Even the most accomplished actors sometimes feel out of their depth on a movie.<\/p>\n
Gwyneth Paltrow, who returns to the big screen this fall as an Old Hollywood star trying to make a new start in \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d was \u201cway out over her skis\u201d in her early 20s when she played a Park Avenue wife opposite older co-star Michael Douglas in \u201cA Perfect Murder.\u201d Jennifer Lopez, who showcases her triple-threat skill set in the musical \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman,\u201d felt a \u201chuge\u201d responsibility to get it right when portraying Tejana icon Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic about the late singer. And Emily Blunt, who goes toe-to-toe with Dwayne Johnson in the mixed martial arts saga \u201cThe Smashing Machine,\u201d had to avoid being typecast as the go-to \u201cacerbic British bitch\u201d after the success of 2006\u2019s \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada.\u201d <\/p>\n
These and many more tales from inside the maelstrom of megawatt stardom were the subject of The Envelope\u2019s 2025 Oscar Actresses Roundtable, where Paltrow, Lopez and Blunt were joined by Sydney Sweeney, who transformed physically and emotionally to play boxing legend Christy Martin in \u201cChristy\u201d; Tessa Thompson, who tries to keep up appearances as the title character in \u201cHedda,\u201d Nia DaCosta\u2019s acclaimed new adaptation of \u201cHedda Gabler\u201d; and Elle Fanning, who plays an American star struggling to find her way into a Norwegian art film in \u201cSentimental Value.\u201d<\/p>\n
In conversation with Times critic Lorraine Ali, the six performers discussed how they deal with bad press, resist being put in career boxes and inhabited some of the most-talked-about film roles of the year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jennifer, you play the title role in \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman,\u201d a story set in Argentina during a military dictatorship. It takes place in a political prison where the men imagine themselves in a glamorous, sweeping musical. As producer on the film, why was it important for you to tell this story now?<\/b><\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> It\u2019s never been more relevant, which is really scary. Manuel Puig wrote the novel in the 1970s about these two prisoners during the uprising in Argentina. It really is a love story about seeing the humanity in another person, like two very different people with different political views. One is queer, and the other is a political revolutionary. The two of them were like oil and water. But they escaped into the [fantasy of] a movie, which is \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman.\u201d They slowly come together and see each other\u2019s souls instead of who they were on the outside. I think with everything that\u2019s happening in the world right now, especially in this country, with Latinos and queer communities being targeted, demonized \u2014 there\u2019s never been a more important time to say, \u201cLook at me on the inside. Stop with all of this divisiveness. See people for who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gwyneth, \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d is set in the 1950s. You play Kay Stone, a faded starlet. Who did you base her on?<\/b><\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> She\u2019s an amalgam of a few ideas, but principally Grace Kelly, who also had this amazing movie career and was this incredible star, and then walked away from it for marriage. My character does the same. When I was looking at photographs [of Kelly during] her films, and then photographs after she got married, it was like the light dimmed. She lost something. My character had a very rough road to get to stardom, so she walks away from this big career to marry an unsuitable but very wealthy man. And then her son dies, so she has a lot of tragedy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sydney, \u201cChristy\u201d is the story of Christy Martin, a pioneer in popularizing women\u2019s boxing in the 1980s and 1990s. You really transformed for the role. Can you talk about that transformation?<\/b><\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> Her story is probably one of the most important stories I\u2019ll ever get to tell, so I felt that immense importance. I needed to fully transform myself. I trained every day for three months leading up to shooting. I put on 35 pounds. And I got to spend time with her, and now she\u2019s like one of my best friends. I just kinda lived and breathed Christy for the entirety of the whole thing.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so much violence in her world, particularly outside the ring. Was the real-life Christy there when you shot the domestic abuse scenes between her and her husband, Jim Martin (played by Ben Foster)?