Gwyneth Paltrow has clarified that she was only “joking” about using her Oscar as a doorstop.
The actor and Goop CEO was taking part in Vogue’s 73 Questions interview series at her home in the Hamptons, when she shared the unusual place place she keeps her 1999 Academy Award.
During the interview, the 51-year-old is showing the interviewer around her home when they stumble upon the Best Actress trophy propping open a door in her garden.
“What a beautiful Academy Award,” the interviewer says, with Paltrow responding: “My doorstop! It works perfectly.”
While the clip circulated online, as fans revelled in how “unapologetically out of touch” the actor had become, Paltrow later clarified that she had been joking.
A representative for Paltrow told Variety that “of course, it’s a joke”, pointing to an interview with The New York Times from September where Paltrow retrieved the item from her house in Amagansett, New York.
Paltrow won the award for Best Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love as the playwright’s fictional lover, Viola de Lesseps.
Her 1999 Oscar triumph is considered one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history, as many had predicted Cate Blanchett would win for Elizabeth.
Paltrow showed off her Oscar in her Vogue ‘73 Questions’ video— (Vogue/YouTube)
In May, Paltrow reflected on the win on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “Once I won the Oscar, it put me into a bit of an identity crisis because if you win the biggest prize, like, what are you supposed to do? And where are you supposed to go?” she recalled.
“It was hard the amount of attention that you receive on a night like that and the weeks following, it’s so disorienting. And frankly, really unhealthy. I was like, ‘This is crazy. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know which way is up.’”
She added: “It was a lot. Not that I would give it back or anything, it was an amazing experience, but it kind of called a lot of things into question for me.”
At the time, Paltrow’s late father was being treated for cancer, but the actor claimed the UK press was particularly critical of her for crying on stage.
“I cried and people were so mean about it and I just thought, ‘Wow there’s this big energy shift that’s happening. I think I’m going to have to learn to be less openhearted and much more protective of myself and filter people out better,’” she said.
“I felt a real pivot on that night because I felt like up until that moment everybody was kind of rooting for me in a way. And then when I won, it was like too much, and I could feel a real turn.”
