worst part for Paltrow was the relentless attention of the paparazzi.

 "They wouldn't leave me alone. It got ridiculous. One day I ran out of
gas. I had to walk to a garage carrying a gas can. They followed me
taking pictures, but wouldn't give me a ride."

 Paltrow says she doesn't remember anything about the Academy Award
ceremonies where she won her Oscar.

 "I felt like I was in a dream. People tell me about conversations we
had and I barely remember my name being called."

 It was a traumatic time in Paltrow's life because her grandfather was
dying and her father was ill.

 "I was coming apart emotionally. I knew how happy my win would be for
my family, but what was essentially an intensely private moment was
shared with a billion people.

 "After it was all over, I felt exposed and embarrassed. The next day
I got really ill. It was post-traumatic stress from the adrenalin shock
my system suffered."

 Paltrow says she was grateful she could rush off to Italy to film The
Talented Mr. Ripley.

 "I had signed on to do Ripley even before I shot Shakespeare in Love.
Most of my current projects were in place before I won my Oscar, so I
haven't felt the full impact of the win yet."

 In The Talented Mr. Ripley, Paltrow plays an American writer living in
Italy who discovers that her lover (Law) may have been murdered by their
enigmatic new friend (Damon).

 "I love Mr. Ripley because it is so totally subversive. At first glance
it looks like a big, beautiful Hollywood romantic movie.

 "Underneath it is so dark and morally ambivalent."

 Ripley shows to what lengths some people will go when they feel
uncomfortable in their own skin.

 Tom Ripley is literally willing to kill to be some-one else.

 "I've never wished I had someone else's life, or to be someone else
like Tom Ripley does, but I have felt uncomfortable in my own skin,"
says Paltrow.

 "I've had to work so hard to get respect as an actress. For years,
I've been someone's daughter or someone's girlfriend."

 Paltrow's mother Blythe Danner is a respected stage actress and her
father Bruce Paltrow produced such TV series as St. Elsewhere.

 For two years, her whirlwind romance with Brad Pitt made entertainment
headlines and her rebound affair with Ben Affleck kept her gossip
profile high.

 She recently broke up with music maven Guy Oseary and attended the
L.A. premier of The Talented Mr. Ripley with Affleck, adding fuel to
the rumours they have reconciled.

 "Ben and I are very good friends in the very real sense of the words.

 "We just finished filming the romantic drama Bounce, where we had
some very intense love scenes. They weren't difficult and they didn't
feel strange because we're friends.

 "I was offered the film first and had to talk Ben into doing it. He
was afraid it was too dark, but it is the best work he's ever done."

 Even if Paltrow and Affleck do become a romantic couple again, she
will be the last to confirm such a relationship.

 "I have sworn to stay away from talking about romance. Being candid
and sharing my joy with the world hurt me deeply in the past.

 "So much of my life is already out there that it's hard for me to
feel I have a private life.

 "I need to have a sense of self. I need to have one corner of my
life that is intensely private. My heart is my domain."

 Paltrow has also filmed Duets with her father directing.

 "My dad spoiled me as much on the (Vancouver) set as he has at home.
It made me work harder. I wanted to do my best for him."

 Paltow's films have painted her as a serious dramatic actress and
this image is something she'd like to shatter.

 "I want to do something wild and crazy like Cameron Diaz did in
There's Something About Mary. I've been talking to the Farrelly
brothers (who created Mary and Dumb and Dumber) about their next
project, Shallow Hell.

 "It seems like a perfect career move. I want to have some crazy,
uninhibited fun in my life and career."