Gwyneth Paltrow

Spotlight By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

In Iron Man, Gwyneth Paltrow takes on a familiar role: the comic-book superhero's love-interest. But she puts a new spin on it as only Gwyneth Paltrow can do. It's a spark of intelligence and poise that she gives to Pepper Potts, the long-time assistant of wealthy weapons designer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), aka Iron Man. And while Pepper isn't the typical damsel in distress, she does get in on the action. That's where the poise comes in'one scene in particular has her running in 5-inch heels!

'When I chose the heels I didn't realize what I was gonna be forced to do, so I found myself running and it was all grates and heels and grates do not go well together,' Paltrow says. 'That was a particularly challenging sequence and running in high heels is actually very difficult as any girl can tell you who's being chased in high heels.'

Paltrow also credits chasing her children around (4-year-old Apple and 2-year-old Moses with husband Chris Martin of Coldplay) for keeping her in shape. Now for the intelligence that Pepper needs to keep pace with Tony Stark, who's brilliant but reckless.

'Pepper really has a great head on her shoulders,' she says. 'She's a very strong woman but she's also very giving and very nonjudgmental when it comes to her relationship with Tony and I loved the fact that she was who she was and that she was his conscience in a way. And she wasn't being dangled from rooftops, screaming, or whatever. I'd be up for that in the sequel but it was nice in this one to have her be a real character.'

Pepper and Tony have palpable romantic tension on-screen. No matter how many girls Tony runs around with, Pepper is the one who has always been there for him. 'That's a great kind of movie-device dynamic,' Paltrow says. 'That kind of sexually charged, it's not so much unrequited in their case as it is unrealized. They just keep it bubbling under the surface and it was so much fun to play because Robert is such a spontaneous and dedicated and amazing human being that we really wanted to keep that as the main component between them.'

Paltrow's definitely not kidding about Downey Jr.'s spontaneity on set. 'He'll keep you on your toes alright,' she says. 'He is constantly changing the dialogue and doing crazy things and having these amazing ideas. The scene where he makes everyone sit down at the press conference, he just came up with that. And you know, that's Robert. He's always thinking outside the box.'

In fact, he was one of the main reasons why Paltrow decided to do the film. 'I had always wanted to work with Robert,' she says. 'He is just utterly brilliant and when [director] Jon Favreau called and explained to me the film and who was involved'I mean, Robert, Jon, Jeff [Bridges] and Terence [Howard]'it's like how do you say no to that' It's such an amazing group of talented guys. I have absolutely nothing against doing a movie with all kinds of special effects and everything. As long as the people involved are gonna make me better at what I do then I'm up for anything. I would do any genre. Maybe not porn, but anything else!'

With Downey Jr. improvising, Paltrow trying to run in heels, and a movie with some truly spectacular special effects, it's a wonder Favreau didn't collapse until the pressure! 'Jon is an amazing captain and he's very grounded and he's very calm and unflappable and he had a real vision,' Paltrow says. 'He knew what he was doing and we could all feel that.'

She adds, 'He was a great collaborator and you really felt like you were in the hands of someone who had respect for what you were doing. And obviously as an actor he understands the process from that side as well. It was a very rewarding experience even though it was a big, fantastic popcorn movie, still artistically we all felt very filled up by it.'

And that's something that is very important to Paltrow nowadays. She aims to be fulfilled and to truly appreciate everything that comes her way. 'I think that in my 20s I worked so hard that I lost appreciation,' she says. 'I lost appreciation for how lucky I was to be getting the jobs that I was getting. I just felt very burnt out, I didn't realize that I could say no and take time to myself to replenish myself. And when you lose appreciation your life takes a turn for the worst because appreciation is everything, it's what makes your life a happy experience. Then my father died and I had my daughter. So I had a huge perspective shift and I took a long time off and now I feel like I approach my life from a much more grateful place.'