Gwyneth Paltrow is an Oscar-winning actress and business owner who has been in the public eye for decades. During that time her personal life has made headlines, including her relationship with Brad Pitt and famouly consciously uncoupling with ex Chris Martin. But it turns out that she was actually fired from a movie in the midst of that divorce, seemingly due to all the press surrounding the former couple at that point in time.
While Paltrow is proud of introducing conscious uncoupling to the masses, it turns out that the press that all the headlines she made at that time did have a negative affect on her acting career. Because while she was already playing Pepper Potts in the MCU (streaming with a Disney+ subscription), one studio tried to distance itself from her. While appearing on Good Hang with Amy Poehler, the Goop founder admitted she lost a job as a result of her divorce, saying:
I was supposed to do a movie at one point, it was right after the kind of conscious uncoupling thing with Chris. And there was a lot of harsh stuff in the press. And I think the distributor was like ‘This might be too hot to touch.’
Ouch. Despite already being an Oscar-winner with a long and impressive resume, it sounds like one distributor was worried her diorce press would negatively affect a movie she was attched to. And as a result, they promptly fired Gwyneth Paltrow. Although now I’m dying to know exactly what the movie was, and how well it ended up doing at the box office.
They say all press is good press, but it seems like that wasn’t the belief held about Paltrow as she was divorcing Chris Martin. While speaking with Poehler, she got real about what an emotional gut punch it was being dropped from that unnamed project, saying:
So that was great because I was getting a divorce and then I got fired off, it was so awesome.
Divorces are difficult for most people, but being a celebrity makes it into a very public matter. Just look at former couples like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Unfortunately for Paltrow, she also had to deal with the disappointment of losing a job at the same time.
While speaking with the star of Parks & Recreation (which is streaming with a Peacock subscription), Paltrow went on to speak about the backlash that came as a result of her famous “conscious uncoupling” comments. She empathized, sharing:
Say you had had a really nasty divorce. Or your parents had a really nasty divorce. And then you hear this idea that it doesn’t have to be done this way. I think the implicit learning is like ‘Oh fuck. They’re saying I did something wrong.’ Which of course was not the intention. But I think of course, that makes sense to me. ‘Is there inference that I messed someone up?’ Like, that’s not a nice thing to contemplate.
Sound like the actress has had the time to reflect on why some people were mad about the way she approached her divorce from Chris Martin. And rather than feeling defensive, she understands why it might have felt like a personal attack for some folks. As she went on:
So I do understand why it was so personal for people, because it was. You only get to see that kind of reaction when it’s personal.
In the end, the term conscious uncoupling has been adopted by other famous celebrity couples, including those who are coparenting in the midst of their split. And while Paltrow lost one movie job, she’s now in total control over when she returns to acting while working on Goop. So things worked out in the end.
Gwyneth Paltrow is currently in theaters in Marty Supreme opposite Timothée Chalamet. Although I’m still curious about which movie dropped her during the divorce.
