Gwyneth Paltrow & Ethan Hawke Reunite 27 Years After 'Great Expectations'

You know, I have one selfish question

I have to ask about this movie.

You kiss Timmy Chalamet in Central Park.

Yes.

Did you shoot in Central Park?

Yes. Did you kiss him

in the same place you kissed me?

[Ethan grunting]

No. Honey, never.

I think it's the same damn location-

Ne-ver! I think it is.

I never would have done that.

I never would have desecrated

[Ethan laughs] our make-out spot like that.

Okay.

[playful orchestral music] Hi.

[Ethan laughs]

You're in white and I'm in black.

We got it going on. I know, it's perfect.

I just did an interview

where somebody asked me about the greatest kisses

in screen history.

And I said, You know what? I say that goes to us.

[Gwyneth laughs]

Well, unfortunately, to talk about

when Gwyneth and I first met,

I'm embarrassed to be old enough

to have to say that it's actually hard.

And I remember that I met you through Robert Sean Leonard

who was my co-star

in Dead Poets Society Yes.

And you guys were friends, and-

We were dating. Right?

Well, I didn't wanna say it. That's okay.

Yeah, yeah, you know.

Ethan was very famous, you know, from Dead Poets Society

so we were all like a little intimidated.

Like, he had made it, you know.

I thought I'd made it, too. [Gwyneth laughs]

So I acted like it.

You know, we grew up in this time in New York City

in the early 90s that was so fun and specific.

And there was like a whole big bunch of us

and we all just kind of fell in with each other

and it was all the kids- It's the thing that I'm-

for young people right now, the thing

that I most would like to give them

is community.

There was about a six month period

where I would run into you at six or seven different places.

At somebody's house, at a party, at a play opening,

at the corner bistro or this other bar.

It was so much fun.

Oh my god, it was so much fun.

There were no phones. I mean all these ridiculous-

That's the first time we made out. Remember?

At Truth or Dare at my apartment on Prince Street.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What a highlight.

[Ethan laughs]

It was, I was very dis-

I didn't want that to happen on that stupid game.

I had different plans for that moment.

[Gwyneth laughs]

You're drooling.

So, Finn Bell. In New York.

That's right.

[pigeons fluttering] So, Ethan was already cast,

he was the star,

and I remember meeting with Alfonso and very excited.

And then there was a little blip

where someone at the studio thought

I wasn't pretty enough to do it, remember?

That's the kind of shit that happens all the time.

Yeah.

And then I think he was convinced otherwise

and then I finally got the part.

But it was cool 'cause we were already friends.

And that was strange for both of us, to be honest.

And I'm kind of proud of us.

We really believed in Alfonso.

He was a lunatic. Is a lunatic.

[Gwyneth laughs] I'll say that on record.

A wonderful lunatic,

but we did recognize a major talent.

Oh, I remember when I went to do my costume fitting

for the movie.

And I was like, wow, everything is-

Green [laughs]. Green.

And Judianna, the costume director,

would say, Oh, right, he always leaves it to me

to tell everybody that. To explain this.

Everything you're going to wear is green

in the entire movie.

I know, even to the point

where I was like, I think my character smokes Marlboros.

And he was like, No, he doesn't.

What do you mean?

He smokes menthols.

I'm like, I don't like menthols. Like, no, forget that.

He's like, No, I can't have a red package.

It's got to be a green package.

Do you remember Alfonso pitching you the love scene?

Oh my god.

He's like, And then he's going to go down on you.

And I was like, Oh my god, my father's going

to have a heart attack- He's going to go down you,

the camera is going to go down your belly,

and then it's going to go up your breasts,

and then it's going to go in your face

as you reach ecstacy.

And when you reach ecstacy,

the light will explode like to the sun!

And I remember looking at Gwyneth.

Gwyneth is like, Alfonso, I'm never going to do that.

[Gwyneth laughs]

But, you know, I had in my early career,

I was really self-conscious about my dad and grandfather-

I know you were. Seeing this kind of stuff.

Like, it really bothered me.

Now I wouldn't care.

I think that you had, in regards to that scene,

you had an awareness of how the business worked

and the ways in which

those kind of images could be manipulated

and what it meant to your dad.

Yeah.

And you were amazing, the way you handled that.

Which was that you weren't petulant.

You were just saying like, Look, I'm not going to do this.

Maybe I was too prudish in the moment.

I don't think you were.

I was definitely worried about it.

But, you know, Ethan was always so interesting

because you really never sold out

like a lot of us did, for whatever reason.

You know, I mean, it's sort of an ugly word.

But like I always admired so much how you never did that.

And, you know, you were so ruled

by your artistic integrity.

And you were brave in your choices

and, as a writer, as a director.

Like he never compromised.

Do you regret turning down some of those big movies

that you turned down?

He turned down a lot of really big movies.

[Ethan giggles] There are days,

in my past, that I regretted it.

I thought those offers would always be there.

Mmm.

And there's been many years where they were not.

Right. Where I was like, Damn it,

I didn't know that that door closed.

Right, right. You know?

And there were some hard days in there.

