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Gwyneth Paltrow says Harvey Weinstein and public scrutiny took shine off acting

Paltrow won an Oscar at the age of 26.

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Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has said the “shine of acting” wore off following her Academy Award win, blaming working for Harvey Weinstein and intense public scrutiny.

Paltrow was 26 when she won the best actress Oscar for Shakespeare In Love, which was produced by disgraced Hollywood mogul Weinstein.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s Quarantined With Bruce, Paltrow, 48, said she quickly became disillusioned with the film industry and realised she did not “love acting that much as it turns out”.

Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up on her early career (Isabel Infantes/PA)

“I sort of felt like, well, now who am I supposed to be?” Paltrow said. “Like, what am I driving towards?”

Paltrow, whose other film roles include The Talented Mr Ripley and The Royal Tenenbaums, said “part of the the shine of acting wore off” as a result of the “intense public scrutiny” she was under.

The mother-of-two added: “Being a kid who’s living every breakup on every headline, being criticised for everything you do, say and wear.

“And also, it’s so transitory, you’re always all over. It’s hard to plant roots. I’m such a homebody, you know me, I like to be with my old friends and cook and squeeze my kids. I don’t want to be alone in a hotel room in Budapest for six weeks. It’s just not who I am.”

And Paltrow revealed working for Weinstein – who she has since accused of sexual harassment – made matters worse.

Harvey Weinstein
Gwyneth Paltrow said working for disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein made her disillusioned with Hollywood (Anthony Devlin/PA)

She said: “If you compound those things with the fact that like, you know, to be totally candid, I had a really rough boss for most of my movie career at Miramax.

“Like, so you take all those things, you’re like, ‘I don’t know if this is really my calling.’”

As well as her acting career, Paltrow is a successful businesswoman and oversees her Goop lifestyle brand.

She married Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in 2003 and they have two children – daughter Apple, 16, and 14-year-old son Moses.

After divorcing Martin in 2016, she married TV producer Brad Falchuk in 2018.

Paltrow’s recent film roles include appearing in the Marvel movies as Pepper Potts.

Weinstein was convicted of rape in February and is serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York.

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