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Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed why she refused to film a sex scene with her Great Expectations co-star Ethan Hawke.
In a video for Vanity Fair published on December 17, the actress, 53, and Hawke, 55, reflected on their first meeting, nearly 30 years after they shared the screen in the 1998 film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel.
According to the couple, Paltrow was approached by director Alfonso Cuaron to do a sex scene, but she declined.
“Remember when Alfonso pitched you a love scene?” Hawke asked, to which Paltrow responded, “Oh my god,” before explaining that Cuaron had suggested a scene in which her character receives oral sex from Hawke’s character.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, my dad is going to have a heart attack,'” she recalls.
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Recalling how Cuaron described the scene, Hawk said: “‘The camera moves down your abdomen, then up your chest, then towards your face as you reach ecstasy. And when you reach ecstasy, the light will explode like the sun!'”
“And I remember looking at Gwyneth and Gwyneth was like, ‘Alfonso, I would never do that,'” Paltrow continued with a laugh.
According to the Goop entrepreneur, early in her career she felt “very confident that my father and grandfather saw this kind of thing.”
“It really bothered me,” she explained, adding, “I don’t care right now.”
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Hawke said he thought his co-star handled the situation well at the time, describing her as resolute but not “furious.”
“You were aware of how the business works and how images like that can be manipulated and what that meant to your father,” Hawke told Paltrow.
“Maybe I was being too cautious in that moment,” Paltrow admitted, to which Hawke replied, “I didn’t think so.”
“I was definitely worried about that,” Paltrow added.
Paltrow played Estella in the romantic drama set in New York, written by Mitch Glazer. Hawke played Finnegan “Finn” Bell, a naive young man who falls in love with Estella.
Elsewhere in their conversation with Vanity Fair, the two actors, who reunited to discuss their current projects (Paltrow’s Marty Supreme and Hawke’s Blue Moon), reflected on how each has stayed true to their roots.
“We were very idealistic young people who had a great vision of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to contribute,” Hawk said. “And you were never normal. You were always you.”
“I think we’re basically the same people,” Paltrow replied. “You know, I think we’ve lived lives that have had all sorts of twists and turns, but I think we’ve both stayed true to ourselves and who we are.”