And then I found out

that they weren't closed. Yeah.

They weren't closed.

You just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

You know, you find a way.

Yeah, I don't regret-

I mean, I guess there are a couple of movies that I did

that I'm not particularly proud of.

Yeah. Definitely some things

that I don't feel like, oh, that was just great.

But when you look back, even at some great, amazing careers

of, you know, stars from the 40s and 50s.

Like, I was looking at this the other day.

And some of them have been in, like, three

like classic, amazing-

And that's enough.

And I feel like I was in at least three,

maybe four, maybe-

You know, where it's like, these movies

that were kind of indelible somehow.

It's so hard to make one

great movie. Yeah.

That if that happens, you start

to be really grateful for that.

And, yeah, you chase it again.

I thought you had a very unique challenge in your life.

When we were young,

your relaxation and your depth and your intelligence

were available to you

at a very young age.

It has a lot to do with who you are.

And it has a lot to do with an education

that I think that your mother and father gave you,

non-verbally perhaps.

That's kind of the really underrated benefit

of being a nepo baby, if you will.

Which I am, you know, in a certain respect.

And, you know, that term is quite ugly.

But, at the same time, it's like

you're learning these lessons from your parents

who are approaching a career

with so much integrity and seriousness

and such an incredible work ethic.

People think it's about doors being open for them.

That doesn't matter.

Doors get opened and closed for people

and they either blow it or they don't.

But, everybody is given a hand of cards, how do you play it.

Yeah. You know, and that's

up to you, and that's very difficult to do.

'Cause there's a lot of disadvantages that come

with being Bly Danner's daughter.

You know. Yeah.

And you have to handle those well.

And the thing about celebrity

that people don't really understand

is how isolating it is.

And it's kind of punishment.

And you're getting lots of things

that people imagine that they want.

And that is nice,

but you're getting them behind a glass wall.

What I felt so excited about seeing Marty Supreme,

in regards to our characters,

I think both of our characters

are people who are on the back nine of their celebrity.

We write together for a quarter of a century,

and the first show he writes with someone else

is gonna be the biggest hit he ever had.

Am I bitter? Yes. Larry.

There's a line that Linklater uses about our movie

which he wanted to be the tag line on the poster,

which is Forgotten but not gone.

[Gwyneth laughs] Gosh.

Which is when you're still in the room

and you still thinks you're fabulous

but everybody else has moved on.

Yeah. And I think my character in the film,

she walked away, you know,

but her fame is what makes this young kid

interested in her.

You know, it's not her. You know?

It's fame. Yeah, right.

I bet you can't name one film I've done.

[Marty] What makes you say that?

[Kay] Because I stopped acting before you were born.

Really? Mm-hmm.

[Marty] That's really interesting.

You know, I have one selfish question

I have to ask about this movie.

You kiss Timmy Chalamet in Central Park.

Yes.

Did you shoot in Central Park?

Yes. Did you kiss him

in the same place you kissed me?

No. Honey, never.

I think it's the same damn location-

Ne-ver! I think it is.

I never would have done that.

I never would have desecrated

[Ethan laughs] our make-out spot like that.

Okay, okay.

To change the subject,

this director is so talented. Yes.

And I have to, when the movie started,

like I'm watching ten minutes of it.

And it feels good to be in the hands of somebody

who knows how to cut a movie.

Yeah.

How do you live? [tense music]

Well, I live with the confidence

if I believe in myself the money will follow.

And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours

doesn't work out?

That doesn't even enter my consciousness.

If there was a bio-pic about me, I don't know,

I think I sort of exist in these tropes

you know, in the culture in a lot of ways.

Like, it would probably get a lot of things wrong.

Like, I think very few people understand who I am

unless they really know me and have known me for a long time

and have, you know, known my insane sense of humor,

and have seen me in all kinds of scenarios.

I feel like so much gets projected on me.

I also think the idea that a bio-pic...

The bio-pic would say so much more

about the people who made it

than it would about me. Yes. So brilliant.

They would be using me to some end that they found.

I feel like when I've done some-

Like, if Larry Hart were to see this movie,

I would think he would say,

Well, I just learned a lot about Richard Linklater.

Right. You know.

I don't think he'd think

he'd learned a damn thing about himself.

Right, right. That's so true.

Do you still eat Taco Bell?

[Ethan laughs]

All right, that's really funny.

My idea, when Gwyneth and I met, of a special night...

[Gwyneth laughs]

Like, I got a part in a Broadway play?

We're going to Taco Bell.

[Gwyneth laughs]

I remember when I finished The Hottest State,

my first novel.

Gwyneth's like Well, what'd you do when you finished?

I was like, I went to Taco Bell.

It's a sickness.

I think it's remarkable how we haven't changed.

And I think that there-

like I was just saying to you,

I'm proud of that.

Yeah.

We were two extremely idealistic young people

who had a great vision for what we wanted to do

and how we wanted to contribute.

And you were never ordinary.

You've always been you.

I think we are fundamentally very much the same people.

I think, you know,

we have had these lives

that have taken all kinds of twists and turns,

but I think we've both remained true to ourselves

and who we are.