Gwyneth Paltrow

29:33In the early days, was there a point where you decided I'm going to stop acting? Basically, yeah. And was that related to a group? I mean, that was percolating while I was still doing movies, right? Yeah, but would you say it was more like a hobby? It was more like a... Yes, it was because basically the sequence of events was, you know, I was doing movie after movie, and some amazing films that I'm so proud of to this day. Some really lame films, you know, that that's just the nature of the beast. But I was working relentlessly and breathlessly. And one year I did five movies in one year. I mean, just crazy.

30:26And I don't think I was protecting my brand enough. And I think I was trying to sort of fill a bit of a hole that some of us artists have, or maybe everybody has, you know, or it's like, you want to achieve something both internally and externally, and then you think it's going to make you... You think that out -external success is going to make you feel better, and... Right. It doesn't work that way. No, I'm saying that it works. We learn it doesn't work that way. Exactly. So then I got pregnant with my daughter. And I basically did the last movie that I starred in, meaning I was in every scene of the film, was when I was pregnant with Apple, who will be 21 in two weeks.

31:13Wow. Yeah. So I had her, and I looked into her eyes, and it was like my whole world reoriented in the most profound way. And I was like, I just want to be here. Yeah. I just want to do this. And luckily, I could afford to. And I... So parents could really change everything. Change everything. Everything. And I just thought, I'm burnout. I'm absolutely in love with this child, and I'm just going to take a break. So I stopped for three years. I had my son in that time as well. And I was so fulfilled. I still am so fulfilled by it and them. Yeah. You know, it's like so astonishing. It was like my reason for being was made so clear.

32:10And then I did, you know, supporting things here and there. And I think, you know, some things like the first Iron Man, that we did, for example, was really fun, because Robert's an old friend of mine, and John Favreau was, and it was kind of like treated like an independent film. Like nobody thought it was going to turn into anything. And I was in LA, I was staying with my mom. I could work like two days a week. And it was a gentle reentry, basically. But, you know, I haven't done a whole lot of filming. I did a film actually this past fall, because my kids all went to college. So yeah, that was, I had, I made a big, big pivot, like a huge shift.

32:56The way you're describing it, it had more to do with parenthood than it did with changing to a new career. Yes, definitely. The new career kind of happened simultaneously, but it wasn't I'm leaving acting for a group. No, it wasn't. It was I'm leaving acting to be home with these kids. Yeah. And then all of that creative force that wasn't going to the usual channel, wanted to be expressed in some other way. And I think maybe with more autonomy and agency, you know, it's like I could just put something into the world, as silly as a newsletter or a recipe, you know, whereas when you're acting, you really need to wait to get a job or to say yes to the right thing.

33:45And, you know, it's, you don't have. You'd be premonct on a lot of other things happening. Exactly. And in this case, you were free and you could do what you want and you could share what you want. That's right. Yeah. And I found it liberating and kind of empowering in a way or way.

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35:38So you had the meeting with SAD. And tell me about that meeting and what was discussed in the meeting and what you came up with. So I was like, look, I would like to turn this into a business. I have no idea how to do it. And he said, I think I can help you figure it out. We're going to need to spend a lot of time and talk about what you are thinking and where you'd want it to be. And he said, you know, the natural thing would be that sort of media model of like ads and brand partnerships. So we kind of started with that because it was low hanging fruit. And then we talked about what we wanted the e -commerce to look like and how it could be something cool and unique.

36:22And we started with collaborations and selling things that we just really loved and believed in. And remember what some of those things were. You know, I remember there was like a t -shirt collaboration. There was this beautiful little like lapis box that we did. There was. It wasn't only clothing. No. There was bracelet that we did. There was, you know, it was like one kind of special thing every week. Every week. Every week. And it would sell out. Yeah. Things tended to be limited edition. Limited, yes. That's cool. That's how we started. And then what was the first group branded product? So the first group brand of product was our beauty product because again going back to my dad and the ingredients.