<\/b><\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> To protect her, we didn\u2019t have her on set when we were shooting the last part of the movie where the domestic violence came into play. The following Monday, we had her come to set, and the entire crew stood up and just started applauding. It was so beautiful. Then after that, she was on set all the time. We would be in the ring, and she\u2019d be sitting [outside the ring], and I\u2019d hear her say, \u201cHit her with the left hook, Sydney!\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> She was coaching from the sidelines?<\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> Oh, yeah. We were having a blast. And in the fights, we actually fought. My No. 1 thing with all the girls was that I don\u2019t want this to be fake because so much of Christy comes to life in the ring. I didn\u2019t want to have [the camera] at the back of my head or have to cut to fake the punches. Every single one of those girls, they\u2019re badasses. They punched me, and I punched them. We had bloody, broken noses. I had a concussion.<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Sydney broke someone\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> I got a concussion. I\u2019m not going to confirm [what else happened]. But I definitely caused some, uh, bruises and blood.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emily, with \u201c<\/b>The <\/b>Smashing Machine,\u201d you play Dawn Staples, girlfriend to Mark Kerr, who was a pioneer in the field of MMA fighting. How much did you know about that world before taking on the role?<\/b><\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> I knew very little, and I was moved that Mark Kerr was my first window into [MMA] because he is such a juxtaposition to the violence of the world. This is a man who headbutted people to oblivion, and when you meet him, he\u2019s like [subdued tone], \u201cHi, how are you?\u201d He\u2019s so nice. And I said to Mark one day, \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d And he goes, \u201cI know, it was nasty.\u201d He\u2019s just so sweet and dear and eloquent. But I think he was sort of filled with this uncontrollable rage that he hardly knew what to do with, and he struggled so much with his own demons. The movie is more about struggle and fragility than it is about fighting. <\/p>\n
Tessa, \u201cHedda\u201d is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen\u2019s play \u201cHedda Gabler\u201d<\/b> and you play the title role. Your castmate, Nina Hoss, said the role of Hedda Gabler is for women actors what Hamlet is for men. Do you agree?<\/b><\/p>\n
Thompson:<\/b> I like to say that Hamlet is the male Hedda, just because I think it\u2019s a nice reversal. But people say that because the truth is that we don\u2019t have that many [roles] that are canonical in the same way that Hedda Gabler is, so it feels like this behemoth. It\u2019s one of the parts in theater that feels like a mountain to climb. There\u2019s a kind of complexity to the character that has compelled audiences and actors for centuries … which is the case with both [Hedda and Hamlet]. But I think the comparison is kind of boring, frankly. I remember an actor saying to me, \u201cOh, I learned in drama school you have to have your Hedda ready.\u201d And I did not have my Hedda ready, but I got it ready.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The wardrobe and sets in \u201cSpider <\/b>W<\/b>oman,\u201d \u201cHedda\u201d and \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d are beautiful. Did you swipe mementos when the films wrapped?<\/b><\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> No, you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> I mean, you can.<\/p>\n
Paltrow<\/b>: I tried the Birkin bag from \u201cThe Royal Tenenbaums\u201d [but I could not], so I took the loafers instead.<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Not the same. Not quite.<\/p>\n
Thompson:<\/b> [To Gwyneth]: I was almost you [in \u201cTenenbaums\u201d] for Halloween, but I couldn\u2019t get it together in time and I wanted do you justice. But one day \u2026<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> Next year. I\u2019ll lend you the loafers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Elle, in \u201cSentimental Value,\u201d you play a Hollywood star who\u2019s cast in an art<\/b>–<\/b>house European production. In reality, you were shooting the massive production \u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d when you joined \u201cSentimental Value,\u201d a smaller European film. Were the parallels <\/b>with <\/b>your character, Rachel, apparent at the time?<\/b><\/p>\n
Fanning:<\/b> I got a call that \u201cJoachim Trier has a part for you and would like to talk over Zoom, and here\u2019s the script.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, my gosh, Joachim Trier [who made] \u2018The Worst Person in the World.\u2019\u201d I would\u2019ve said yes to one line. But I was already doing \u201cPredator.\u201d I was about to go off to New Zealand, but it\u2019s very important for Joachim to rehearse, so he [wanted me] to come to Oslo. I wasn\u2019t sure which movie I could do, and I wanted to do both. So, of course, there were parts to the character that I could relate to. I kept thinking, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of meta-ness going on in this film,\u201d particularly for my character, being the Hollywood actress coming to Oslo for the first time, working with a Norwegian director. And coming off of this action-packed film to go to this very intimate, emotional foreign film, they fed into each other in ways that I didn\u2019t expect them to.<\/p>\n
