The performance that left Gwyneth Paltrow feeling “completely and utterly exhausted”
A household name by now, there was a time when this level of fame could have slipped away from Gwyneth Paltrow. The actor and intimate ‘wellness’ enthusiast came from nepo baby roots to grab attention in dark thrillers like Se7en and romantic comedies like Emma and Shallow Hal in the mid-1990s to early 2000s. Later, she won an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’ thanks to 1999’s Shakespeare In Love and eventually became a consistent part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A brief blip on her road to mainstream success, however, coincided with Paltrow diving into one of her most challenging and critically rewarded roles.
Following her Academy Awards glory, the pace of Paltrow’s trajectory spluttered. Discussion of the ‘Oscars curse’ in the press reignited, using both Paltrow and Halle Berry – who proudly took her newly-obtained ‘Best Actress’ Oscar to accept a Razzie – as exemplars. Paltrow agreed that the pressures of success were hard to deal with, appearing in a string of smaller parts throughout the 2000s that neither set the box office or critics’ hearts on fire.
Reducing her workload and choosing projects that might be more commercially appealing was partly so she could raise her two children – a very reasonable excuse. Still, one meatier role Paltrow did manage to sink her teeth into during this time was 2005’s Proof.
First produced as a stage play in 2000, Paltrow was cast in John Madden’s 2002 production of Proof in London’s West End. While she’d relegate herself more to supporting parts in the following years, here, she played the lead – Catherine, a young mathematical prodigy in the mould of her father. Fearing she may have also inherited his mental health problems, Catherine sacrifices her career to care for him in his twilight years. His presence haunts her as she spends the story attempting to finish his work while avoiding his fate.
Madden, who’d directed Paltrow in Shakespeare In Love, cast her in the same role for his film version, which also included Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal. Speaking to the BBC in 2006, she revealed there were gruelling differences between playing Catherine on stage and inhabiting her for much longer filming days.
“I was completely and utterly exhausted by the process every day. When I was doing the play, I was absolutely using up all of my resources, but it was a two-hour period in the evening, and then it was finished. And also there was one trajectory, one arc, it was from beginning to end,” she said.
Adding: “There were some really emotional bits, but you got through them, and that was that. But what I found so difficult about the film is that we would be doing one scene that was super emotional, and we’d be doing it all day long, and there was no end to it. It was hard to be in that state for hours and hours at a time.”
While not a financial success, the toll Proof took on Paltrow paid off reputationally: she received a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actress’ amid praise from reviewers for both her and Hopkins’ performances. Supporting her family is likely no longer a concern after her renaissance in the wildly lucrative MCU; she’s free to cherry-pick acting projects again without the pressure of that little golden statue.
