Gwyneth Paltrow: Never 'Shallow'

Busy, beautiful, Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow has delighted us all in Shakespeare in Love and will star in several films soon to be released playing no two roles alike. In the romantic comedy Shallow Hal, she stars as an overweight gal with a heart of gold. The film's message is that large people shouldn't be treated any differently, yet Gwyneth's character Rosemary is literally the "butt" of a lot of fat girl jokes before she is accepted as she is. The actress gave us her take on her character and what happened when she wore her "fat suit" out in public. She talked about her own insecurities, upcoming projects and her opinion on men.

Teenhollywood: You have to wear a very convincing "fat" suit part of the time in this film. Was it really uncomfortable?

Gwyneth:The fat suit was profoundly uncomfortable and suffocating because they crazy glue it, basically, to your face. It took about three hours to get it on and an hour to get it off. Getting it off was almost worse because they had to pour this incredibly thick sort of syrupy, sort of Vaseline but liquid form and pour it all down your eyes and there's these men with brushes....oooh it was terrible.

Teenhollywood: Did you wear the make up and suit out anywhere?

Gwyneth: I was at the Tribeca Grand in New York City and I put on the suit and I went down to the lobby of the hotel and walked around. It was very interesting. I really thought 'I'm doing this trick, this caper.' I'm in a costume and I was nervous about being found out. But, when I actually walked through the lobby, no one would even make eye contact with me. No one would look in my direction. I think that if, in your peripheral vision, you get a sense of someone being slightly outside of what we all consider 'normal', you think 'oh, it's polite not to look'. But, actually it's incredibly isolating and it really upset me.

Teenhollywood: Although everything works out for your character in the end, overweight people are the butt of the jokes in the film. How do you feel about that?

Gwyneth: See, I totally disagree. I think that the film is incredibly embracing and warm and the message of is that it doesn't matter if you are extremely overweight or not. This is this ridiculous thing that is sociologically imposed on us that it's unacceptable when it has nothing to do with who the person actually is. I didn't feel at all that it was offensive. I spoke to a lot of people who read it and my stand-in Ivy. My body (as Rosemary) is based on her body, and she was totally behind it, not offended at all, loved the message of the film and was glad that this was the subject that was being explored.

Teenhollywood: Did it surprise you at first, reading a script by the Farrelly Brothers that you didn't find offensive?

Gwyneth: (laughs). I really like their sense of humor. I think they walk this line very gently and instead of poking fun at people that are overweight they just said 'hey, this is something that society feels and we're gonna turn it upside down and try and make people not feel this way.' So the only jokes like that are made by an idiot, Jason Alexander's character, who is totally a fool in the way that he perceives things. And he's so obstanent about it because he has his own thing that he's insecure about. So it's about letting go of your perceptions of those things and being accepting of yourself and other people.

Teenhollywood: You don't strike me as the sort of actress who would want to be in a raunchy Farrelly Brothers film (Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary). Is this something you always wanted to do?

Gwyneth: Frankly, I met Bobby Farrelly first and he said 'I really want to do a movie with you' and I thought 'great.' I would so love to take off the corset and de-accent and do something fun and different and unexpected which is what this film is.

Teenhollywood: What is something that you personally don't like about yourself? Or what problem do you wrestle with?

Gwyneth: Well, I think that when you're a person who is so out there in the public eye and people are constantly criticizing every aspect...someone told me the other day there's an article in the New York Post on Pg. 6 that I was spotted and I'm now fat and unattractive. If you let yourself be driven crazy by this kind of scrutiny and what people say you would develop insecurities about anything. I have insecurities already being a woman, based on physical things I wish were different or whatever. But I have to tune it out a little bit. It shouldn't matter. I'm still the same person and a valuable person and weight has nothing to do with it. But, I think people don't know any better. I have famous friends and I read something and think..'Is that true? Are they okay?' You don't know what's true and what's not. People don't understand the degree to which you can be affected by things like that.

Teenhollywood: You are pretty open about how you feel. Has this ever come back to haunt you?

Gwyneth: No. I say what I think and I stand behind what I say. I think it's a waste of time for people to be interviewed and say things that, you know, they think other people want to hear. I try and be as honest as I can be and let people make whatever judgement they are going to. It's not my business.

Teenhollywood: Is there a downside to looking like you?

Gwyneth: Well beauty fades. I just turned 29 and I probably don't have that many good years left in me. Eventually I won't be cast as the type of people I'm cast as now. You hope that you can use your talent to keep working past the desirable female age. For the time being I just try to focus as much as I can on my work as opposed to how I'm supposed to look.

Teenhollywood: Do you think you could fall in love with a less than gorgeous guy?

Gwyneth: It's certainly possible. I once fell in love with someone who was not a 'leading man' type of guy who was overweight and had sort of messed up teeth. I couldn't actually be with him because he was with somebody else but I fell madly in love with him and that had nothing to do with what he looked like. It had to do with who he was and how he understood me.

Teenhollywood: What is your new film The Royal Tennenbaums about?

Gwyneth: It's an unbelievably brilliant film; funny and sad and I just love it. I think it's as good as Rushmore. It's different if not better. It's about a kind of dysfunctional family. The father is really non-present and sort of mean-spirited without doing it in a conscious way. He ends up leaving the family and Angelica Huston ends up raising the other three children and we're all kind of geniuses when we're young. When we grow up we've been unable to put our lives back together and we fail miserably as adults and have to move back in with our mother. It's the story of the family healing in it's own way.

Teenhollywood: Jack Black (her co-star in Shallow Hal) said he cracked you up. What was working with him like?

Gwyneth: I think Jack is incredibly hilarious and I think he's really appealing. I thought he was sexy. When I watched the movie I thought he was sexy. It's about his sense of humor, his brain and his emotional intelligence. He's a really sweet, good person. He can be my leading man any day. I just adored him. We always sang together on set. We'd make up profane lyrics to the songs that existed and harmonize.

Teenhollywood: Are you going to do Saturday Night Live again?

Gwyneth: I am. I'm going to do it on November 10th. I had a really good time doing it (before) and I wholeheartedly welcome the chance to do it again and the challenge of it all.

Teenhollywood: You were on the cover of a magazine quoted as saying "I love men even though they are lying, cheating, scumbags." What's that all about?

Gwyneth: That interview was done by a woman that I've knows since I was 11 years old. I don't remember specifically what we were talking about. I was just making a generalization about men. I do think men can tend to lean towards that.

Teenhollywood: Do you want to sing professionally?

Gwyneth: I was offered a few record deals but I decided to stick with my day job. There's something that 'weirds me out' about actors who want to be rock stars and vice versa. I think it's hard to change your perception of somebody. I really love to sing and I sang a little bit on Cheryl Crow's record that's coming out. I would do that kind of thing, maybe sing backup but I have no interest in doing that whole singing thing with the belly chains and the whole thing. Not my style.

Teenhollywood: What kinds of music do you listen to?

Gwyneth: I'm a huge Tenacious D fan. I listen to really different types of music. I listen to Mozart and Cold Play and lots of girl singers. It's a very eclectic mix.

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Interviewer and writer Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.