Actress Gwyneth Paltrow took the stand in a Park City courtroom on Friday to testify
in a trial over a 2016 skiing crash in Utah. Paltrow is accused of crashing into Terry
Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist — causing several serious injuries and then
abandoning him, while they were both skiing seven years ago.
Paltrow took the stand and was questioned by Sanderson's attorney, Kristin VanOrman.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial has been nothing short of a spectacle, not only for her attitude
on court, how every attorney is so cringeworthy and of course, her body language when she
took the stand.
Try to watch the following clip absorbing her body language signals, and let your intuition
tell you what’s going on in here:
- He struck me in the back. Yes, that's exactly what happened. I know. But you said I can
still watch my children ski. Yes. Meaning directly into my back by someone. Which is
what happened. Yes, exactly. What's the pending question? It sounds like they're saying the
exact same thing. What's the question? The question is you were watching your children
ski when you were struck in the back? I asked and answered, Your Honor. Overruled. I was
skiing and looking downhill as you do. And I was skied directly into by Mr. Sanderson.
By the end of this video, you will be able to tell the difference between real signals
of deception and the natural body language or the baseline of a person.
Welcome back, my body language buddies! My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I’m the Body
Language Guy, and it would be great if you join us by just liking this video, subscribing
and hitting that bell.
Let’s get down to it!
I am sure that the most important signal you noticed was her blinking rate. She had a higher
than normal blinking rate and that is usually related to deception. But as in any body language
analysis, we have to stack signals until we can get to a solid conclusion, so her blinking
rate could be produced by nervousness. She could be anxious, she could be upset reliving
that moment, she could be upset that she's being sued by this man because we still don't
know who is telling the truth here.
Of course you can imagine that most people are not going to watch her entire testimony
much less the entire trial. I watched her full testimony and I noticed that yes, her
blinking rate looks as if she wants to hide something. That is a natural first impression.
But I also noticed that there's so many people biased in one way or another and that's something
that we have to address as well. As in, she’s a celebrity, she is a spoiled star, she wants
to get away with it, or some kind of argument that says that she's just another Hollywood
actress who is using her power for her own gain.
And one of the body language signals that might reinforce that perception is that gesture
she does when she is smiling with her mouth shut, her mouth closed. it looks like a mocking
gesture. It looks like she's mocking I don't know the jury the attorneys, the judge. But
in fact, it is part of her usual body language baseline. It is a way of smiling like you
are a bit embarrassed. If I was one of her attorneys I would have told her before entering
the courtroom the first day all the ways that this trial could be affected by being broadcasted.
And I am usually not a fan of practicing body language or trying to modify the way that
you express words, or express emotions, but in this case it's important to make sure that
your body language absolutely expresses what you want to say. Want to convey. It's foolish,
by every standard that you are going take the stand and pretend that you're going to
be your authentic self and you just have to tell the truth.
Because, if you're going to pick the right words to tell the truth, don’t you think
you will pick the right body language to tell the truth as well? that makes sense right?
Now here is the point that things get complicated, because if I was Gwyneth’s attorney or body
language consultant, the first thing that I would address is her resting face. And the
problem is this. That face that you are looking at right now is pretty much part of Gwyneth’s
body language baseline. That is her regular expression. It's a problem maybe not in her
daily life or maybe not on her TikToks or whatever, but in a courtroom, on a trial,
regardless if it’s being broadcasted, that is a big deal.
That is absolutely a big deal and again I am not a fan of saying “hey you have to
change your hand gestures, you have to use this kind of hand gestures, you have to change
the way that you express emotions with your face”, because in 99 percent of the time,
it doesn’t work. In this situations we are nervous enough to be able to modify our facial
expressions on the fly.
But in Gwyneth’s case, she is an accomplished actress so it will be easier for her to just
adopt her body language to something that doesn't look as condescending. Why do I say
that this looks condescending? Well, her chin a bit higher than the horizon, which projects
a bit of arrogance and arrogance is a no-no in any testimony. She’s got these heavy
eyelids, like her eyes are partially closed, and it gives her that expression of “hey,
I am superior. I am above you”
At the same time she is raising her eyebrows which usually should convey goodwill but that's
why you cannot pick separate parts of the face on their own, you have to watch them
all at the same time, and realize that this is not the expression that you want to have,
especially when you are in the recollection of events.
I have to say that one of the signals that make me doubt of Gwyneth’s statement is
one that is almost missed as the end. When she displays that swallowing right after she
say the last words of her statement. That is always a bit of nervousness, especially
after the person has said something that compromises them, or affects them emotionally.
And my question is, if she is telling the truth, and if she has practiced her testimony
with her attorneys why is she getting nervous? Now in that regard, I don’t think her attorneys
made her practice her testimony or warn her in any way. And I am not a specialist assessing
attorneys but you might agree with me that all the law professionals in this trial are
all over the place.
Now let's talk about smiles and why smiles are important. In this case we have a snapshot
of the moment when Gwyneth tries to smile or display a genuine smile. And no, it’s
not working. This will never be perceived as a genuine smile, and that's another problem
because if you smile like this, you will instantly be perceived as untrustworthy.
There is no way around it and I am not the one to say that this is due to Botox or or
fillers or anything. I don't care about that. I don’t care you have done something to
your face but if you don't smile if you don't have full expressions with your face you will
be perceived as untrustworthy.
There is no way and no question around that. In Gwyneth’s case, it’s even
worse, because we see the same signs of being condescending and patronizing as in the previous
picture we see the raised eyebrows and the heavy eyelids, and the eyes partially closed.
How do we know that this doesn't look like a genuine smile? Just because it lacks the
cheeks pressure on the eyes, and sadly that's also part of Gwyneth’s baseline.
That is something that she should do on purpose make sure to contract those muscles in a way
that she can convey this smile. And yeah, that is part of acting. No I don't know when
was the last time she got an acting gig but I am sure that she should use that expertise
in moments like this. Again not because you tried to adapt your body language to the situation
is that you are lying, or you're trying to fake something, because if we adapt our words,
we pick the best words to express what happened, then you want your words to be the best possible
choice so there is no doubt about your innocence. Then that's why I don't understand how an
acting professional like her doesn't understand how critical our facial expressions are to
complement our words.
Does it make sense to you? what do you think she's trying to accomplish here?
Now there are many details to this case that look like a cash grab on the plaintiff’s
side. The fact is he asked initially for 3 million and that lawsuit was dropped by the
judge and then he is asking for $300,000 now and Gwyneth is countersuing for one dollar.
It really looks like she wants to set the record straight, because it would have been
far easier and cheaper to just settle out of court. There's also the fact that the plaintiff
had a GoPro video recording of the event and that recording mysteriously disappeared. That
recording would have been the perfect proof for his version of the events. Convenient,
right?
In my opinion, I think she is telling the truth. But her body language is not helping
her. In fact her body language is harming her odds at convincing the jurors. But the
trial is still ongoing and we will be there to keep analyzing and taking a look at whatever
happens from now on. Let me know what do you think about this in the comments.
My body language buddies! Remember to download my 100 body language tips right in the description
of this video. My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas. Much Love and Bliss.