Despite high billing, Paltrow down to earth

Sunday, August 4, 1996

Actress discusses ups and downs of filming Jane Austen classic
‘Emma’By Michael Horowitz

Summer Bruin Senior Staff

Gwyneth Paltrow and Toni Collette had already teamed up on "The
Pallbearer" before they went to England to film "Emma," so the two
had developed a shared sense of humor.

"I adore her," Paltrow says of Collette. "She’s a wacky girl,
really an individual. The two of us were always off in a corner,
hysterically laughing."

And into this maelstrom of comedy walked an "Emma" production
assistant, who happened to have a South London accent. "He had a
South London accent, the funniest accent," Paltrow explains. "He
didn’t pronounce "th" as a "th," he pronounced it with an ‘f.’"

Now at the Four Seasons hotel to promote the just-released film,
she’s doubled over laughing imitating the poor guy. "He’d go
‘Gwyneff, we’re ready for you Gwyneff. In about ffwee minutes we’ll
be ready!’"

"We’d always tease him and he’d chase us around and throw things
at us," she smiles. "It was just a lot of fun."

"Fun" seems to be the watchword for Paltrow these days.

"I just don’t have expectations," she says. "I’m just having fun
on the ride, just seeing what happens and doing my work to the best
of my ability and seeing how it goes."

But isn’t there some pressure with her above-the-title
billing?

"Don’t make me nervous!" she yells, gathering herself up in her
chair. "I think I’m doing pretty good. What’s really important to
me is I think I have the respect of my peers and the people who
make films and those who are involved in getting films made. It’s
just at a nice level right now. I’m not bombarded when I walk down
the street by myself, but occasionally teenagers or somebody who
really knows film will come up and say something very nice, but I’m
not bothered by that at all.

"People who make movies want me in their movies so it’s
incredibly validating and flattering, and if (her level of fame)
could just level out here that’d be great."

Don’t count on it. Here in Beverly Hills, she looks casual in
her black T-shirt and matching, ankle-length skirt. But she’ll be
considerably more formally attired back East, where she’s begun
filming a modern adaptation of "Great Expectations," where she
joins Anne Bancroft, Robert De Niro and Ethan Hawke.

And hot on the heels of "Emma" is the gritty indie "Hard 8,"
with Sam Jackson. Of the Sundance favorite coming to theatres this
fall, she says, "I don’t know if it will be everybody’s cup of tea,
but it’s a wonderful film.

"I play a cocktail waitress/hooker," she grins, "just like Emma
…"

Writer/director Douglas McGrath cast Paltrow after hearing her
perfect Texan accent and deciding that anyone who could mimic his
native accent that well could pass for British. But any sense that
logic ever had quickly dissipated for Paltrow as she flew into
England for the first assembled cast read-through of the
script.

"I thought ‘what on Earth have I done?’" she says. "But then it
went so well and everyone was so sweet and supportive."

There were never any doubts about "Emma"’s source material
however, as Paltrow and McGrath could spend days singing Austen’s
praises. "Her characters are so full and so sparkling, and there’s
so much going on," Paltrow says. McGrath agrees, "You get credit
for reading a classic, but it’s so entertaining.

"She tells such good stories, but it’s not just a good story,"
he says. "You get witty dialogue, great characters, romance, and
beautifully written prose."

While it’s said that Austen wanted to create in Emma a heroine
that only she could like, Paltrow appreciated the character on both
an emotional and intellectual level. "Reading it over and over, I
loved so much that she was a faulted heroine," says Paltrow. "It
made her so human and accessible. She’d do a few terrible things
and then was incredibly pained by them and really learned from her
mistakes. I thought that was so valuable."

Of course, on the "terrible things" days, Paltrow’s opinion of
her character was known to change. "There were certain days when I
was in the midst of it all that I just hated her. She’s such an
elitist and she’s mean."

One such day involves a group picnic on a hillside, where the
usually socially adroit Emma finds herself at the wrong end of an
acquaintance’s barb. The heroine verbally lashes out in the wrong
direction and ends up deeply hurting a friend.

"What I like about that particular moment, not on that day,
because I hated her on that day, was that she gets insulted …
then someone does something that’s just annoying and it’s that kind
of snap," she says. "You hope as a human being that you won’t make
mistakes like that.

"I loved that because it’s real. It’s not us on our best days,
but occasionally we’re all capable of something like that. The most
we can ask of ourselves is that we learn from that and not do
something like that again."

One of the things she learned from "Emma" is that while some
facets of the period’s lifestyle were pleasing, there were definite
drawbacks. Would she ever want to live in Emma’s society?

"I’m a big fan of plumbing, so I’d say no.

"We’re so spoiled now, especially here in America," she
says.

"But I think it’s a beautiful time, in a lot of ways," she says.
"I love the art of conversation, and the art of epistolary
correspondence which has all but vanished with e-mail and phones.
There was just a wonderful pace to life then."

Then again, Paltrow’s life in 1996 seems more fun.

FILM: "Emma," directed by Douglas McGrath.

Gwyneth Paltrow is sitting pretty playing the role of Emma in
director Douglas McGrath’s "Emma."