Gwyneth Paltrow Says Bill Clinton Snored Through ‘Emma’ Screening: ‘F*ck You’
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Jane Austen adaptation “Emma” wasn’t a snooze at the box office, but a certain politician couldn’t help but nod off during its screening.
According to Paltrow, President Bill Clinton was sound asleep at the premiere — emphasis on the sound part.
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“He was snoring right in front of me,” Paltrow said during an appearance on First We Feast’s “Hot Ones” series. “I was like, ‘Wow, I guess this is going to be a real hit movie.’ But it was, so fuck you Bill Clinton.”
This was 1996, when Clinton was still the president of the United States. (Our 42nd POTUS held the post from 1993-2001.)
Romantic comedy “Emma,” based on Austen’s iconic novel about a woman (Paltrow) determined to play matchmaker in her small English town, was released in 1996. If the plot sounds familiar now, it sounded very familiar in ’96; the book was adapted for modern audiences a year earlier with “Clueless” (1995).
Between bites of spicy, spicy wings, Paltrow spoke about her British accent for both “Emma” and another film centered on an iconic literary figure, “Shakespeare in Love,” for which she won the 1999 Best Actress Oscar. The Clintons also attended the premiere of “Shakespeare in Love” as friends with producer Harvey Weinstein.
“I had grown up you know, making prank calls, doing accents…but it turns out to do it properly you have to relearn how to speak,” Paltrow said. “The English accent is so different, so I think you really get the opportunity to use the language and really hear because it’s so different when you’re in an academic setting trying to learn as opposed to being in conversation.”
Paltrow previous spoke about the accent issue on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast — there was backlash from the British press at the time over a non-English actress in the feature about legendary Brit Shakespeare. Paltrow also caught flack from the British tabloids for getting emotional during her Academy-Award acceptance speech.
“I remember I was working in England, and I remember the British press being so horrible to me because I cried [while accepting the Oscar],” Paltrow said. “You know, I was 26. I cried and people were so mean about it and I just thought, ‘Wow there’s this big energy shift that’s happening. I think I’m going to have to learn to be less openhearted and much more protective of myself and filter people out better.'”
Paltrow has since mostly retired from screen acting, but teased a possible return to the MCU if Marvel wanted her to reprise her role of Pepper Potts opposite Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.
Watch the “Hot Ones” episode below.
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