Cinema Experts

“The work gets more difficult as you get older. You learn more and you gather more experiences, there is deeper pain and higher highs.”
Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, California to the late film and television director, writer, and producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. Raised in Santa Monica, she attended Crossroads School before moving and attending Spence School, a private girls' school in New York City. Later she briefly studied art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before discontinuing her degree and committing herself to acting. She is an "adopted daughter" of Talavera de la Reina (Spain), where she lived as an exchange student and learned Spanish.
Paltrow made her professional stage debut in 1990. Her most recent stage appearance was in Proof at London's Donmar Warehouse. Her debut film was Shout (1991). Later that year, she had a small role as the young Wendy in family friend Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). She also appeared in Malice and Flesh and Bone.
Paltrow starred in Se7en (1995), opposite Brad Pitt, and Morgan Freeman. The film was hugely successful commercially and critically. Then in 1996 she starred in Emma, where she received strong positive critical acclaim, particularly in Europe, and Asia.
Two years later, Paltrow starred in Shakespeare in Love, an imagining of how William Shakespeare might have written Romeo and Juliet. The film received critical acclaim, earned more than $100 million in domestic box office receipts, and received numerous awards. Shakespeare in Love won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay, as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture. Paltrow also won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild. Later that year, Paltrow won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. After her Oscar win Paltrow starred in other movie roles such as A Perfect Murder. In 2000 Paltrow starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley which earned over $80 million domestically, and received positive reviews. She then starred in Bounce with Shakespeare in Love costar Ben Affleck, which was moderately successful, both critically and commercially.
Since then, she has had a relatively low-profile, yet steady, film career with a few critically acclaimed film roles, including Proof (2005) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Audiences got their first taste of Paltrow's singing ability with the 2000 release of Duets, in which she co-starred with singer Huey Lewis, who played her karaoke-hustling estranged father. Towards the end of the film, their characters resolve their differences and perform a cover version of Smokey Robinson's Cruisin'. The song, which surprised many of Paltrow's fans, was well-received and was eventually released as a single, getting heavy airplay from Top 40 and adult contemporary-formatted radio stations.
In an interview with The Guardian on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that she divided her career into those movies she did for love and those films she did for money.
The Royal Tenenbaums, Proof, and Sylvia fell into the former category, whilst View From the Top and Shallow Hal were in the latter. In interviews for Shallow Hal, she reported did some research for the role by wearing the fat suit she used during filming, and going to a local bar to gauge the public perception of obese people. She said that people refused to make eye contact with her, and she was treated quite rudely on multiple occasions, and the experience saddened her greatly, with regards to how people treat those who are overweight.Since winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love, Paltrow's box-office profile has declined considerably, with her most recent smash being 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.