Drew Turney
The Oscar winning star of “Shakespeare in Love” talks to Moviehole’s Drew Turney about her role in the new ensemble ‘addiction’ dramedy “Thanks for Sharing”.
The theme of the movie seems to be that we’re all damaged in some way. Is that what you liked about it?
Gwyneth: I loved the script when I read it, but one of the things that I really was interested in was the fact that she is a person who is holding all these judgments and all these judgments have helped her make this construct around herself.
And through the course of the film, through compassion and empathy and the situation that she never would’ve imagined herself in, she starts to understand and have real self-awareness and reflectiveness. And I think it’s such an amazing and essential part of the human process to be brave and start to address your own shit. And Mark Ruffalo’s shit looks dirtier but actually it’s all the same and I thought that was a really interesting piece.
Would you be able to understand if your spouse was a sex addict?
I’m an extremely open-minded person so I think if it was something that I knew going into, like my character in the movie, it’s something she learns at the beginning and someone says ‘look this is part of who I am and what I’m dealing with’, it wouldn’t keep me from exploring a relationship with somebody if I felt like everything else was lined up.
I think it would be hard for me to be one of those wives that 20 years in you find out that’s been going on behind your back for your whole life. And so you’re questioning what is your life? What has it been? I think that would be harder for me. But if there’s authenticity and honesty at the beginning then I wouldn’t hold a judgment about it.
What about if they relapsed and then cheated?
In life the idea is that if you’re committed to someone and you’re in a relationship that’s important to you, you surmount things. I think for a different couple that takes on different challenges, I would like to think that I would be forgiving, and it’s also something in that scenario I would know going in what I was signing up for.
How was working with Mark Ruffalo?
Mark and I did a really classic movie together a long time ago and it was shockingly snubbed by the Oscars called a View from the Top. So we’ve been friends for years. I had an amazing time working with him then and we have good chemistry. It was very easy. He’s a lovely man and he’s an excellent actor and I loved every minute of it.
Any experience with OCD like not letting food touch each other, as a child or a mother, as your character had?
No, we’re a mixed food household. We let it all go crazy on the plate. That was the fascinating part of her for me, why would she do that? It’s an interesting manifestation of her control issues and the eating disorder that she wasn’t facing.
When talking about Iron Man III you said you didn’t really understand the sci-fi elements. Is Thanks for Sharing the kind of thing you respond to a lot more?
It’s not that I wasn’t interested, it’s just that I don’t get it. It’s sort of I’m not intelligent enough to appreciate sci-fi. I think I’m missing something or maybe I just have a vagina. That may be the problem.
But this, yeah a movie like this that’s really about something is very intriguing. I loved doing the Iron Man movies, don’t get me wrong and I love working with Robert. But this kind of thing is just a whole other kettle of fish. I love the fact that this movie is about what we should all be doing which is butting against each other and ourselves and seeing what’s holding us back and keeping us from being whole people. You can look for metaphors and stuff in movies like Iron Man being about triumph and different archetypes but it’s nice to do something so intelligent and original and forward.
Do you prefer one more than the other?
No, I really don’t. I loved doing Iron Man. I loved doing action. I had an amazing time. You know, doing special effects I had never really done that kind of thing and I absolutely loved it. And I absolutely love working with these actors and saying these amazing words. And so I’m very lucky that I get to do both.