How do you all deal with rough reviews?<\/b><\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> I try to never read anything about myself, full stop, ever. Period.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> Wait, not anything about yourself? Ever? Period? Because I don\u2019t read reviews of my films either, but people will bring it to you it when it\u2019s good and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, nice.\u201d But there\u2019s other things they\u2019ll bring you \u2026 <\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> Sometimes I\u2019ll come upon it.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> And you want to die.<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> Want to die. Like when someone forwards you a link to something really horrible about yourself, and they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, this is bull\u2014.\u201d I do try to avoid [that kind of stuff]. I deleted Instagram.<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Me too.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> You need to cleanse every once in a while.<\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> Sounds nice. I can\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n
How do you push the negative stuff about you or your personal life aside and focus on your work?<\/b><\/p>\n
Sweeney:<\/b> It helps when you love what you do. Like, if you\u2019re loving the characters that you get to play, you\u2019re loving the people you get to work with, and you\u2019re proud of what you\u2019re doing, then it\u2019s just outside noise. When we walk on set, the world kind of disappears and we get come to life in a different kind of way. Those are the moments and the relationships that matter. Everything else is just people we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> [To Lopez] I want to hear your answer to this question.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> From the very beginning, for whatever reason, I\u2019ve been a lightning rod for nice things and a lot of negativity. And it\u2019s hard because you say to yourself, \u201cThese people don\u2019t get me. They don\u2019t see me. They don\u2019t understand me.\u201d Then all of a sudden they do. And then they don\u2019t again. Even from when I was very young, I would always say, \u201cI know who I am. I\u2019m a good person. I know what I\u2019m doing. People wouldn\u2019t hire me if I wasn\u2019t good at what I do.\u201d I was always affirming myself and keeping my feet on the ground. Luckily, I had a great mom and dad who really instilled in me a sense of self. And what Sydney was saying, I\u2019d have to block out the noise so I can put my head on the pillow at night and go, \u201cI did good today. I was a good person. I was kind to people. I worked really hard. I\u2019m a good mom.\u201d That has always helped me through.<\/p>\n
Thompson: <\/b>Not having your sense of self or identity entangled in this other self that belongs to the public seems like such a healthy thing. I\u2019m still trying to figure out my balance with that. When I was acting in some projects, I felt like I was delivering a lump of clay that got sculpted by somebody else. So if someone was harsh on the final [product], I was like, \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t sculpt it. I\u2019m just the material.\u201d But now that I produce, it\u2019s a completely different thing. It\u2019s building it from the ground up and feeling so much responsibility to the people that you\u2019ve made it with. You made a baby and sent it into the world, and you just hope it doesn\u2019t get misunderstood.<\/p>\n
Gwyneth, you\u2019re stepping back into the film world with \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d after seven years doing other things, such as Goop. Were you nervous coming back into the fold?<\/b><\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> I [had been] doing things like \u201cIron Man\u201d and \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d which are totally fun, but it\u2019s like doing a TV show where you go back in and you know the character. It\u2019s not that difficult. So it had been a really long time, and I was like, \u201cHow did I used to do this? How are you, like, natural?\u201d And then I did the camera test and I was really nervous. I felt like a fish out of water. And then luckily the first scene that I shot for real was a scene in the movie where she\u2019s rehearsing a play. And I started in the theater, and I did a million plays before I ever did a film. The camera was far away, and I had my mom\u2019s voice in my head. She\u2019s like, \u201cYou\u2019re on the boards, you know, just let the energy come through your body.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Can wardrobe and styling help you embody the emotional core of a role?