Gwyneth is the cover story for Vanity Fair’s April issue. I read this (extremely long ass) interview so you don’t have to!
In addition to discussing intimacy coordinators, she talks about her upcoming movie Marty Supreme, where she plays a ping pong WAG who “has as lot of sex” with Timothée Chalamet’s character, as well as what’s going on with Goop, her neighbors Meghan and Harry, raw milk, and her blended family. The writer asks about the guy who pooped in her house last summer!
on Lil Timmy Tim [Spoiler (click to open)]
* When she was cast in Marty Supreme (written & directed by Uncut Gems director Josh Safdie, starring Timothée Chalamet), she had never seen Uncut Gems or watched a Chalamet movie, but her kids are fans of Timmy Tim
* “He’s such a thinking man’s sex symbol. He’s just a very polite, properly raised, I was going to say kid,” but Paltrow corrects herself. “He’s a man who takes his work really seriously and is a fun partner.”
* When asked about simulating sex with Timothée: “I was like, ‘Okay, great. I’m 109 years old. You’re 14.'”
on working conditions as a young actress [Spoiler (click to open)]
* During one movie shoot, she was filming six days a week, up to 20 hours a day, sometimes getting called back four hours after wrapping. When her boyfriend came to visit for her birthday, she requested a 12 hour turnaround between shooting days (which she notes should have been standard but she didn’t know about the regulations at the time). Although the producer approved her request, “he made me feel like I was the most entitled…” she trails off, still palpably disturbed. “It was such a horrible feeling.” She imagined him “crafting a story that I’m being difficult…and of course you didn’t say anything, because you could already tell that the guy with the power was like, ‘I don’t like what I’m seeing here.’ ”
* Although she doesn’t name the movie or the producer, she said the movie was filmed in the English countryside and the boyfriend who came to visit was Brad Pitt, which points to Emma.
* When asked if things are different in a post-#MeToo industry, she said, “I’m sure people still abuse power in Hollywood because they do everywhere, but it has definitely changed,” noting that “there are no meetings set up in hotel rooms, from what I understand, or if there are, it’s multiple people in the room.”
GOOP [Spoiler (click to open)]
* Last September, Goop laid off 18% of its staff (40 employees). Two months later, they let go of 10 more employees. Gwyenth said: “Unfortunately, we had to do a reorg. These are my people that I love, and the emotional pain that I went through is different than a lot of CEOs. A lot of people that I know are like, ‘Let’s just flip the switch. Who gives a shit?’ But that’s not me.”
* Gwyneth’s explanation: “We are not doing this because the business is faltering. We’re doing this because I need to optimize EBITDA (finance lingo for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, a trending measure of profitability). My business is a good business and it’s a strong business and the brand is strong. Case in point, we’re still here. We just had our best year.”
* Goop sent a follow up email to the writer reiterating that the company is doing great: “2024 was Goop’s best year yet from an overall revenue perspective”—up 10 percent over 2023—and reporting “significant growth” in the company’s chosen channels, with Goop Beauty’s revenue increasing 34 percent, upmarket fashion line G. Label’s 42 percent, and Goop Kitchen, the brightly healthy takeout business fanning out across LA, delivering 60 percent growth year over year. Despite all of these numbers, when it comes to the topic of EBITDA, Goop does not reveal whether or not it is profitable.
on yoni eggs, vagina candles, and brand loyalty [Spoiler (click to open)]
* Some of the items Goop has sold include a $66 jade yoni egg to do kegels (a writer who bought the egg a few years ago noted that due to the high cost of jade, Goop’s egg must either be made with illegal jade from Myanmar – the other possibility is that it is not made with real jade), a $15,000 gold-plated dildo, and the viral $75 “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle.
* When the writer brings up these new age products that Goop is known for, Gwyneth groans, “So stupid. It was like 15 years ago.” The writer notes that the Goop began selling the vagina candle in 2020 which is definitely not 15 years ago. I went to the Goop website and they are still selling the $66 jade egg.
