Gwyneth Paltrow Will Not Star In Any More Films, And She Shared Her Reasons With Fans

The former actor revealed her thinking in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. She was appearing in the fashion mag to promote the six-part TV series The Goop Lab — but the conversation was much more enlightening than that. Even her first comment about her recent lack of acting credits was pretty surprising.

It turns out the actor can’t bear to see herself on screen. “I vom,” Paltrow said of her reaction to watching herself act. “I gag. I hate it.” That’s saying something, considering she has around 60 acting credits to her name! But she expanded on this strange physical response in an interview with Howard Stern.

Speaking to the DJ in 2019, Paltrow said, “I don’t like hearing the sound of my voice.” She also reiterated how she simply “can’t watch [herself] in a movie.” The pair were talking about a defining moment in the actor’s career — her Oscar win. It’s crazy to think this emotional victory was the first time the actor thought about stepping back from acting.

Let’s face it: we all remember Paltrow blubbering over the Oscar podium. The star collected her Best Actress statue for Shakespeare in Love in 1999, and the emotion of the moment seemingly got the better of her. The person up there certainly didn’t seem like someone ready to throw in the towel. So, what happened?

The speech itself was poorly received by some audiences, of course. They argued that Paltrow’s tears were fake and that the whole thing was hard to take seriously. Yet it wasn’t the backlash from certain viewers and critics that caused Paltrow to have second thoughts about acting. It was something only she could feel.

Speaking on Anna Faris is Unqualified in 2021, Paltrow confessed, “It was really, really overwhelming.” And while the actor did say that “everybody was so supportive,” she felt that “the tide sort of turned” after she had won. This resulted in an incredible amount of attention from the outside world — and that wasn’t something she enjoyed.

It ended up being too much for the young star. So, she did what any reasonable 26-year-old woman would do — she went to her parents. “I just kind of hid for three weeks,” Paltrow admitted. But far from feeling comforted, the newly crowned Best Actress winner was just lonely. She likely had a lot of time to think, too.

Paltrow admitted she was plagued with self-doubt. “You have imposter syndrome, and you think, ‘I can’t even believe this is happening. I’m not even that good. Does everybody hate me?’” she explained to host Anna Faris. It also raised the question of, well, what was she going to do next?

It wouldn’t take long for the public to find out. In fact, Paltrow’s next film following her Oscars success was 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. She headlined this thriller alongside Matt Damon and Jude Law, and it became her second-biggest hit as a leading actor. Paltrow then capitalized on her critical and commercial appeal — for a while.

Further flicks followed in 2001 with The Royal Tenenbaums and Shallow Hal. But while things looked good from the outside, it wasn’t all plain sailing for the star. You see, these two 2001 films highlight a fascinating schism in Paltrow’s career. And they also help illustrate why she’s stopped starring in movies altogether.

In 2006 Paltrow told The Guardian she thinks of her movies in two different ways. On the one hand, there are those she does because she feels passionate about them. These include flicks such as Sylvia — a 2003 drama about Sylvia Plath — and the Wes Anderson-directed Tenenbaums. But then there are the other movies…

This second category is for what could generously be called the “bad” movies — although Paltrow used a much stronger word than that when she spoke about them to The Guardian in 2006. Into this section, she put comedies such as Shallow Hal and View from the Top. She even called the latter picture a “terrible movie” that “Harvey Weinstein talked [her] into doing.” Ouch!

This strategy is the old “one for me, one for them” game played by so many in Hollywood. Paltrow said, for example, that because Sylvia is “a movie about a poet who killed herself,” it didn’t “have a big audience.” Yet Shallow Hal — a broad comedy starring Jack Black — can make $70 million at the box office. But something went drastically wrong with Paltrow’s career plan.

Part of the problem can be traced back to her much-talked-about Oscar win. While this should have been the moment Paltrow had the most juice to do whatever she wanted, she’s reportedly come to see the award as a poisoned chalice. It seems the public backlash against her win wasn’t lost on the star, after all.

According to a 2003 Entertainment Weekly article, the movie-going public started to resist Paltrow’s charms almost immediately after she took home her Academy Award. The reasons? Well, the magazine put it down to people thinking the actor was “overexposed and underperforming.” Yet it wasn’t just the fans who deserted Paltrow — the industry did her dirty, too.

Awards expert Tom O’Neil told ABC News in 2007 that Paltrow felt her Academy Award “made her unapproachable and expensive in the minds of studio execs.” So, perhaps the studios didn’t think Paltrow would take a pay cut to appear in a smaller, less mainstream movie. Where did that leave her?

Strangely, it could be that Paltrow was left with minimal options. “People assume once you win the Oscar you have first choice at anything, and that’s not necessarily true,” said Tim Gray from Variety. And what is on the table — even though it might not necessarily be good work — can sometimes prove too hard to turn down.

Yep, we’re talking about the moolah. Paltrow is the first to admit View from the Top is “the worst movie ever.” So how did a notorious movie overlord — Harvey Weinstein — convince the actor to sign up for this “comedy”? Apparently, by giving her $10 million for her efforts. But Paltrow seemingly learned a lesson from the whole debacle.

