Gwyneth Paltrow: 'I Feel Very Fortunate'

Gwyneth Paltrow on how a pay cut changed her life

Four years ago Gwyneth Paltrow was heartbroken after the death of her beloved father and had fallen completely out of love with acting.

However, meeting Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin, and a pay cut that saw the Oscar-winner's salary drop to just £350 per week, changed everything."I can't believe how my life has turned around," a glowing Paltrow told Sunday Life. Back then, I was 29 years old and had been working non stop throughout my 20s. Life was nothing more than a series of 5am calls, hair and make-up trailers and 14-hour days. It was like, 'Why am I doing this?' And my dad was sick. Now, I have a great husband, a beautiful daughter and another baby on the way. It's only looking back I see how unhappy I was."

Paltrow, now 33, doesn't often talk to the Press, but her new film Proof has special significance as it was the stage version of the film that made her move permanently to London, paid her a mere £350 per week and changed her life.

In 2002, John Madden, who had directed her 1998, Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love approached her to star in the London version of David Auburn's Broadway play, Proof, in the tiny Donmar theatre.

"I trusted him completely, " says Paltrow and the energy of doing something live really invigorated me. It turned out to be a pivotal moment in my life."

After the play ended she took her TV producer father, Bruce, to whom she was incredibly close (and who was by then, seriously ill, with cancer) on holiday to Italy. He died unexpectedly during the trip, three days after Gwyneth's 30th birthday.

"It was the worst day of my life," says Paltrow. "I was devastated, but my life changed completely after that and somehow came right."

There's no doubt that meeting Chris Martin a few weeks later, backstage after a Coldplay gig, had a lot to do with that. They began dating in secret and were married in December 2003. She gave birth to daughter Apple, now almost two, in May 2004.

"I found the right person and he saved me," she admits. "I stopped working so much and became a wife and a mum and I've never been happier."

Nowadays, she divides her films into two sections: those she does for love, and those she does for money. "I stopped making big money from movies in 2002," she says. "The terrible movies I have made, pay for me to make the good ones that I love. I don't want to have to go back to 14-hour days, especially not now that I'm going to be a mum again."

Happily settled with Chris and Apple in north London, Gwyneth is dismissive of those who slate her and Martin's seemingly wholesome lifestyle. "We're happy with our lives and our friends. You have to be seen to be doing something illegal to be perceived as not boring these days."

Although she has long given up smoking, she does indulge in the odd glass of wine and says that rumours of her fanatical health regime are exaggerated. I don't diet at all. As soon as I deny myself something, I want it. I do exercise though, because I think it's important to look after yourself. But I do it for me. There's no pressure from anyone else."

And despite newspaper reports to the contrary, she loves living in the UK. "I did not say London was dirty. I love it here. People are not always talking about money and work. They have lots of other interests."

With the new baby due this summer (she won't be drawn on either the sex or name of the new arrival), it's a cert that after she's done the obligatory rounds for this film, the Press won't have access to her for some time. Proof is the compelling story of a young woman haunted by her father and the shadow of her own future. It doesn't take a genius to work out that the subject matter was pretty close to home.

She performed the play on stage when her dad was still alive and by the time she came to make the film, he had died. "It's amazing how you find yourself doing something artistically that is so close to your own life," she says. "Making the film was comforting because I felt like I was playing someone who was going through the same thing I was. I was certainly drawing on my own feelings and experiences and it was quite painful at times."

After Proof, the only work lined up is a part in her brother's small-budget film, The Good Night and some contractual work as part of her deal with cosmetics giant Estee Lauder - a lucrative earner, which she admits will ease the pressure to return to work after the new baby arrives. Not that the new relaxed, Gwyneth seems in any rush.

"I'm very happy and very, very fortunate. I've been blessed with the members of my family that I have. And it's a great feeling to feel that you have cracked the mystery of life and discovered that it's about love and the love of a child. It's just the best."

Proof (12A) opens on March 3.

Source: http://www.sundaylife.co.uk