<\/b><\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Dawn\u2019s got a vibe for sure. It was that very overt \u201990s, overglamorized thing, and everything was so revealing. I feel like my t\u2014 looked like two heads by the time they were done with the Wonderbra. They were just up under my chin. That helps you stand different, walk different. And the nails helped me. She had this incredibly long, square, chunky French tip manicure, and she\u2019d talk with her hands. And the spray tan and the wig. It\u2019s all fabulous. It\u2019s such an amazing thing to look at yourself and go, \u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson:<\/b> [In \u201cHedda\u201d], the construction of those dresses in the \u201950s, there\u2019s so much boning. We had Lindsay Pugh, who\u2019s a brilliant costume designer. I also started looking up the starlets of the time and what their waist sizes were. It was like 20 or 21 inches. They were extreme. In the beginning, when we were constructing the dress, I was like, \u201cI\u2019m going to try to get down to that Dior-like silhouette,\u201d which is impossible. Then we [fell in] love with the idea that the dress doesn\u2019t actually fit her, because she\u2019s inside of a life that doesn\u2019t fit her. But the sheer sort of circumference of the dress makes her a woman who comes into a room and takes up space. A big part of [a woman\u2019s] currency was their beauty and their body. That felt very foreign to me to inhabit. I didn\u2019t recognize or had maybe suppressed the idea of using that part of me to gain power in the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The 2025 Envelope Oscar Actresses Roundtable: Top row, left to right, Tessa Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Elle Fanning. Bottom row, left to right, Sydney Sweeney, Jennifer Lopez and Emily Blunt.<\/p>\n
Hollywood likes to put people in boxes, particularly women. What boxes has it tried to stuff you in<\/b>?<\/p>\n
Fanning:<\/b> I was in \u201cMaleficent\u201d and I played Sleeping Beauty, so like Disney princess in pink. Blond.<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> But look at that face. Come on!<\/p>\n
Fanning:<\/b> But I can be mean too! In \u201cThe Great,\u201d [I played] Catherine the Great, she was a queen, but she was raunchy. It was such a delicious show in that way. People were like, \u201cWhoa.\u201d They were surprised [seeing me like] that.<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> If there\u2019s a movie that takes off, you will have to carve out space away from that. I remember after \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada,\u201d I got offered every acerbic British bitch. I\u2019m like, \u201cI should not do that for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> When I stepped back to be an entrepreneur around 2008, I really confused and upset people. Nobody understood what I was doing, and I faced a lot of criticism and confusion over the course of the 17 years since I sent out my first Goop newsletter. I really do think that women, we are so incredibly multifaceted. We are all the archetypes. We\u2019re not just a mother, or an artist, or an intellectual. We\u2019re all the things. So I\u2019ve always kind of tried to make it my mission to say, like, \u201cNo, don\u2019t put us in boxes. We get to define who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Was it hard for you to keep going and ignore it?<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> It was really hard. Some days I was like, \u201cWhy did I do this? The headwinds are so extreme and I\u2019m so misunderstood. I had a perfectly good job. People did my hair. Why on earth did I do this to myself?\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson:<\/b> And you also did it before there was a cultural appreciation for people doing multihyphenates and starting businesses.<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> I think our generation started thinking, like, \u201cWe need and want to do other things.\u201d Even when I started acting and I had done my early films, \u201cOut of Sight\u201d and \u201cSelena,\u201d and then decided I wanted to record music, and it was such a big deal. People were like, \u201cThey\u2019re never going take you seriously as an actor ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paltrow:<\/b> And you had the No. 1 movie and the No. 1 album in the same time, right?<\/p>\n
Lopez:<\/b> It was in the Guinness Book of Records. But that\u2019s the thing, everybody\u2019s always trying to tell you: \u201cYou can only do this,\u201d or \u201cYou can only do that.\u201d I had my perfume line. I had my clothing lines. I have my J Lo beauty now. You have to just do what feels good for you. It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s for everybody. Somebody wants to just act their whole life, that\u2019s beautiful too. That\u2019s fantastic. I still want to direct. I still want to write more books. And I don\u2019t ever feel like there\u2019s somebody who can say to me, \u201cNo, you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blunt:<\/b> Say that to Sydney and she\u2019ll break their nose.<\/p>\n
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