37:17The ingredients. I started to realize that it's so interesting too because I'm still kind of dealing with the repercussions of like putting all this toxic stuff on my body for all these years. But pre -goop. Yeah, pre -goop. And before we made anything, you know, there was very little clean beauty on the market. I think we really helped start that discussion. I read something about nail polish being wildly toxic. Yeah, it's terrible. That's wildly toxic. So it's fabric softener. So it's synthetic fragrance. I mean, all these things that we don't even think about that were not protected from it.

37:58And laundry detergent. Right. And are condescrupting, you know. So I was researching again for the site like we need to get great. And also for you, it sounds like it was, it really was always your own quest. Right. It was like I identified a white space. There's no clean beauty that's beautiful and that works. Like you could go to a health food store and get something. Or literally the top moisturizers had ethylene glycol, which is anti -freeze in them. Yeah. I was like, I want to make this for me and for my friends. And we started with skincare. Because it also felt really urgent to me. We transdermally absorbed like up to 80 % of what we put on our skin.

38:46We just suck it right in. And it felt like we deserve better. Just women, people deserve to have a choice that's efficacious and that's non -toxic. And how was the reaction to the beauty line? It was good. You know, I think that was something that wasn't too hard for people to understand. And I think again, like because it came out of a lot of content of us talking about this kind of thing, like it felt very intuitive. Did you ever get attacked by the people who make the toxic stuff? All the time. They're very clever how they do it too. It's funny. I have this one group chat. And there are a lot of young moms on it.

39:30And they're rightfully, incredibly concerned about various things. And, you know, I like the elder statesman on this group chat, you know. And one of the moms was saying, oh, this blogger said that there's tons of lead in this product and we shouldn't buy it. And I said, that might be the case and it might not be. It might be that the big incumbent is funding this blogger. And so that she will say negative things about this product or a movement. And I definitely was the recipient of a lot of that. Like I can't prove it, but I know I was. Did non -toxic stuff for children, like non -toxic parenting, did that come into a group at some point?

40:20Yes. I mean, we've never made children's products specifically. But would you do articles about it? Oh, we did tons of articles about it. Absolutely. And again, like I had this personal experience where Apple was a baby and, you know, someone had given me something and it was so fragrant. I was like, what is this? Like what am I rubbing on her? And I learned your eyes. Yeah. A lot of the content came out of that as well. After the beauty line, what was next? Fashion. I think that was in 2016 or 2017. I have something like that we started. And would you work in collaboration with brands or would you do your own branded stuff?

40:58No, this was our own label that we started that's all made in Italy. Tell me about that whole adventure. How do you meeting the people, meeting the manufacturer? Yeah. It's in Italy. Yeah. This is the part of my job that is so fun to this day. I love making things. And again, I'm making things for myself. I also felt that there wasn't a lot of, by way, of sort of designer quality that was more in a contemporary price point. And the direct to consumer model really allows for you to kind of pass on the savings to your customer. So I remember again, like I was at a store in Hollywood, a really expensive, beautiful clothing store.

41:46And I tried on a blazer or designer. I was like, this is beautiful. And it was thousands of thousands of dollars. And I was like, this is crazy. I'm not spending $6 ,000 on a blazer, you know? And then when I went to start doing the discovery and the research, like the factories in Italy, they're making all of the designer clothing. And they can also make your clothing, but you just can decide not to $6 ,000 ,000, the price or whatever. Yeah. And we work with this great factory in Italy that we've worked with the whole time. And, you know, the way that I approach it is clothes that really are beautifully made that are cool, but are not overtly trendy.

42:29Like you have them forever. You know, it's sort of like art. Timeless designs. Timeless designs. I still wear almost everything, you know, from back when we started. And that's kind of my take on sustainability. Like you buy it, it lasts, and you don't throw it away. If it's too flashy, you can't wear it all the time. So it's right. And it could be your daily. Exactly. Your daily clothing. Exactly. Tell me about the direct consumer model. How did that work? How did it come about? So I think when you think about ways to sell product, right, you're starting a line. And you think about what are the ways in which I want to distribute this.