In 2006 Paltrow confessed to The Guardian that she “stopped making money from acting in 2002.” That’d be right after the View from the Top deal. So, what happened? Well, she explained, “All the things I’ve done since then have been things I’ve really wanted to do, and I have not made money from them.” That includes what would be her final leading role.

This came — shockingly — in 2005. It was for the movie adaptation of Proof, and the experience left Paltrow determined to put acting on the back burner. It seems that the flick was a perfect storm of two major issues. The first was simply that she was stretching herself too thin.

Paltrow told Harper’s Bazaar in 2020, “When the flywheel kicked in, I was doing three to five movies a year.” Proof was, in fact, the 12th movie that Paltrow had released since winning her Oscar. And all that hard work had left the actor burned out. It probably didn’t help that she was also pregnant at the time.

Paltrow remembered, “I had morning sickness and I was dying, and I had these five-page monologues. So when I had [my daughter], I knew I was going to take a big chunk of time off.” What she maybe didn’t know, however, was just how much of a career backseat she was going to take.

While Paltrow has appeared in plenty of movies and TV shows since 2005, she’s rarely been the first name on the poster. And even when she is — as with Country Strong — it’s as part of an ensemble cast. Even her most prominent recent role as Pepper Potts sees her firmly as a supporting player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But she has her reasons.

It all traces back to that cursed Oscar win. Speaking of her crowning achievement on Quarantined with Bruce in 2020, Paltrow said, “I sort of felt like, ‘Well, now who am I supposed to be?’ Like, ‘What am I, what am I driving towards?’” And while grappling with this career crisis, the actor came to a stunning conclusion.

Paltrow said she discovered that she didn’t really “love acting that much.” But more than that, she disliked the “intense public scrutiny” that went along with the Academy Award. She found it particularly hard having “every breakup on every headline” and “being criticized for everything” she said or wore, as she explained to People magazine. And then there was the work-life balance to think about.

Being a movie star is, of course, about more than just acting. There’s the waiting around on sets, traveling to locations, and even the promotional tours after the fact. Paltrow complained, “It’s so transitory, you’re always all over. It’s hard to plant roots.” And she realized that being “alone in a hotel room in Budapest for six weeks” is not what she wants from life.

She’s the kind of person, it turns out, who wants to “be with [her] old friends and cook and squeeze [her] kids.” Yet at this early point in her career, she was dealing with all these other things taking away from her true self. And on top of it all, there was one more massive elephant in the room.

Paltrow explained, “To be totally candid, I had a really rough boss for most of my movie career at Miramax.” She was, of course, talking about Harvey Weinstein — and the less said about that ex-studio exec the better. She went on, “So you take all those things [and] you’re like, ‘I don’t know if this is really my calling.’”

All of these things were whirring around in Paltrow’s mind around the time she was working on Proof. “I really got to the point where even the little things, like sitting in the van going to set, getting your makeup touch-ups, and everything — I really don’t know that I can bear it,” the actor told Harper’s Bazaar. And so she stopped.

But Paltrow has still been in the public eye since 2005, right? One of the reasons for that has been her wellness company, Goop. That began life in 2008, at first as nothing more than a newsletter the actor put together in her own kitchen. Considering how much Goop has grown, it’s arguable that Paltrow was already thinking about moving on from acting back then.

These days, of course, Goop is so much more than a newsletter. It’s an entire wellness brand, with its own Netflix series and everything. The New York Times estimated its value at a massive $250 million in 2018. So it’s perhaps not surprising that Paltrow announced on Today in 2016 that she was focusing her energy on this side of things.

Paltrow said on Today, “We took some investment [in 2015], so as soon as we had other people’s money, I realized I really better focus on this completely.” The big question on everybody’s lips, though, was where did that leave her in terms of acting? Would she ever return to the craft that made the public first fall in love with her?

Paltrow’s perspective on this seems to have shifted over time. In 2016, during that Today interview, the actor said, “I’ll return to acting probably, but probably not right now.” That answer definitely left the door open for some acting work in her future. Yet just a few years later, the star suggested something entirely different.

In the 2020 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the magazine raised the question of Paltrow’s return to acting. Paltrow’s response? “Literally never — nev-er,” she said in no uncertain terms. But when the star spoke to her friend Naomi Campbell for No Filter with Naomi, Paltrow did say there was one thing that would get her in front of the cameras again.

Paltrow quipped to Campbell that she would have to be sleeping with the writer of a movie or TV show if she were to return to acting. Only, in true Paltrow style, she used a cruder term than “sleeping with.” What is she talking about? Well, her husband is the successful producer and screenwriter Brad Falchuk. The pair have worked together in the past, too.

Paltrow admitted, “If my husband writes something and he wants me to do it, then I’ll do it.” That’s probably not a bad strategy, either. Not only would it save a lot of household strife, but Paltrow also walked off with an Emmy after appearing in Falchuk’s Glee in 2011. So it’s kind of a win-win.

But that might not be on the cards at all. Because in an October 2021 interview with Today, Paltrow suggested that she is more likely to retreat further from acting than run towards it. She might just start to tend her garden and cook for her family. And it certainly doesn’t seem as though Paltrow has any acting roles in the near future.