* The writer notes that in 2018, Goop agreed to a $145,000 settlement (which did not indicate liability) with the California Food, Drug, and Medical Device Task Force after a consumer protection complaint alleged that three Goop products made unsubstantiated medical claims, including jade and quartz yoni eggs intended to “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control.”
* Gwyneth on growing their customer base: “Forgive me if this gets too nerdy, but basically, the sexual-wellness customers were not the best customers from an LTV (lifetime value/brand loyalty) perspective.” Translation: the people who bought the vagina candle or a vibrator did not become return costumers who bought the beauty products or vitamins that Goop sells (a 2017 article noted that some of the supplements sold by Goop were also sold by InfoWars). “Also, I think it was very clickbait-y and just a lot, which we didn’t mean to happen.”
on MAHA, RJK Jr, and other politics [Spoiler (click to open)]
* Gwyneth is “very fascinated” by MAHA. The writer notes that Gwyneth is careful not to specifically name RFK Jr. but that a lot of what she talks about aligns with things he has said.
* Gwyneth describes herself as “an independent thinker,” saying she doesn’t subscribe to any one leader in her personal concerns about the US health system, instead seeking to educate herself. She has hosted fundraisers for the Democratic National Commmittee in 2014 and Pete Buttigieg in 2019 but also endorsed billionaire Rick Caruso for mayor in 2022.
* She uses raw cream from Raw Farm in Fresno, California (RFK Jr is one of their customers) in her coffee every morning. She also brings up the herbicide glyphosate (which RFK Jr has claimed is linked to “many diseases”).
* This interview was conducted a few days after the inauguration. Gwyneth said, “A lot of those leaders are, well, they’re all humans, so they’re all imperfect and sometimes they’re way past imperfect and it’s actually really dissonant with how other people hold information or how they feel politicians are supposed to behave.”
on Meghan and Harry [Spoiler (click to open)]
* Gwyneth’s Montecito home is near Meghan and Harry’s (as well as Oprah’s). “I don’t know Meghan and Harry. I mean, I’ve met Meghan, who seems really lovely, but I don’t know her at all. Maybe I’ll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie.”
* When the writer brings up similarities between Goop and Meghan’s lifestyle brand, Gwyneth said, “I was raised to see other women as friends, not foes. I think there’s always more than enough to go around. Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try.” She also said that when “there’s noise about certain women in the culture, I do have, always, a strong instinct to stand up for them.”
on motherhood/retiring from acting [Spoiler (click to open)]
* At the height of her fame, she was emotionally and physically exhausted. “I was really disenchanted with how I was treated for a lot of it,” including “the disparity between male costars and all that, which now sounds cliché, but it’s really true and it’s hard to live.”
* She deliberately pulled away from acting. “I didn’t even contemplate doing anything that would take me away from my kids.” No judgment to working parents, “but I’ve always sort of understood how finite this period of childhood is.”
* Her decision was influenced by her own childhood. “My parents traveled a lot for work when I was young, which they had to, but I think it was sometimes hard for my brother and me. Sometimes you overcorrect from your childhood stuff and I just wanted to be home as much as possible.”
* Her brother was the one who urged her to do Marty Supreme and one of the things that motivated her to do it was to be geographically closer to her kids. The movie was shot in New York and all of the kids have left the West Coast for college. Apple (20) is at Vanderbilt, Moses (18) is at Brown, Isabella (20) is at Cornell, and Brody (19) is at Yale.
the kids [Spoiler (click to open)]
* When Apple was invited to make her debut at the Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris, Gwyneth was dubious and thought it was a very unusual kind of thing to do, but wanted to be supportive. She said Apple has “always had a lot of trepidation around being in the public eye,” but she expressed interest in attending the ball. Gwyneth said it ended up being “one of the most special weekends of my entire life.”
* Apple is a Kappa Kappa Gamma at Vanderbilt and majoring in law, history, and society.
* Moses is designing his own major at Brown. Gwyneth said he’s good at math. He is in a band called Dancer which has played at the Mercury Lounge in New York. He plays the guitar and sings.
