Gwyneth Paltrow and Zoe Saldaña are both alums of the MCU now, so they can spill the tea, and boy, did they. While being part of one of the upcoming Marvel movies is certainly one of the big honors in Hollywood, there are some unique stresses that come with being part of the MCU. That's what the two actresses bonded over too, as they discussed just how secretive the world of Marvel is.
Paltrow has famously admitted she hasn’t watched any of the Marvel movies. Once she even forgot she was in a Spider-Man movie, and when asked if she was in Avengers: Doomsday recently, she responded with, “What’s that?” When Saldaña joined Paltrow on her new podcast, of course the Marvel movies came up. The conversation led to the Guardians of the Galaxy star recalling her memory of being with the Pepper Potts actress on the set of Avengers: Endgame. As she shared:
We were hanging out on the set of Avengers, you and I, just talking about life, and I remember you were like, ‘What are we doing?’ ‘Where are we?’ It felt like the world of Marvel was happening so fast, and your beautiful heart just couldn’t keep up. You were like, ‘I just can’t keep up. What’s the plot? What are we after? Who’s dead? Who’s alive?’ It was just hilarious.
Pepper Potts made her return to the MCU in Endgame for the big battle scene and to unfortunately see Tony Stark die while saving the world. Saldaña explained how clueless her co-star seemed on the set of Endgame before Paltrow went on to playfully defend herself with these words:
Well, first of all, I hadn’t seen any of the movies… you can’t read the script because they are literally the CIA, and there’s password protection and names in the script are different from the person who ends up [on screen]. Like, you know what? I actually don’t care, OK? Just tell me where to stand. Give me some context.
I mean, I think she has a point here. She’s an actor there to do her job, and there’s a lot of secrecy involved that makes it more difficult for her to do that. Much of the time, the actors aren’t trusted with a script, which is the most basic tool one usually needs to do their job.
When Gwyneth Paltrow signed up for Iron Man, it was the first movie in the MCU ever, and she said that experience was like “doing an independent film”. Endgame was filmed about a decade later, when the superhero franchise had turned into a monster success. Saldaña then spoke about how seeing Paltrow on set affected her, saying this on The Goop Guide:
You inspired me. I just watched you walk away and finish your day, and I went, ‘Yep, that’s going to be me.’ And I can’t wait. Here I was with three kids under the age of four, bad cold, trying to memorize all these scripts to then have everyone tell me the morning of ‘these are not the lines you’re going to say.’ And, [I'm] like ‘What the F!’
Yeah, this sounds frustrating. Marvel may be like the CIA, but ultimately it’s for a good reason. The filmmakers and crew want to preserve the experience for the audiences, and locking up the script of Endgame led to one of the most rewarding moments in theaters in recent years.
I love seeing these two movie stars get real about what it’s actually like to be in a Marvel movie. And you can see them in Avengers: Endgame - Encore all over again with a Disney+ subscription this Friday, November 13.
