Gwyneth Paltrow was not interested in filming a sex scene with Ethan Hawke for their movie, Great Expectations — even though the director recommended it.
The two actors reflected on when they first met during a recent video for Vanity Fair. They recalled that when they were working on the 1998 movie adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, director Alfonso Cuarón suggested filming a sex scene.
“Do you remember Alfonso pitching you the love scene?” Hawke said, before Paltrow responded: “Oh my god. “And I was like, ‘Oh my god, my father’s going to see this,’”
Hawke recited how Cuarón described the scene, continuing: “The camera is going to go down your belly, and then it's going to go up your breasts, and then it's going to go in your face as you reach ecstasy. And then when you reach ecstasy, the light will explode like to the sun!”
“And I remember looking at Gwyneth, and Gwyneth is like, ‘Alfonso, I'm never going to do that,’” he concluded.
The Marty Supreme star explained why she wasn’t comfortable filming sex scenes at the time.
“In my early career, I was really self-conscious about my dad and grandfather seeing this kind of stuff,” she said. “Like it really bothered me. Now, I wouldn’t care.”
However, Hawke said that he thought Paltrow was “amazing in the way” she handled that situation, noting she was not “petulant” but direct.
“I think in regard to that scene, you had an awareness of the way that the business works, and the ways in which those kinds of images could be manipulated and what it meant to your dad,” he explained.
“Maybe I was too prudish in the moment,” she confessed, before the Dead Poets Society star responded: “I don't think you were.”
In Great Expectations, set in New York City, Hawke plays Finnegan “Finn” Bell, an orphan who falls deeply in love with heartbreaker Estella, portrayed by Paltrow.
This year, Paltrow made her return to acting after a nearly seven-year hiatus. In the new Josh Safdie film, Marty Supreme, Paltrow plays Kay Stone, a retired movie actor who becomes romantically involved with an up-and-coming ping pong star, Marty Supreme, portrayed by Timothee Chalamet.
In the recently released film, the two actors filmed quite a few sex scenes where they worked with an intimacy coordinator, which Paltrow didn’t know existed.
“I mean, we have a lot of sex in this movie. There’s a lot—a lot,” she told Vanity Fair in March.
She explained that when Marty Supreme’s intimacy coordinator asked her if she was comfortable with doing a certain move, she responded: “Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on.”
However, the Iron Man star ultimately decided that working with the intimacy coordinator wasn’t necessary for her.
“We said, ‘I think we’re good. You can step a little bit back.’ I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but…if someone is like, ‘Okay, and then he’s going to put his hand here.’” she explained, placing her hand on her own shoulder. “I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that.”
Timothée Chalamet’s new movie breaks box office record days before official release
Apple Martin rewears mother Gwyneth Paltrow’s iconic 90s dress
Brigitte Bardot, French film star and cultural icon, dies aged 91
The promise Brigitte Bardot made to her estranged son before her death
Jack Black reveals ‘soul sucking’ job he held before becoming an actor
