Gwyneth Paltrow: ‘I’m Never Smug Or Prim’

Gwyneth Paltrow covers Elle magazine September 2011 and shills a movie in which she dies in the trailer. Then she name-drops to promote her horrifying, impending music career/ solo album. GOOPY looks like she’s plotting my murder on the cover, right? Probably because I’ve said so many mean (true) things about her on this site. While I build myself a pillow fort, you can check out her interview and shoot below because at least one of us will get to laugh at lies about how she’s never ‘smug’ in her marriage or ‘prim’ in the way she behaves.

On getting support from Beyoncé on her surprise duet with Cee-Lo Green at the Grammys: ‘This story always makes me cry…It’s 10 in the morning and Beyonce schleps it all the way down to the Staples Center to watch. I mean, she’s Beyonce!’
On the advice Beyoncé gave her before her performance: ‘Beyonce’s like, ‘OK. The singing is great. But you’re not having any fun.’ She’s like, ‘Remember when we’re at Jay’s concert and Panjabi MC comes on and you do your crazy Indian dance? Do that. Be you!’’
On going public with her personal care regimens: ‘It’s so much easier to sit home and not exercise and criticize other people. What I love is inspiring people. People come up to me and say, ‘I want to have two kids and wear a bathing suit and not feel terrible about myself. I see how hard you work and it makes me feel like I can do that too.’’
On her decision to take on other roles like ‘Glee’ to be able to focus more on family: ‘I can do short jobs. If I was still starring in three movies every year, there’s no way that I’d be the person my kids want when they fall down.’
On the false rumors of a split: ‘Sometimes it’s hard being with someone for a long time. We go through periods that aren’t all rosy. I always say, life is long and you never know what’s going to happen. If, God forbid, we were ever not to be together, I respect him so much as the father of my children. Like, I made such a good choice. He’s such a good dad. You can never be relaxed or smug and think, ‘I’ve got this thing.’ That’s also part of it: keeping yourself on your toes. I’m not going to take this for granted.’
On creating a solo album: ‘Beyonce and Jay… they think that I should just go do it by myself. That I should go … in a studio and see what happens. And if it’s good, do it. And if it’s not, don’t. So that’s probably what I’ll do.’
On keeping her marriage to Chris Martin out of the spotlight: ‘He makes music for his fans, and he doesn’t want people to conjure a lame famous couple when they’re getting into his music. I get it.’
On her much-talked about appearance on ‘Chelsea Lately’: ‘Doing Chelsea Handler is like doing Howard Stern: You’ve gotta rise to the occasion. It’s good to shock people who think of me as the prim Gwyneth Paltrow.’