At one time, Gwyneth Paltrow was one of Hollywood's most famous actors.
However, in recent years, she's stepped back from the spotlight and devoted her energy
to other endeavors.
Here's why you don't see Gwyneth Paltrow onscreen much anymore.
In the aftermath of Se7en and Emma, Gwyneth Paltrow was in high demand in Hollywood, and
in 1998 alone, she released five movies: Great Expectations, Sliding Doors, Hush, A Perfect
Murder, and Shakespeare in Love.
Though Hush wasn't one of Paltrow's winners, the rest became fairly big hits.
Sliding Doors is still one of her most popular and referenced performances, and of course,
Shakespeare in Love won Paltrow her first Academy Award for Best Actress thanks to her
role as Viola, a noblewoman who carries on a passionate affair with William Shakespeare.
Paltrow suddenly became one of the industry's biggest names, following up her Oscar win
with the crowd favorite The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999.
However, her huge awards win might have led to a bit of a professional downfall.
After winning big for Shakespeare in Love, Gwyneth Paltrow's career floundered, and a
string of critically panned and commercially unsuccessful films followed her famous turn
as Viola.
Part of that may have been backlash over the Oscar win, and even years after the fact,
some of Paltrow's peers don't think she deserved the trophy.
In 2020, Glenn Close discussed the win, saying,
"I remember the year Gwyneth Paltrow won over that incredible actress who was in Central
Station [Fernanda Montenegro and I thought, 'What?'
It doesn't make sense."
Paltrow herself has cast doubt on the win, saying it led to some bad choices.
As reported by Reuters, Paltrow admitted,
"I think part of the downside about being so successful and winning the Oscar at the
age of 26 is that I sort of became insouciant about the things that I chose [...] I thought
'Oh, I'll just try this, it'll be fun or I'll do that for the money'.
Things like that now I would absolutely never do."
Obviously, curses don't actually exist, but it seems that the win may have gone to Paltrow's
head, and negatively affected her career.
Aside from 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, which is still one of Wes Anderson's most beloved
films, Gwyneth Paltrow's post-Oscar film choices were definitely a bit suspect.
That same year, she appeared alongside Jack Black in Shallow Hal, a romantic comedy about
a man who starts seeing people's "inner beauty."
As such, while Paltrow's character, Rosie, is actually overweight, Hal sees her as Hollywood
A-list thin.
Though the movie performed well at the box office, its premise was offensive even by
2001's standards when it comes to body-shaming and inclusivity, and it definitely hasn't
aged well as the years have gone on.
Paltrow later even called it a "disaster."
After that, Paltrow appeared in the 2003 flight attendant romantic comedy View from the Top,
which Paltrow herself later called "the worst movie ever," and followed that with 2004's
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow after her Talented Mr. Ripley co-star Jude Law enlisted
her for a role.
The film did perform well critically, but ultimately barely earned its budget back,
adding to Paltrow's list of flops.
Gwyneth Paltrow has taken on one hugely successful role in recent years that spans several blockbuster
films: Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Introduced in the film that kicked off the MCU, 2008's Iron Man, Pepper works as the
assistant and confidante for millionaire playboy Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr.
After that, Paltrow reprised her role as Pepper in 2010's Iron Man 2, 2012's The Avengers,
2013's Iron Man 3, 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, and 2019's
Avengers: Endgame.
Pepper may not be a main character in the MCU, but she's vital for Tony's character
development.
However, despite her long-running arc as Pepper Potts in the MCU, Paltrow doesn't seem to
think about those films very much, to the point where she often forgets she even appeared
in them.
In a now-infamous moment from Jon Favreau's cooking series The Chef Show, Favreau, who
appears alongside Paltrow in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, reminds her of a moment from filming
that movie, only for Paltrow to coolly inform her co-star that she wasn't in the movie.
"We weren't in Spider-Man."
"Yes we were."
"Homecoming."
"You were in Spider-Man."
"No."
Between that and the fact that, according to Bucky Barnes actor Sebastian Stan, she
keeps forgetting who he is, and also doesn't seem to know who Tom Holland, who plays Spider-Man,
is either, it definitely doesn't seem like Paltrow thinks about her Marvel projects particularly
often, which indicates her acting career may not be her priority these days.
"I thought that it was an Avengers movie but it was not."
Gwyneth Paltrow is passionate about clean, healthy eating and high-quality food.
In 2007, after her career had taken a bit of a downturn, Paltrow worked with PBS for
Spain...
On the Road Again, which sent her to Europe to explore the country's cuisine.
One year later, she released a cookbook on Spanish food with chef Mario Batali.
In 2011, she published two culinary books, My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes
Celebrating Family and Togetherness and Notes From My Kitchen Table, and later followed
those with her 2013 cookbook It's All Good: Delicious Easy Recipes That Will Make You
Look Good and Feel Great.
However, Paltrow's move into the culinary scene was met with some controversy, especially
over an "elimination diet" she promoted in her 2013 book, which didn't have a ton of
scientific evidence to back it up.
As recently as 2020, after suffering from COVID-19, Paltrow promoted a diet and routine
to supposedly help "long-haul" patients with long term symptoms.
That diet was also critiqued by medical professionals.
Gwyneth Paltrow took a huge leap in 2008 when she launched her newsletter, Goop.
After the official Goop website eventually launched, an online store was quickly born,
and the critics descended upon the actress.
They accused her of spreading bad scientific information as well as seeming utterly out
of touch, as her gift guides often included prohibitively expensive items.
Ultimately, it seems like Goop's critics were actually kind of vital to its success, with
even its most ridiculous and bizarre products selling out regularly.
Obviously, beyond its controversies, Goop is a huge project, which definitely cuts into
Paltrow's time, and she cited it as a reason for frequent gaps in her acting resume.
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