43:12So when we started, everything was direct to consumer, meaning everything came through our own channel. So our own website and our own stores. And it was also at that time where direct to consumer was, you know, started to become this big thing. And you had these companies that had big valuations because everybody was into this idea that you have these great margins and you can protect them. And then over time, it's been more challenging because the way that you acquire a customer and a digital direct to consumer models really meta. And there's so. A lot of competition for those spaces. Exactly.

43:55So our skincare was direct to consumer for a while. And then in order to grow it and also to, you know, I really wanted to meet the customer where they were. And our customer is on Amazon. Our customer is at, you know, Nordstrom or Sephora or, you know, so we opened wholesale channels. For everything or do certain products. Just our beauty and our fashion is still just direct. So you can only get our fashion at goop .com. Are there any pieces in the fashion line from the beginning that never changed and you, they're just forever or is it always changing every season? It's always changing. It gets a strong DNA, but it's always changing in a moment.

44:37New version. Yeah. Overall, in the group universe, what things do you do in house and what things do you farm out? We do everything in house. We don't farm anything out. We do it all. You know, I always joke like that, you know, I have friends who were like, great. I want to, you know, co -founded business and like they just were able to kind of become a co -founder and onlin the moron who like brick by brick was going, you know, built like going, finding a co -man and like sourcing raw materials and all the things. But I like doing it all in house. I think, you know, for me and for goob, I think it's very important that everything we make has a reason.

45:27It's incredibly authentic. You know, it's filling a white space in some way and that it's of the highest possible quality and offered at a price that's not insane. What was the goop lab? The goop lab was a Netflix show that we did two seasons of a Netflix show. The first one was called the goop lab and the second one was called sex, love and goop. And the goop lab was kind of about these different healing modalities. One was about psychedelics for healing PTSD. This was a long time ago before it was like in the conversation. One was on psychic mediums, which is this fascinating. You know, it's sort of like going across the catalog of like different cutting edge ways that people feel, you know, heal or can feel more connected, et cetera.

46:22Sounds great. It was. It was good. What would you say were some of the biggest breakthrough moments in goop? Wow. You know, I remember when we first, well, our first e -commerce platform was this thing called magento, which we got off of. And when we were on Shopify for a while, then we got off of Shopify. Now we're going back on Shopify. The joys of being a non -technical founder. And I remember when we were on the Shopify app, it has this feature where it'll go like teaching like a cash register. And you can see orders come in. And I was like, I can't believe we built something. And now, like, you know, orders are coming in on the phone.

47:07Like I felt like it was this huge moment. So so interesting when you when you have a virtual business to be able to see in real time, it reacting. Because if you had a store, you would see all the people in the store. I know. But when it's virtual, it's hard to know anything. It's true. And so you get that real time. That's exciting. Yeah, it was really exciting. It was really cool. Tell me something that you were excited about to do with group, but for whatever reason it just didn't work. Oh my gosh, there's a lot. I mean, you know, there are certain products or product lines that we did that, you know, we had these great vitamins.

47:47For example, we had, I worked with these in a different MD for each one. So supplements. Supplements. Yeah. And they came in packs and they were to address certain issues like we had one for fatigue. It was called, why am I so fucking tired? And it was this fantastic vitamin pack and we, we, um, And the vitamins that you would take yourself? Yes, exactly. I made in the best, you know, triple certified manufacturers, et cetera. And one was called high school genes like for metabolism. And I've had this incredible experience of learning and failing and learning and succeeding on the job, right? So when we made the supplements, I didn't know to build enough margin in so that we could like advertise them and put some marketing behind.

48:40So they were never really profitable and it just became too difficult, even though they were great. And when we discontinued them, people were very upset. But I would say, you know, things like that where like wellness products, when we did them, I didn't understand like the margin profile and how to do it. So that was hard. It's always hard when you sunset a product, you know, it's like we did these bath soaks and now we only have one that remains. But you have to. That's part of, you know, doing like you always have to be doing a reconciliation of your skews, the other brands that we work with that are on the site, you know, in a business like mine, I cannot be only creative minded.

