Since breaking through into the mainstream consciousness as an A-list movie star in the 1990s, Gwyneth Paltrow has never been far from the headlines.
She was one of the most successful actresses of her generation, earning her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. For more than a decade she was in a high-profile marriage with Coldplay star Chris Martin. She has been the face of brands like Estée Lauder and even founded her own lifestyle company, Goop.
And yet Amy Odell, author of a new book called ‘Gwyneth: The Biography’, described her as “one of the most resented celebrities in the world”.
Fame and success can make targets of people in the public eye, particularly woman, and Paltrow’s incredible profile has frequently put her in the cross-hairs. In an interview with BBC, Odell explains why her subject has been demonized in some quarters.
“Women’s ambition is not always viewed positively, and I wondered if that’s why Gwyneth downplayed her ambition early in her career,” says Odell. “I also am interested in people who have had cultural impact, and ambition probably helps explain why [she was] able to accomplish things that truly did impact culture.”
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There have also been accusations that Gwyneth Paltrow is a ‘nepo baby’; someone who benefited from the position and the contacts of their parents. Her father, Bruce, was a well-known producer while her mother, Blythe Danner, was a successful actress.
She made her acting debut in ‘High’ in 1989, a film that her father directed. She then made her professional stage debut at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts, where he mother had been performing for years. Her godfather, Steven Spielberg, then cast her as the young Wendy Darling in ‘Hook’.
However, for Odell the real benefits that a young Paltrow gained from her parents was their attributes, the combination of charm and strength that had made them so successful a generation earlier.
“It’s impossible to understand someone, as a biographer, if you don’t take the time to research where a subject came from, and how their parents impacted them,” Odell explained.
“I always make a big effort to interview people who knew a subject’s parents, and was fortunate to gain great insight into Gwyneth through those interviews. Gwyneth is a fascinating mix of both of her parents – she has her mother’s extraordinary acting talent and her dad’s polarizing personality and excellent aesthetic taste.”
In her own words, Paltrow says that she is no longer concerned with what others think. She said: “As a woman, you turn 50, and maybe we all give ourselves permission to be exactly who we are. And we stop trying to be what other people are expecting us to be, and you kind of exhale into this other thing.”
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