Does Gwyneth Paltrow think of the MCU fondly? The Iron Man actress looks back at her long career in one of the world’s most successful media franchises.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the original Iron Man changed the game. Not just for the MCU or superhero movies, but for blockbusters in general. The film created a new class of movie star intrinsically tied to IP, accelerating the Hollywood circuit to put franchises as the selling point when before it was stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. that would put butts into seats.
It’s easy to look back now and point out how obvious of an idea the MCU is. However, back when Iron Man was first filming, absolutely nobody had any idea how the film would shake out. Reflecting on her time working on the film with Vanity Fair, Gwyneth Paltrow that the original film felt like an indie movie, with the cast able to banter on set as the project found its footing in real time.
“Jon [Favreau], Robert [Downey Jr.] and I improvised all day every day. There was a lot of rewriting. We’d go to Jon’s trailer in the morning and the three of us would improv. It’s not typical to do that on a big budget action movie. Jon was so brilliant and he wanted it to feel like it had a reality to it and that it was character-based.”
“There was no pressure on us. Nobody thought it would turn into anything. The studio felt they had taken this big risk with Robert as a leading man and it probably won’t even be a hit. And then it came out and it changed the course of that studio.”
Gwyneth Paltrow Is Shocked By The MCU
It seems that even Gwyneth Paltrow is shocked by how big the MCU has gotten. When talking about her time in the franchise since Iron Man, the actress was shocked to discover that she was in over half a dozen projects. According to her, the shock mostly stems from how secretive the studio is about their films, comparing it to the clearance needed to work in a government agency.
“That can’t be right. I can’t have been in seven. Is that true? They keep it all very top secret. They think they’re the CIA over there, like it’s national secrets,” She remarked. “That’s why I didn’t know I was in Spider-Man. They never said. There were no signs that said Spider-Man. The script didn’t even say Spider-Man. It’s all a secret.”
Given all of the stories that have come out from behind-the-scenes of the MCU, it’s certainly not a stretch to think that the studio would hide which projects actors are filming for, even from the actors! That being said, even if Gwyneth Paltrow is never in another MCU project until the end of time, she’ll go down in history as an important part of the franchise thanks to her part in the original Iron Man.
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