49:23I will run out of money and not be able to pay people, you know, so there's always this balance of. The realities of the business have to be paid attention to. Right. And they have to be profitable and they have to work and there has to be product market fit. Like I could make products all day that I would love and buy, but you know, it might not work and it might not be a sustainable thing. When did the idea come to have the first store, physical store? So it must have been, I will, I moved to LA from London in 2013.

50:04And repatriated the company here. It was tiny and hired a couple of girls and we worked, I had this little barn in the back of my house in Brentwood and we worked in there. And I had like one of my first employees, she actually was with me in London and she moved to LA with me. Her name was Brett and I'm so close with her, I love her. She was like full of creative fire and she was a great partner for me and she was like always helping me find like chic things and always had great marketing ideas. And she said to me, oh, there's a space in the Brentwood Country Mart and we could do a pop up there.

50:46And I was like, that is fantastic. Let's do it. So we kind of quickly threw together this pop up and we were getting inventory from God knows where but like scouring the earth to you know get great stuff in there. And we had this. It was curated stuff as well as your own products. I think at that time we didn't have our own yet. Oh, so it was all curated. It was all curated. And we opened it up and it was a huge success. And I know it was awesome and we kind of sold out of everything and then the landlord there Jim was like, do you guys want to open a permanent store here? And so we did and for a while we did this pop up model where we would go around the country and do these pop up stores and which was great and so much fun.

51:35And then little by little we would make some permanent stores and then during COVID we closed a couple and now we're opening more again.

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53:19What is good kitchen? Oh, you know, my first newsletter was about food. And again, like going back to the let food be thymeticin, this is a physical manifestation of that. And my unrelenting desire to make things easy for people, like to get right to the good thing as quickly as possible. We started a, it's cloud kitchens only. So it's delivery and pickup only. So it's not a restaurant. It's not a restaurant. delivery or pickup. That's right. Only. And do you subscribe or do you order a meal and get that meal? You just order a meal on door dash or Uber Eats or whatever. How many places does it exist now?

54:11So now we're up to seven. To a lot. In LA. And we are doing Northern California this year. And then we'll go to New York City in 2026. When did it start? It started five years ago. That's when we started talking about it. And then I'm trying to remember when the first one opened probably three years ago. And it's really fun because it's that intersection of totally delicious food, like really bold flavors, but super clean. How do you find the healthy ingredients? Where do you source them? Yeah. So the team who works on that business is incredible. And they know that it's quality above everything.

54:59And so they have their supply chain and they work directly with farmers. And we get beautiful things. We get beautiful salmon from New Zealand. We have the best possible chicken that you can have. And no seed oils. And there's no gluten at all. And no corn. And the best part is that it's so good. Like you would never know that it's quote unquote, help me. Tell me about the home you grew up in. I grew up here in Southern California when I was very little. My parents had me when they lived in trinkets. So not too far from where we are right now. Do you remember that life at trinkets at all? Not really.

55:42I remember being a little bit older and coming out to trinkets to visit their friends. But I was a baby, baby when we were there. And then we moved to Brentwood and then to Santa Monica. And you know, it was a childhood full of a lot of art. And my father was hilarious and very loving. My parents were, you know, my mother had this incredible artistry and warm femininity. And we were around a lot of actors. And it was anchored in a lot of troop spirit, you know, of like your band of players. You know, like we went to Williams town every summer. And my mother would do the Williams Sound Theatre Festival.

56:29So we would go there. And my brother and I went to camp in Vermont. And we had a lot of exposure to creativity. Tell me about your real trip with your brother. My brother is my best friend. He is, you know, it's like a side for my husband. I just like rely on my brother. So my brother is like incredibly brilliant and very wise. He's three or younger than me. But I call him, you know, for basically, I mean everything. So I mean, we call it we just kibbits on the phone for an hour. But he's very wise and we're very, very close. Tell me your memories of seeing your mom on stage. Oh my gosh. She was so incredible.

