WARNING: This post contains Iron Man 3 spoilers!
As you are probably aware by now, I had the most amazing experience last week when I attended the red carpet premiere of Iron Man 3 as part of the #IronMan3Event. But…did you know that I also had the privilege of my very own Gwyneth Paltrow interview?
That’s right, Gwyneth Paltrow met with 25 mom bloggers for a Q&A session and totally blew us away with her kindness, sense of humor and how incredibly down to earth she was!
I’ve been a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow for a very long time and consider her to be one of my favorite actresses. I have loved seeing her in the Iron Man movies – and I was honestly a little shocked that she agreed to meet with us for an interview. Gwyneth is known for being very selective in who she interviews with…let’s just say that I feel pretty dang special!
Once Gwyneth arrived, she immediately began chatting us up, asking us about our blogs as she got to work signing her most recent book for us, It’s All Good. I’ll be sharing that with y’all in a later post, so stay tuned!
We began our interview with the question on everyone’s mind, as Gwyneth was named People Magazine’s most beautiful person just days before the premiere. We were so nervous – how many times in your life can you say that you interviewed someone that was given this prestigious honor?!
Q How did you feel when you were picked to be on the cover of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful issue?
GP: …I got this really weird old feeling that my school bully had somehow was playing a trick on me. I swear, I had to talk about with my shrink…I was, I mean, beyond, like, surprised, flattered, and I still kinda can’t believe it. It’s, it’s really cool.
I loved this answer, it just really proved how down to earth she is. She mentioned that when her publicist sent her the email telling her, she thought he was kidding. Ha! She also mentioned that she has had the same publicist since she was 19, which struck me as pretty amazing. I have always heard that celebrities go through agents and publicists pretty quickly, so the fact that Gwyneth has worked with the same person for her entire career really speaks volumes to me about what kind of person she is!
As we all know from the Iron Man 3 trailers, Gwyneth Paltrow, at some point in the movie, dons the Iron Man suit. I’ll be honest, as much as I was looking forward to the movie, one of the things I was most excited about was seeing Pepper Potts in the Iron Man suit. I was really looking forward to finding out more about her experience wearing the suit, and come to find out, that was one of her favorite things to talk about!
Q Tell us about putting on the suit.
GP: I love putting on the suit. It was really weird, like I’ve never done anything like that in my whole career, and my son was on set, and so I’ll never forget it; I walk out onto the set, and I was fully dressed in the suit, and his face, because he’s like in the last probably year and a half watched the first Iron Man and Avengers and everything I’ll never forget his face. Like, he was in shock and awe. It was so cool.
Q: How does it feel, as Pepper, to be that strong?
GP: I loved it so much. You know, I was getting kind of like, come on, guys. All these boys are flying around doing all this fun stuff, and I loved how patient and kind and sweet Pepper is, but, but when I read this script, I was like, oh yeah. She’s, you know, in the suit and flying around, and I loved doing the stunts. As I said, I really had never done anything like that before and it was really- I don’t know. It was really fun. It’s like, why am I doing all these period films? It’s so boring.
I totally agree…I mean, I really love Gwyneth’s period films, but seeing her in Iron Man 3 has shed a whole new light on her already shining career!
You know how you are always hearing about the hilarious antics of movie stars while on the set of their films? Well, Gwyneth shared some of the funniest moments she experienced during the filming of the Iron Man 3 movie.
Q What are some of the fun things that happen on set?
GP: I’m so bad at remembering the funny stories. I mean, the things that I remember from set are like my kids learning how to drive a golf cart. You know, on a movie, it’s so big and you drive a golf cart from one thing to another and you’re like, okay, you can drive the golf cart, you know, sit on the lap, and then all of a sudden, they just started taking off in golf carts. So, this is illegal and this is not okay! Or like their Nerf gun fights – it was just like a fun experience for the family, and they love Robert. They had no idea that Robert was famous until probably a year ago. Uh, and they just love him so much and he creates a fun environment! It was a really nice shoot, you know, and when you work with someone over and over again that you really love and that environment is so familial and the kids feel – everybody feels it, it really was so great.
We interviewed Ty Simpkins right before we interviewed Gwyneth, so of course we had to ask her what it was like to have a child on the set during Iron Man 3 filming! Because actors and actresses actually film scenes on different days, Gwyneth never actually filmed with Ty Simpkins, but she did hear all about him from Robert Downey Jr!
Q What’s like having a child actor on the set?
GP: Oh, I, you know, I never even met him. I wasn’t in that section, but I loved in the movie how they do that relationship and that is exactly what Robert is like.
Being a huge fan of Robert Downey Jr myself, I was so curious to hear what Gwyneth thought of working with him!
Q What’s it like working with Robert?
GP: It’s so fun. I mean, he’s really, like, the the most spontaneous, mad genius, improvising, you’re really on your toes. It’s really interesting, actually, to see how all these different actors, what their process is and how they work and, like, Jeff Bridges on the first movie, he had binders of research, and everything was all underlined and highlighted, and there were graphs and all this. And then Robert would come in and read the scene and rip it up, and be like, “nope, we’re not doing it. Let’s make it up” – and poor Jeff Bridges would be dying, he had memorized everything. I’ve been doing this job for so long, it’s so nice to have someone who likes- it’s scary and they’re like, what am I gonna do. On this movie, he was at least not throwing away the scenes every day because the screenplay was really good. But it’s really fun. You never know what’s gonna happen which I love!
And the question that was on everyone’s mind…
Q Are we gonna see you in more action films?
GP: I would actually really like to, but am I old now to start being in action movies? [LAUGHS]. I would like to. Everybody – the nice thing is that everybody’s sort of been very sweet about Pepper in this movie, like all the journalists who came in. They were like, oh my God, you have to have your own movie, because in the comics, Pepper gets her own suit, and she becomes a character called Rescue. They’re like, we need a Rescue movie, and I’m like, okay, well, I’d better hit the gym…
I don’t know about you guys, but I think that Gwyneth totally needs her own movie…I’d go see Rescue!!!
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Interviewing Gwyneth Paltrow was an amazing experience! She was so down to earth, so relate-able and so friendly and open! She had us laughing right along with her, she showed such passion when talking about her children, and she was so humble when talking about being voted People Magazine’s Most Beautiful Person.
She was so kind and posed for this photo with us all – what a wonderful way to end an amazing experience!
Photos courtesy of DearCrissy.com
I interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow as part of the #IronMan3Event, and all of my travel, accommodations and activities were paid for by Disney Pictures. All opinions are my own!
She looks so beautiful here! Ok, I skimmed the article because we’re big Iron Man fans, and I didn’t want to see the spoilers, lol…
Great interview, Jenn. It sure sounds like you had a fabulous time!
I would SO go see Rescue, too! I just saw Iron Man 3 last night and LOVED Gwyneth in this movie even more than the previous two. She was amazing!
Ok I had to skip it because I do not want a spoiler LOL but I think it was awesome you got to interview her. The more I see about this trip the more I wish I was there.
I still marvel at how down to earth she was, and completely deserving of her People Award.
I still marvel at how down to earth she was, and completely deserving of her People Award.
I am still in awe of this interview. She was so casual and sweet. I was not sure what to expect.