Patience of Paltrow:
Actress championed 'Hard Eight' through three years of problems
(By Bob Strauss)
Patience is a virtue Jane Austen surely would have appreciated.
What the proper English novelist would have made of one of her more
celebrated interpreters' latest movie release, however, would likely
have little to do with virtue.
Gwyneth Paltrow, who made such a splash last summer as Austen's
"Emma," is now appearing as a sad-case Reno hooker in "Hard Eight."
Made before the dressy comedy of manners that launched Paltrow
toward stardom, the mini-budgeted, noirish character study has been
hung up in distribution limbo while, whenever possible, Paltrow has
patiently championed its fine performances and tough behavioral
truths.
"It was quite a process," the lithe young actress recalled. "It was
a year from the time I signed on before they raised the money to
shoot it and two years since we started the film that it's being
released. And because it was such a personal project f or us, we
were so emotionally involved and attached to it, it was just so
hard to see it being pulled apart by the money people, who didn't
get it."
"Hard Eight" is finally in theaters now, and pretty much how novice
feature director Paul Thomas Anderson had envisioned it.
It's easy to see why the actors loved "Hard Eight" and the producers
had their doubts, though. It's a strange little tale about Sydney, a
classy if mysteriously shady gambler (Philip Baker Hall), who
inexplicably takes a dumb young loser, John (John C. Reilly), under
his wing.
Paltrow plays Clementine, the cocktail waitress/part-time prostitute
John fancies. After Sydney engineers a liaison between the younger
man and woman, her self-destructive impulses lead to a situation that
threatens all of their fragile connections.
Complicated role
"Clementine is a real mess," Paltrow said, as affectionately as such
a statement can be made. "I just fell in love with her, even though
she's not lovable. She has a visceral nakedness, a kind of id-ness,
about her. There's nothing intellectual or cere bral there; she acts
completely out of emotion, yet is totally disconnected from her
emotional fabric.
"It was a really complicated role. I had to just play her as raw as
I could and not think through any decisions because she doesn't think
through any decisions."
Which has naturally led many critics to describe Clementine as stupid.
"I don't view her that way, though I'm sure everybody else will,"
Paltrow says. "I think that she hasn't been loved, wasn't raised
properly and she makes very stupid decisions. But I think that she's
essentially a functioning and good person who's just gone completely
astray."
Not a problem the actress relates to personally. If there has ever
been a young star who has seemed to make all the right moves
professionally and personally, it is Gwyneth Paltrow.
It's all in the upbringing, according to her. Paltrow credits her
parents, actress Blythe Danner and television producer Bruce Paltrow,
with showing her that, for all the emphasis they put on creative
excellence, love and family matter more.
That attitude, along with that enviable Paltrow patience, are among
the factors that have made her relationship with superstar Brad Pitt
strong and nurturing. After several years of dating her "Seven"
co-star, he recently proposed and she gleefully acc epted.
"I am over the moon," she said, adding a convincing "mmm." But
Paltrow admitted that being the targets of endless media speculation
and intrusions makes romance challenging.
"We pull down the shades, y'know?" she sighed. "We just make home a
very cozy place and see our families a lot. Like that; we keep
everything simple and real."
Of course, Brad Pitt is worth a little extra effort.
"What I like about Brad, that's a very long list," she says. "But I
suppose at the top would be his integrity, his decency, his honesty,
his sense of family, his sensitivity.... He's just the best, all
around."
Getting good scripts
The career's not bad, either. After a string of uniformly memorable
and increasingly important roles in the films "Flesh and Bone,"
"Jefferson in Paris," "Moonlight and Valentino" and "The Pallbearer,"
Paltrow is now playing leads opposite impressive co-stars.
She has two more movies coming out this year: a contemporary version
of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" with Robert De Niro and
Ethan Hawke, and the thriller "Kilronan," in which her character's
mother-in-law, played by Jessica Lange, goes homicidal.
Paltrow's upcoming movie jobs include another Englishwoman in
"Sliding Doors" ("It's not so much about accents," insisted the
actress, who nonetheless has a remarkable facility with them. "It's
about where the good roles and situations are".) And a fam ily affair
called "Duets" is in the works. Paltrow and Pitt will co-star in the
romantic comedy set around the karaoke scene, and Bruce Paltrow is
scheduled to direct. Familiar as that set may prove to be, it's still
the daring, surprising and troubling little numbers like "Hard Eight"
that Gwyneth Paltrow finds rewardingly worth waiting for.
"The one thing that keeps me energized and excited about making
movies, that keeps me from becoming lazy and complacent, is the
whole notion of pushing yourself to do something that's so different
that you're scared to take it on," she revealed. "It's so wonderful
because it puts you in a position where you're forced to open up so
much that you don't know what you're capable of.
"In that way, you can do anything. It's a really exciting thing to
go through."
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