57:22Like that, I think that's why I wanted to act because my mother on stage was so powerful and so fulfilled and like channeling something from the heavens. And like she is the best theatre actress. It's actually crazy. Like so inspiring, so moving. And it's funny because in life she's, I think she seems to feel like less integrated in life. But on stage she's like this fully integrated powerhouse. So cool. So cool. Yeah. Do you ever talk to her about like after a show when you talk about it or was it just such a normal part of life that it went unsaid? I remember talking about it. I remember I was a teenager and she played Blanche Dubois on a street car named Desire in Williamstown with Chris Walken as Stanley and Sigourney Weaver as the sister.

58:25Like it was incredible. Amazing. And my mother gave the most brilliant performance and at the end, you know, Blanche Dubois really comes apart at the scenes. I don't think there's ever been a better performance ever in the world than my mother doing that play at Blanche. And I was devastated after I couldn't get out of my chair. I sobbed for hours. And I remember asking her a little bit about that and what it was like and how she did that. But a lot of times it was just normal. I remember also later when I was a teenager in New York City, she would do a play and she would come home at night and come up to my railman.

59:06We would hang out because I'd be doing homework at 11 at night or whatever. So I have a lot of fond memories of her tied to the theater. Was there ever a time that you were watching her in a play and you forgot that it was mom and she became the character? All the time. Isn't that amazing? All the time. In acting work, have you ever been in a scene where it's so real you forget it's a movie? It's hard to explain but there are these moments that happen where you're so in something that it's not that you totally forget that you're in a movie. But you're connected to this other energy of like pure, I don't know.

1:00:02It's almost like you're transported to some other place where there's an interchange and maybe it's like this in music. I bet it is. You know where you're in. You feel like it's actually happening. You feel like it is happening. It is happening. It's happening. And you have sort of the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you're in this incredible moment. And those moments I think are few and far between but they're indelible. Are you ever surprised by a choice that a fellow actor makes like when you're playing against them and they do something unexpected? I love when that happens. And it's very rare.

1:00:41Robert Downey Jr. surprises me all the time. Whenever we do anything, I'm like, okay, it's almost like he's the pitcher and you have no idea what he's going to throw. And you just have to like be there with the bat and like be as tuned in as you possibly can be. I love when actors do weird unexpected things. How much of the work is listening?

1:01:10Like 90%. How much of a performance is in the words you're saying? It's interesting because sometimes if you're doing a great work of art, like if you're doing a Shakespeare play or a check off play, the words are the wind in your sales, you know. And sometimes you're doing something that's less remarkable. But it's still giving you a good framework and you're working with good people and still magic can happen. So I guess it would depend on the material really. So sometimes great things can happen if the material is not great. But when the material is really great, it does the work. Yes, it does the work.

1:02:05I mean, great material always does the work. How did you learn your craft? Watching my mom. Like from the time I was born being on set with her watching her rehearse plays, you know, she played Nina in the seagull. And she said I knew her whole monologue, you know, at 18 months old. Really early. Yes, you were born into it. I was born into it. Yeah. Did your mom have any good habits that you've adopted? Yes, I mean, you know, my mom, my mother always struggled with learning her lines. So she would go over them. I would read them with her. She would have them on a tape. Like so really knowing your lines, that's key.

1:02:55Because you can't play around, you know, if you're searching. If you're distracted with it. Yeah. She really taught me how to let the stage be sort of the conduit between heaven and earth, you know. Like she taught me how to ground on the stage such that the body could be a conduit. That's amazing. I've never heard anyone talk about that before. I've seen musicians channel, but I've never heard anyone in theater talk about that. Yeah. She taught me that. That's great. Have you ever done theater? Yeah. And what's the first time you performed in front of an audience? When I was little, because in Williamstown, they would throw me on the stage, you know, to play like dead kid number five.

1:03:43Or something like that. Were you excited when you got to do it? Or was it scary? I loved it. I loved it. I always wanted to be an actress from the time I was little. So, you know, then I did plays in school. And then I went back to Williamstown and was an apprentice when I was probably 17 and got an audition for a little part. And that was my first like real professional acting gig. And what was it like playing in front of an audience that you remember with the feeling? Intoxicating. I think being on stage is a very specific and special thing. And so different to being on camera. Yeah. And very energizing.

