When Gwyneth Paltrow stopped by to chat with Howard Stern, the shock jock got a lot of juicy talk out of the actress.
Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that she was tempted by a role in Vanilla Ice’s Cool as Ice film as a young actress, but was warned off it by her producer father. Had that fortuitous bit of advice not happened, we might not have Gwyneth Paltrow as we know her today.
But there have been other close calls, too. she initially turned down the role of Pepper Potts in Ironman.
“I was reluctant about Ironman initially because I had two little kids. I had worked so much in my 20’s That I kind of was like, ‘I just wanna be home.’ I was a little burnt out. I had these beautiful babies and I wanted to be home with them. I didn’t want to go back to work.
“I remember my agent calling me and saying, ‘They want you to be in Ironman.’ I was like, ‘No, thanks.’ I was in full parent mode. I had taken three years off. I remember him saying, ‘You know, if you don’t do a movie soon, you’re out of the business.’”
In fact, it took calls from Robert Downey, Jr. himself to drag the actress to the role.
Gwyneth Paltrow also revealed that shooting Ironman was a very different kind of experience, particularly thanks to Robert Downey, Jr.’s penchant for ditching the script and doing whatever he wanted.
“It’s fun. It was really fun. Basically, how it would work is, we would come in and rehearse. He would say, ‘This is garbage.’ I would cringe because the writer would be there. When the writers work with Robert they know that it’s just part of his process. Even if Robert writes the scene the night before, he comes in and he’s like, ‘This is shit.’ He likes to come in and just make it up on the fly. For me it was really fun because I like improv and he is hilarious.”
The character and the films won her over. Asked if she would want to play Pepper Potts again, or if she is done with the role, she responded quickly.
“I would like to play Pepper Pots again. It’s such a fun job because I like being with Robert. He’s really fun and he’s brilliant and funny and complicated and warm. He’s just a wonderful guy, so I really enjoy my time on the set with him.”
