She’s Done With Pepper Potts?!

Gwyneth Paltrow sat down with Variety for its latest cover story, and as usual, she dropped several bombs during the interview.

MARVEL

For starters, she’s done with Pepper Potts. Paltrow has played Iron Man’s secretary and girlfriend for the past decade, but she says she’s done after this summer’s Avengers: Endgame.

The 46-year-old says: “I mean, I’m a bit old to be in a suit and all that at this point. I feel very lucky that I did it, because I actually got talked into it. I was friend with [Iron Man director] Jon Favreau. It was such a wonderful experience making the first Iron Man and then to watch how important it has become to fans.”

ON OSCAR FOR ACTION

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Culturally appropriate food goes beyond the ingredients on a plate

18h ago

Two and Out

PETERS: Whether building up or tearing down, Kamloops is what you make it

Dec 13, 2024

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: How to reduce food waste in Kamloops during the festive season

Dec 13, 2024

Regarding the nomination of a comic book-based movie for film’s highest honor, she’s here for it.

Paltrow reasons: “So if they vernacular in film is superhero movies and they’re great movies, then I guess why not, right? I loved Black Panther. I thought it was a really powerful movie and culturally very important. So that’s great that it was nominated. I mean that’s so cool.”

ON BRAD PITT

Paltrow also explains that she came this close to not making Shakespeare in Love (which earned her on Oscar) because she was upset over her split with Brad Pitt. (They were engaged in 1996 and split in 1997).

She explains: “I was in the middle of a terrible breakup [with Pitt] and the idea of going to England and being far from home just seemed… I didn’t even read it. I was just like, ‘I can’t read anything right now. I’m having a really hard time.’”

ON WEINSTEIN

Paltrow also discusses her experience working with Harvey Weinstein, who produced Shakespeare in Love. She was among the dozens of women who came forward in 2017 to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

She says: “He was a bully. I never had a problem standing up to him. I wasn’t scared of him. I also felt for a period of time, I was the consumer face of Miramax, and I felt it was my duty to push back against him. We had a lot of fights.”

She continues: “He was a very difficult boss. It was a fraught relationship. We would get in knock-down, drag-out fights. I remember once, my mother [Blythe Danner] walked in a room, and I was yelling at him about something. She was like, ‘Who was that on the phone?’” When Paltrow told her, she responded, “Oh, my goodness, good for you. Stand up for yourself.”

But Paltrow says that she never backed down, and in fact ultimately got him to pay her back-end compensation on Emma: “I got him to pay me something. I remember I got this legal letter that said, ‘This is not an acknowledgment that we owe you this money, but here’s a check.’”