* Gwyneth is not a practitioner of “gentle” or “child-led” parenting: “They’re not supposed to lead themselves because it challenges their survivability in nature.” She said raised them with the mantra of “manners maketh man.” As a result, she said, “You would be surprised at how lovely and unassuming and down-to-earth they are.”
* When she dropped Apple off at college, she felt the stares that resulted in being outside of the LA bubble. She said that although Apple has had some uncomfortable moments, Gwyneth isn’t worried. “Look, they’re the children of two super-famous people, and so they understand what comes with that. They’ve grown up in it.”
* She and Brad are reframing “empty nesters” and referring to themselves as “free birds,” a term she learned from “psychological astrologer” Jennifer Freed, PhD. “Empty nest is so demoralizing but if you say we’re free birds and you embody that, then you have this much more energized, optimistic” outlook.
on having a blended family [Spoiler (click to open)]
* After she and Chris Martin divorced, they had family brunch with the kids every Sunday. “We were in a really bad spot. I was like, ‘Fuck this. I cannot do this.'” In response, Martin told her, “I love you. We can do this.”
* She and Chris have a solid relationship now: “It’s not quite brother, but we are complete family. He is there for me through anything, and vice versa.”
* The extended family includes her husband’s ex-wife, Suzanne Bukinik, who stayed with them recently when she was evacuated during the LA fire.
* Gwyneth said their blended family continues to evolve. “It feels much better when everybody can be together and people can let go of the more difficult, painful parts of what led to a divorce and focus on the things that led to the marriage in the first place. Once you fully let go of ‘We used to sleep in the same bed’ vibes, a world of possibility opens up.” It’s not without complication, but “I love Chris. I love Suzanne.” The writer notes that although Gwyneth has said she is good friends with Chris Martin’s fiancée Dakota Johnson, Gwyneth did not bring her up at all during this blended family discussion.
on winning an Oscar at 26 [Spoiler (click to open)]
* “I had the validation so early that it was almost not a good thing. It’s just not as glamorous as it looks.”
* When she returned to New York after winning an Oscar, she was still crying and shaking. She went to her doctor to ask, “What’s wrong with me?” He sent her to a therapist.
* “There’s a healthy level of ambition, like, ‘I know who I am’ and ‘I want the world.’ And then there’s another aspect that comes from damage…. ‘I want that so that a hole will be filled, so that other people will find me worthy, so that I’ll be lovable.’ I think I was very much dancing between those things.”
random tidbits [Spoiler (click to open)]
* On the morning of the Oscar nominations, she Facetimed with Demi Moore, Nobody Wants This nepo baby Sara Foster (daughter of David Foster, step-daughter of Katharine McPhee who is three years younger than Sara), and jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer (Tobey Maguire’s ex-wife and daughter of Ronald Meyer who founded CAA and then became president of Universal Studios and vice chairman of NBC Universal).
* “Cameron Diaz is one of my best friends, sorry to name-drop.”
* On the day of the interview, Paltrow said the Goop editorial team was working on a piece about air quality in the aftermath of the fires. “We’re not a news organization, but when it comes to wellness, I think people do want to understand what our take is.”
* Gwyneth sees herself as a trailblazer who welcomes other in the same industry: “It might just be that my role is to pave the way. By some instinct or curiosity or desire, I go somewhere and I hack through the path and I get the scratches of hacking through, but I make space for other people, then, to do it.”
* When she was 19, she auditioned for a “much coveted” role that she didn’t get. When she started talking about the other actress, her mother (actress Blythe Danner) put a stop to it, saying, “Another woman is never your competition” and “What is right for you will find you.”
* The writer brings up the blind item about someone who pooped in one of Gwyneth’s guest rooms in the Hamptons and then fled the scene. “I understand,” a pained Paltrow says, “and I also, like, am just not going to…” she trails off with an existential cringe, saying nothing more but, I note, not leaping to denying it.
Gwyneth rewatches her performances in Iron Man, Glee, Sliding Doors, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Shakespeare in Love
