Gwyneth Paltrow Interview, Iron Man

MoviesOnline had a chance to sit down at Comic-Con with Gwyneth Paltrow to talk about her upcoming 2008 movie, "Iron Man,” the big budget Marvels Comic adaptation directed by Jon Favreau.

Paltrow plays Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, the indispensable personal assistant to Iron Man’s alter ego, billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Stark, who becomes a super hero after a near-death incident, creates a life support suit to keep himself alive and then decides to use the technology in his Iron Man armor to fight crime.

"Iron Man” features an amazing cast that includes Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Samuel Jackson, and Hilary Swank among many others and promises to be one of the most exciting films of 2008.  Gwyneth Paltrow is a fabulous person and we really appreciated her time. Here’s what she had to tell us about her new movie:

Q: Tell us about being here. Crazy? Funny?

GWYNETH PALTROW: It’s great. I’ve never been here before. It’s crazy, it’s amazing. I love the enthusiasm.

Q: Could you relate to this before? Could you be a geek? Tell us something about that.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Yeah. I have a lot of secret geeky qualities.

Q: Which one is not secret? I mean reading comics is there a character that you love?

GWYNETH PALTROW: My geeky-ness is more about food or like interior stuff or music so the comic thing was new to me because I’d never really read comics. My brother read a lot of comics growing up and it was very interesting because it’s this whole world that I never really…I of course knew it existed but I didn’t really know the extent and the how urban and passionate the fans are and everything.

Q: With Iron Man, what’s different when compared to Superman, Spiderman, Batman do you think?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Robert Downey, Jr. I mean, I’ve always wanted to work with him and since I was a teenager, before I even acted I always thought he was so brilliant and it’s always been a dream of mine to work with him. Him and Johnny Depp I’ve always wanted to work with so…it was amazing, they called me and they said there’s this movie and it’s Jon Favreau and I love his films and they said it’s Robert Downey, Jr. and Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges and I was like great, I’m in. What is it? They were like it’s a comic book called Iron Man. I was like wow, what’s that? Then I kind of got familiar with it and I’m so glad I did it. I had the best time.

Q: Are you back in full mode acting wise? We used to see you every 3 months for a movie and all of a sudden you disappeared from us. Are you back for good or are you still a mom, what’s the deal?

GWYNETH PALTROW: I’m going to do both. So you won’t see me every 3 months that’s for sure, but you know I did so many movies in my 20’s and it was amazing but it was a lot and it was a real blessing for me to have time off and have kids and there was really a point where I thought I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. Then when Moses was about 6 months old I really felt the desire coming back. Then I thought well, I’ll wait until he’s a year so he gets all my time for a year and then maybe if people still remember me there’ll be something for me and luckily this came up and I started it just after he turned a year old. I had the best time making it and so…you know what’s nice for me is that I feel so much enthusiasm for my work again and it was really important for me to have that break. I really needed it and it was great for me.

Q: Liv Tyler a few months ago told us that like you she didn’t want to work, it wasn’t about the baby and at one point she saw herself with a kid in the bathroom and she said I have to go back to work. I have to get my life back. Did you ever think that?

GWYNETH PALTROW: You know what I thought? It wasn’t so much about my life back but it was about the sort of artist in me that needed to be fed.

Q: That’s what she meant I’m sure.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Yeah. Because you know a few months go by, the years go by and you’re like pureeing sweet potato and you’re like ok, this is amazing but there’s also a part of me that needs to survive and that’s important and I know how to do this and so I think it’s about finding a balance, you know? So, I’m very excited that when I decided to come back to work, there was work for me and so it’s been a really fun time. It’s been really good.

Q: I wanted to ask you about your brother’s film, The Good Night. I know this is a little off-subject but you did it with Simon Pegg and I wondered if you could tell us what’s going on with it and if you could talk a second about it?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Yeah.

Q: By the way, it was excellent.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Oh, thanks. Thank you. Did you see it at Sundance?

Q: Sundance, yeah.

GWYNETH PALTROW: Oh, cool. It comes out October 5th. Sony bought it and the Yari group is distributing it so it’ll have a small independent release. I think it will be in New York/L.A., start there and hopefully it will connect and maybe you know, but I’m really excited for him because I think his talent is so evident and I really love the film. I love working with Martin and Simon and everybody. It’s such a good cast. It was amazing.

Q: I never read Iron Man before so could you tell me who you play and explain her a little bit?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Basically Iron Man started as an anti-communist comic back in the day and Tony Stark is the protagonist and he’s kind of a messed up figure. He’s like an alcoholic and a womanizer and an arms dealer basically but he’s like a Howard Hughes type and a little bit reckless. I play Pepper Potts. She’s his assistant. She’s kind of like his girl friday. They have that kind of repartee. A little bit fraternal, a little bit sexual and they have a very fun relationship. She’s kind of the moral center. She’s constantly trying to reign him in.

Q: So you’re not wearing any costumes? You didn’t have to work out for this role?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Oh, I had to work out. They wanted me to look good, but I didn’t have to wear any superhero things. I had like 15 baby weight pounds to lose before I started. On the treadmill you know.

Q: Was Iron Man your first invitation to do a superhero movie?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Yeah. It was, yeah.

Q: What about Sky Captain? Wasn’t that a little bit…

GWYNETH PALTROW: Superhero-y? I don’t know what that was? Not superhero, it was like an old fashioned movie reel made into a movie.

Q: What do you want to do now?

GWYNETH PALTROW: I just want to have fun, you know. Try new things. Try roles that I’ve never tried and I feel like, you know, if I’m going to work then it has to be something that’s invigorating to me and exciting and it doesn’t have to be Shakespeare. It can be anything as long as I feel it’s worth my time and that I’m working with really good people and you know that I’m learning something.

Q: So can you tell us what you have coming up next after Iron Man?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Well, I’m just in negotiations for something right now, but I’m not really supposed to say what it is. I think the director will get mad if I say but it’s a smaller movie and it would be in New York. A really good independent filmmaker.

Q: Have you signed for 3 movies on this one?

GWYNETH PALTROW: I signed, yeah. I signed in blood.

Q: Isn’t that weird for you? You’ve never done something like that before, but you have to come back and back.

GWYNETH PALTROW: You know what? It was weird when I did it but like the 1st day on set it was so great and I love Jon and everybody so much that now I just hope there’s a sequel because…

Q: What makes Robert Downey such a good Iron Man?

GWYNETH PALTROW: Because, as I said the character himself is complicated and they share sort of complicated pasts and he looks amazing. He looks like a proper action man, he looks really good and he’s such a great actor so he brings this amazing thing to it.