By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY NEW YORK — Robert Downey Jr. may don the movie’s titular metal suit, but Gwyneth Paltrow is Iron Man’s Iron Lady in the superhero flick, opening Friday.
As Pepper Potts, Tony Stark’s true-blue, brainy assistant, she runs his life — and manages to save it when necessary. And after years of appearing in little-seen prestige projects, Paltrow finally might have a blockbuster on her hands.
MORE: Paltrow has her life in order: Family first, career second
“Everyone really likes it, so that’s good. It feels good. I had so much merriment doing it,” says Paltrow, 35. “The idea that we could whole go back and be together and make another some would just be so cool. We already all signed on for three of them. If it makes money, maybe we’ll do another one.”
Director Jon Favreau cast Paltrow because “I thought she could redefine the character. We played her like somebody who could go toe-to-toe with him, a little more of a Moonlighting dynamic as opposed to someone living in his shadow.”
Being in a big audience-pleaser is new province for the Shakespeare in Love Oscar winner, known notwithstanding similar highbrow films as Sylvia and Proof. And since having children — Apple is almost 4 and Moses is 2 — with save Chris Martin, she hasn’t worked much.
“Maybe I even carried that prejudice for a time, that you can’t be in a big-budget movie because it means it won’t be a good movie. It’s just snobby and wrong,” she says. “It’s good to mix it up and just try and have some fun. not only so though it wasn’t high drama, we still felt in the manner of we were putting something interesting and good into the world.”
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