1:04:26And you know, it's really the actor's medium, right? It's like that's when you are kind of in control. And in film, it's very much not the case. It's the director's medium. Film is the director's medium. And TV is the writer's medium. Yeah. What was it like going to an all -girl school? The best. When I got there in seventh grade, I was so out of my league. Like, I had gone to this hippie, sweet school in Santa Monica, where I still have like, bass friends from, which is so hilarious. What was that life like? It was called St. Augustine by the Sea. And then it became Crossroads because Paul Cummins, who was the head of, he was the head of both and then he, he combined them.

1:05:13So I must have started kindergarten in like 1976.

1:05:22And Santa Monica was cool in the 70s and the early 80s. It was kind of like this bleached out, stained glass, oceany, briny, free life. It was amazing. And. It was kind of like discarded in some ways. Yes, totally. It felt like no one was there. I remember the first time I came to Santa Monica to go to a bookstore and it was on the third street promenade. And the whole third street promenade was boarded up and there was this one cool bookstore, art bookstore. Wow. Yeah. It was like vacant. Yeah. It seemed like it had a time in the past. Yeah. But now it's, it's no more. Yeah. That's right. And we had this kind of great, you know, childhood, you know, there were some ups and downs, of course.

1:06:17But in terms of like, I really loved my friends and I loved being in California. But then we would travel a lot because my mom, she would do a Broadway plane. We'd all pack up and go, which I love to. Or we went to South Carolina. She did the great Santini and we all went and we would like enroll in the public school in South Carolina and Beaufort and we would live there. So there was a bit of a gypsy thing to it. But I didn't learn very much at my elementary school by way of, you know, spelling or arithmetic, you know, the basic things. So I don't know how I got into Spence the school that I went to.

1:06:58I have no idea. I think it was because going back to reading, I had read novels early and I remember talking about them in my interview. And I remember the look on the lady's face like, wow, this 11 year old kid's already read, you know, J -N -Air and whatever else. And I think that's why because I'm sure my test would have been just terrible. And so I got to Spence. I was totally out of my league. What were the other kids like? They were New York girls like they were faster, just to cater even in seventh grade, you know, they were. They knew what was what and they were incredibly independent.

1:07:38Like so I learned to, you know, hop on three subways to get to my best friend Julia's house in the village. You know, I learned, I got mugged. I, you know, I would go to the steps of the mat and the boys would skateboard and, you know, we would go at night and like smoke cigarettes and, you know, like it was a much different world than L .A. And the girls were brilliant, really smart. And it was like this super steep learning curve. Like I had to learn how to learn how to write, how to spell. And it took me like two years to catch up, which was hard on my self -esteem. But I got there. Did you feel a need to catch up?

1:08:23Yes. I'm much better since I turned 40 and then way better since I turned 50. But I, I used to be very susceptible to people's opinions and expectations. And you say it was more peer pressure or competitive nature? It was more like lack of self -esteem. The weird thing about me is I'm probably the least competitive person you'll ever meet. Like I just don't care. I don't look to the side. It doesn't bother me what anybody else is doing. I'm here on earth to do my thing and like all my trials and tribulations. And so is everybody else and it's nothing to do with me. But I am susceptible to feeling, you know, especially then less than or...

1:09:07Did you want to fit in? I wanted to fit in. And the cool thing about my school is that being intellectual was cool. So I had to like get on it, you know? Tell me about living in Spain when you were young. It was incredible. How old were you? I was 15. You were there by yourself? Yep. I signed up in my Spanish class. And I remember my dad bringing me to the TWA terminal. You flew there yourself? Yep. I got to Madrid and I got on a bus. I went to this tiny town and my Spanish mother picked me up off the bus. Did you speak Spanish already when you got there? No. Did anyone speak English when you got there?

