Gwyneth Paltrow grew up in the Hollywood spotlight as a member of a showbiz family. She watched her mother Blythe Danner on stage and her first film was directed by her father, Bruce Paltrow. Her godfather is none other than Steven Spielberg, who gave her her first role in a blockbuster. Film and acting were part of her life as a daughter of the film community. However, individual success is a different beast. As applause and recognition come, so does the pressure of scrutiny. Paltrow discovered this after winning the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love in 1998.
“I felt a real change that night because I felt that, up to that point, everyone was supporting me in some way,” she said. Winning the top prize left her at the mercy of the cruelest opinion. Paltrow’s emotions were running high because her father was “weakened” after spending a year battling cancer. Bruce Paltrow died three years later, in 2002, from illness and complications from pneumonia while on a family vacation in Italy celebrating Gwyneth’s 30th birthday.
The reaction of the British press and the subsequent scrutiny of her success led to an identity crisis so intense that she considered giving up acting. Paltrow won an Oscar, she was 26 years old, but the situation overcame her and led her to the conclusion that she “didn’t love acting as much as before.” The definition of her public profile under the molded design of her media scrutiny led her to ask existential questions.
Over time, Gwyneth Paltrow entered other entrepreneurial grounds publishing cookbooks, narrating children’s books, and founding her own empire under the Goop brand. And while everyone is free to appreciate more or less her work as an actress, or have their own reactions to some of her most controversial statements in recent years, it is still disturbing to know the bitter torment that can be experienced as a result of fame.
Paltrow was a young actress, thrilled by victory but grieving the inevitable death of her father, when the media finger pointing and scrutiny at her every step became her shadow. Being made fun of for having cried for her when receiving her award is unnecessary and cruel. In cases like that of Gwyneth Paltrow and what she experienced after winning the Oscar, it is inevitable to wonder where the limits of media curiosity and fame are.
