http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aV5wquTQCnCI&refer=homeGwyneth Paltrow Shares Spotlight With Brother-Director Jake
By Farah Nayeri
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Gwyneth Paltrow and her kid brother Jake are paired like twins inside a tiny London television studio, a camera aimed, invariably, at both.
Jake, 32, has just directed his first full-length film, ``The Good Night,'' about an ineffectual male who gets the dream girl in his sleep. Gwyneth, 35, doesn't play the dream girl, she's his cheerless girlfriend, with dark hair and brown eyes.
When we meet, Gwyneth's blond hair is loosened to the waist; her cheeks glow, her eyelashes swoop, and her smile widens as the TV camera rolls. She wears crushed-velvet leggings and pointy pumps topped with leather rosebuds. Jake sits beside her in a jacket and open-neck shirt, camera shy, and more candid.
Nayeri: Jake, Gwyneth was not your first choice to play Dora. What was it like directing your big sister?
Jake Paltrow: She was the first choice artistically. It just took some time and working out.
Working together was (he looks at her, she smiles at him) totally gratifying and great, and not much different than how we interact sitting here today.
Nayeri: Were you initially reluctant about the familiarity, the fact that you knew her too well?
Gimmick?
Jake: No, no, no, it was much more about the perception of what it would be. There's a certain gimmickry of us doing this together, a nepotistic angle. I didn't want to handicap it right off the bat. But I really wanted her to be in it.
Nayeri: Gwyneth, why did you beg your brother to play the role of the girlfriend in a dead-end relationship?
Gwyneth: I really liked the idea of being one-half of a relationship that was a mess and had gone on for probably three years too long. You never see that in a film. You always see how they met and first held hands, which is fun, but it's not life.
Nayeri: And you were a brunette. What was that like?
Gwyneth: I enjoyed that transformation. I found it freeing.
Nayeri: Freeing? How so?
Gwyneth: I have an image that, over the years, has become very specific to who I am in the popular culture. It's nice to shake that off and to look completely different.
I got involved in this career because I'm an artist and I wanted to express myself, play amazing characters, and work with great people, not be reduced to a two-dimensional image in a magazine, which I don't mind, but it's just not why I did it. So it's nice to lose that part completely.
Gwyneth Sings
Nayeri: What are your next creative priorities? The stage in London? Shooting another film, after the short you recently co- directed? Do you have a dream part?
Gwyneth: All of the above. My family comes first, so as long as they're okay with it and it all works out, I'd love to do a play in London. I'd love to do a musical on stage in New York or here, and just work with really inspiring people.
I'm going to do a film with James Gray and Joaquin Phoenix starting in New York in a few weeks. (``Two Lovers,'' directed by Gray.)
Nayeri: Jake, would you hire your sister for another role?
Jake: No. (He looks at her, she smiles.) Of course.
To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at
Farahn@bloomberg.net .
Jeu 27 Sep - 5:51