1:09:51No. Wow. That's radical. It was insane. Yeah. I probably spoke Spanish like 10 days later because there was literally no other... So otherwise you wouldn't have had food or... That's right. Yeah. That's right. It was really one of the most special experiences of my life to this day. It changed me. It made me understand the scope of the world and how different people are in different cultures and foods and how when you learn another language, you... You get given another life. You know, it's like a whole other framework and culture and meaning and I'm still very close to my Spanish family. In fact, my Spanish father walked me down the aisle when I married grad.

1:10:42Beautiful. But yeah. That's great. Yeah. You've had close relationships with some strong successful artistic men over the course of your life. Would you say there's a quality that runs through all of them that you can recognize? Hmm. I think I've always been attracted to artists. And I think there's something very beautiful about a male artist that they're sort of issuing or turning on its head the idea of what masculinity is supposed to be. Because creativity is such an archetypal of the feminine, right? It's like collaborative and creative and channeling and mysterious. And, you know, my dad was an artist.

1:11:34He... I mean, he was so tough in his own way. You know, like this tough Brooklyn, Jewish, Long Island guy. But he had this incredible softness and creativity. And so I love that. Like I love the balance of masculine and feminine qualities. And like that, men who are unafraid to have vulnerability in their work. It's so beautiful. How were your parents' relationship? I mean, they were married for 32 years until my dad died. And they were very entwined with one another. I think they were... My dad absolutely worshiped my mother. Like she was like the shicks of goddess, you know? Like on a pedestal.

1:12:24And he took great care of her and was so respectful of her career and her art and just kind of an awe of her. And she was just madly in love with him. And, you know, he took care of her and provided this great structure to their life. And, you know, she's very social and she's very introverted. And so... Did they balance each other in that way? I think they did. You know, he got her out and out of her shell and having fun. And I think she got him a bit more internal and introspective. And I think they were a good balance. How has the experience of working with different directors different? Like tell me extremes of how it works with one person versus another.

1:13:14So the best directors and, you know, it can be subjective in the sense that people like certain films are not. But I think generally by my standard, the best directors and the world tends to vouch for it. And so, my standards are that the world doesn't really have a very good quality of quality. Are those who have this hyper -specificity about the world they're creating and what they want? So I've done so many kind of movies where it's like day three on the movie and you're like, this is going to suck. Like this guy doesn't really... Not a vision for the big picture. There's no vision. He doesn't really know what he's looking for here.

1:13:58Or he thinks he does, but he's missing the mark. And you're like, great. Now I'm going to be in the, you know, that's sort of at the low end. At the absolute highest end, you have someone like a West, our friend West. Yeah. Who...it's like, I always like in it to sort of stepping into a painting. There's something so relaxing about being in good hands like that. With West Anderson, there probably aren't a lot of choices to make because he sees it so clearly. Yep. Zero choices. Yeah, it's just...this is how it goes. This is how it goes. And for me... The Kitchcock was like that too. Yes. Very specific.

1:14:42Very specific. Very different films, but that idea of like having a world view that they're presenting. Yes. Paul Thomas Anderson is like that. David Fincher's like that. It's funny, right? Because you could say that to me. Like, there's not a lot of choices to make and that could sound constricting. But actually, it's so freeing because you feel the scaffolding around you of the specificity of the director's vision and brain. And then you're freed up to just find your character and be and find your inspiration and you're not worried about like, oh god, am I going to have egg on my face here? Because this guy doesn't really know what he's doing.

1:15:24Have you worked with any great directors who are more improvisational in what they like? Yeah, I did a movie once with Alan Rudolph, who was of the Robert Altman School. And I did a movie with him and a great bunch of people in Montreal about Dorothy Parker. I just had a small part, but it was like Jennifer Jason Lee in Campbell Scott. And it's where I met John Favreau. And Alan was very improvisational. So that was different and fun. And then Iron Man 1 was, we improvised almost the whole movie. Every day, we would kind of just improv, which was unusual for a big budget film. Yeah. How has success been different than you might have imagined it?

