Gwyneth Paltrow has taken a step back from the big screen in recent years, but there is one star who could convince her to act again.
“It would be very hard for me to do any acting right at the moment, just because of my job,” the Goop CEO, 51, told Entertainment Tonight on Monday, November 6. “But, I guess Robert Downey Jr. could probably always get me back. … You know, to some degree.”
Paltrow and Downey Jr., 58, have appeared in seven Marvel films together: Iron Man in 2008, Iron Man 2 in 2010, The Avengers in 2012, Iron Man 3 in 2013, 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. She portrayed Pepper Potts, the personal assistant and love interest of Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man), played by Downey Jr.
The Shakespeare in Love actress developed a close bond with Downey Jr. after working together for so many years — and she confessed in 2007 that he was one of the main reasons she joined the Marvel universe to begin with.
“It had nothing to do with the size of the budget. It was like, if I got a call that there’s a six-million-dollar movie, and these are the people, I’d do it,” she told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “I’ve always wanted to work with Robert Downey Jr. He’s a genius, and I had never been asked to do a film with him before.”
Downey Jr. later teased that he had a “free pass” for romantic scenes with Paltrow because she was also close with his wife, Susan Downey.
“My free pass is — because her and Susan are such good friends — is Paltrow,” he joked in 2016 on The Howard Stern Show. “I gotta get her back in these movies so I can make out with her onscreen again.”
Paltrow largely retired from acting in 2020 after appearing in Netflix’s The Politician, instead opting to focus on growing her wellness and lifestyle brand. Last month, Paltrow said she was looking forward to completely stepping away from entertainment in the near future.
“I will literally disappear from public life,” she told Bustle in an interview published on October 18, while discussing her next chapter after she one day sells Goop. “No one will ever see me again.”
Paltrow founded Goop in 2008. As CEO, she enjoys “creating, collaborating, being struck with new ideas, innovating, thinking ahead, strategy, vision, that kind of thing.”
Paltrow’s hope is to sell the company in “a few more years,” and then concentrate on spending time with her family. She has been married to producer Brad Falchuk since 2018 and shares two children — daughter Apple, 19, and son Moses, 17 — with ex-husband Chris Martin. She is also a stepmom to Falchuk’s two kids, daughter Isabella, 19, and son Brody, 17.
Goop was valued at $250 million in 2018 by The New York Times. Her successes continued on Monday, November 6, when she was honored with the Council of Fashion Designers of America Innovation Award at the 2023 CFDA Fashion Awards in New York City.
After 15 years, Paltrow is proud of her company’s progress.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work and perseverance, but you know, I do it with so much love, and so I’m glad to see that we’ve been able to build year over year. It’s thrilling,” Paltrow said to Entertainment Tonight.
