Gwyneth Paltrow Hilariously Uses Her Oscar As a Doorstop at Her Hamptons Home — ‘It Works Perfectly’
Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Oscar plays a special part in her home … just not how you’d think. Doorstops are anything but ordinary at the actor’s house in the Hamptons. The Goop founder revealed in a video for Vogue’s “73 Questions” that she uses her Academy Award as — wait for it — a doorstop. But not really. It was later revealed to be a joke.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar is a doorstop in Vogue video, later clarified as ‘a joke’
In a YouTube video for Vogue’s “73 Questions,” Paltrow gave a tour of her Hamptons home. On her way inside, Paltrow walked by her Academy Award, which sat on the ground, propping open a door.
“What a beautiful Academy Award,” interviewer Joe Sabia said in the video as they passed by the golden statue. Paltrow replied: “My doorstop. It works perfectly!”
As headlines circulated about Paltrow using her Oscar as a doorstop, a representative clarified the remark. They told Variety: “Of course, it’s a joke.” The rep also cited a September 2023 interview where Paltrow said her Oscar is at her Amagansett, New York, home.
Previously, Paltrow said she’d tucked the Oscar away because it reminded her of traumatic memories.
What movie did Gwyneth Paltrow win an Oscar for?
As for the part that won Paltrow an Oscar, she took home Hollywood’s top prize, an Academy Award, in 1999 for Shakespeare in Love. In it, she played Viola De Lesseps, a young woman posing as a man to star in one of William Shakespeare’s (Joseph Fiennes) plays.
Critically acclaimed, Shakespeare in Love also dominated six other Oscar categories. In addition to Paltrow’s Best Actress win, the film earned awards for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.
It remains one of Paltrow’s most well-known roles, however, she actually passed on Shakespeare in Love before ultimately signing on. As the now-51-year-old once revealed, she’d been “in the middle of a terrible breakup” with Brad Pitt when she first received an offer for the starring role.
Months after the “really hard time” in her life, studio executives approached Paltrow again. This time she finally agreed, saying she “couldn’t put” the “perfect” script “down.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar win in 1999 led to an ‘identity crisis’
Before the joke about using her Oscar as a doorstop, Paltrow revealed on a May 3 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast that the Academy Award win had a downside.
“Once I won the Oscar, it put me into a bit of an identity crisis, because if you win the biggest prize, like what are you supposed to do? And where are you supposed to go?” Paltrow said. “It was hard the amount of attention that you receive on a night like that and the weeks following, it’s so disorienting. And frankly, really unhealthy.”
“I was like, ‘This is crazy. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know which way is up.’ It was a lot,” she added. “Not that I would give it back or anything; it was an amazing experience, but it kind of called a lot of things into question for me.”