1:16:11I think that we all have this idea that if we're ever successful, we will feel whole, we will feel home, we will feel embraced by some, you know, universal spirit. And it's just not what happens. It's quite complicated. Of course, it's wonderful to have success and to have your dreams come true. It's incredible. But if you haven't worked on the fundamental things, which a lot of times are driving the need for success, then it's not going to be necessarily what you thought. Tell me about your spiritual life. I'm a meditator. And when did you learn? I learned in probably 2009. And I had very sporadic, you know, periods of doing, being very religious about it and then not.

1:17:12How did you come to it? You know, I had done yoga for a very long time, which is really a meditative practice. And there's meditations at the end. And in Shavasana at the end of yoga, I would often go to like a very deeply connected place. Like deep into parasympathetic and feel that kind of wonderful, God connectedness. So I was talking to somebody about that and I had been doing yoga lesson. And they, I can't remember who suggested that I meet my meditation teacher, Bob Roth. Do you know how? Yeah, he's a friend. So he came and taught me how to meditate. And TN. TN. And I actually use lots of different meditation techniques.

1:17:57Like I love TN in the morning and then I do a lot of breathing and a lot of sort of nervous system. Kind of quick meditations. Also open eye meditation. I do sometimes. You know, I think when I can get into my parasympathetic, that's really critical for me. Because my life is a bit frantic and nature is a big part of my spirituality too, even though it sounds weird. But you know, just being in grass or in the woods or in a body of water. My best friend, Mary, always says like reorganizes the molecules. Tell me something you believe now that you didn't believe when you were young. I think that healing is possible.

1:18:41I don't think I believed that when I was young. You think you didn't believe it when you were young because of things you saw? Yeah. I think I weirdly have more faith in people now. For many people it's the opposite. You know, many people as they grow old or have less faith. That's interesting. I know. I think I have consciously make my circle smaller just because I have so little time. But I actually have more faith in more people. Anything that you can think of that you don't believe now that you used to believe when you were a kid. That you can escape the axioms of your life. And have you managed to do that some degree?

1:19:29I think you never can escape the axioms. Always. No. I think when you're little you think, you know, one day I'll grow up and this pain will wash away. And the places in which I'm broken will be healed. And it actually doesn't happen. But if you are able to, you learn tools with which you can use those things to make your life, make all of the important things come out of those broken places and actually see them as an asset. Yeah. But they're always with you. Without them you wouldn't be who you are. That's right. So you'd say self acceptance is that part of it? I think really being incredibly honest with yourself about who you actually are.

1:20:21What is your favorite restaurant in the whole world? Rick. This is so hard. Well, I can't go so many ways with this, you know, I mean. This is today's answer. This is today's answer. That's always today's answer. Like anything you say is like, maybe it's a different one to you. Yeah, but meaning like, for example, there's a restaurant in New York that I grew up going to every Sunday night called Ilios. And I just love it so much. But is it like, you know, a Michelin star? Like, no, it's like, no, but it's your favorite. I think it's my favorite. Okay. Or if you could transport yourself anywhere in the world to have dinner tonight, where would you choose?

1:21:06What restaurant? What would be the restaurant? I think I would go to this kind of newish place that I love called La Renaume. Delicious. What kind of food is it? It's French, but it's like got, you know, a great cheeseburger as well. The most beautiful place you've ever been on the planet. I think when you ask me that, I have this memory of being in Thailand at this really amazing hotel. You can do this thing where you take a boat down a river to this incredible little restaurant. And I remember being in this boat and going down this river and it was kind of wordless and at sunset. And it was the most beautiful place I think I'd ever...

1:22:01I still to this day when I think of that, I have chills. That sounds great. Incredible. How do you think you're most misunderstood? Let me count the ways. I think for people who don't know me or haven't interacted with me or maybe haven't listened to me on a podcast, I think I'm misunderstood. I think I've been in the public eye for a long time. I think people think, you know, I was raised in a particular way. Like I was raised in privilege and that I'm sort of living a rarefied air. And it's just not who I am.

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