So, what will Paltrow be doing with herself? Well, 2022 sees the unveiling of the much-anticipated “Goop Cruise.” While the actor-turned-entrepreneur won’t actually be on the cruise, she will apparently be working diligently behind the scenes at the firm. And there’s always a chance Falchuk will find her a part eventually.

And remember: Paltrow is far from the only high-profile actor to decide to back away from the big screen. Older stars such as Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson have disappeared without a trace. Their differing paths could provide a glimpse of Paltrow’s future. Yep, if you’re wondering why you’ve not seen Nicholson on screen for a while, then here’s the answer.

One thing’s for sure: there is still an audience hungry to see Nicholson at work. In 2002 About Schmidt scored over $100 million at the box office and another Academy Award nod for the star. And this is a character-study movie about a very unlikeable old guy! So clearly filmgoers know that when Nicholson acts in a film, it’s going to be of the highest quality.

And what can we say about 2006’s The Departed? Critics and audiences alike loved his turn as villainous Frank Costello. The movie also ran away with four Oscars and a host of other awards. If Nicholson was still at the top of his game, then, what was it that scared him away from Hollywood?

It’s definitely not for a lack of trying on the part of moviemakers. We know that Steven Spielberg tried to get Nicholson to take part in Ready Player One. And director Mike Flanagan also wanted to tap the star for a cameo in Doctor Sleep, the Shining sequel. The problem must lie elsewhere, then.

It couldn’t be a lack of desire, though. This is a man who’s worked in Hollywood for over 60 years because he always knew he wanted to act. His first movie role, in 1958, came as part of Roger Corman’s The Cry Baby Killer. And Nicholson was rarely off our screens for more than a year after that... until the 2000s.

So could family commitments be behind the star’s reasons for retreating from the limelight? Nicholson’s wild personal life has been extensively chronicled, of course. And in 2012 Nicholson told The Sun, “I didn’t see enough of my eldest daughter because I was trying to make a career.” That hints that perhaps the star would have liked more time with family. But is it true?

Nicholson’s eldest daughter, Jennifer, was born in 1963 — and Nicholson certainly was in the midst of building his career. His Oscar-nominated performance in 1969’s Easy Rider helped boost a sub-million-dollar film to a box-office smash. It also lifted Nicholson to the level of a hero of the counterculture. And the actor never looked back.

Another Academy Award nomination followed for Nicholson’s depiction of an oil worker in Five Easy Pieces. The 1970 film reinforced the actor’s “anti-hero” status, though, so he urged his agent to go out and find him roles that would stretch his talent. And the agent certainly found Nicholson some interesting parts.

In 1971 the star took the lead in dramedy Carnal Knowledge. Director Mike Nichols believed that Nicholson was one of the few people who could take on the part, and his faith was rewarded as the actor earned a Golden Globe nomination. Yes, Nicholson was one to watch. And a critic nailed the reason why audiences loved him so much.

In his book 27 movies from the Dark Side: Ebert’s Essentials, author Roger Ebert argued that the actor is “a man attractive to audiences because he suggests both comfort and danger… Nicholson created the persona of a man who had seen it all and was still capable of being wickedly amused.” That’s probably why it didn’t take long for him to bring home that Oscar.

It came for 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His character’s blend of caring for others and not giving a hoot for authority appealed strongly to audiences across the globe, eventually bringing in $163 million at the box office. A lot of the character came from Nicholson’s improvisations, too. And people even pondered whether this performance hinted at Nicholson’s reasons for retiring.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in a ward featuring people with reduced mental capacities. And in 2013 a rumor flew around the internet hinting that Nicholson also had a diminishing drive and apparently struggled to remember his lines. It was this reason, the rumors said, that Nicholson no longer acted. Those close to the star quickly shut down that talk, though.

And Nicholson’s list of interesting parts continued to grow as he took the lead in The Passenger in 1975. Then, the following year, he made a dream come true when he appeared with personal hero Marlon Brando in The Missouri Breaks. Apparently, Nicholson had watched Brando in On the Waterfront more than three dozen times. His passion for the art was still strong.

And the 1980s opened with another iconic role for Nicholson: the lead in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The meticulous director even trusted the actor’s talent enough to allow him to improvise the memorable line, “Here’s Johnny!” But Kubrick made things “almost unbearable” for co-star Shelley Duvall – who has also now stopped making movies.

Nicholson showed no signs of slowing down, though. He gave an understated performance to win a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actor in 1984’s Terms of Endearment. Biographer Patrick McGilligan hailed this as one of the actor’s most complicated characters, too. And the rest of the decade proved a golden period for Nicholson, as he starred in hit after hit.

Oscar nods came for Ironweed, Reds and Prizzi’s Honor. And he rounded out the decade with a performance that he was personally extremely proud of: Joker, in 1989’s Batman. The movie was a huge hit – not least for Nicholson. He’d secured points in the film’s box office, potentially netting him as much as $90 million. Not a bad retirement fund, eh?

But in 1992 Nicholson was nominated for an Academy Award yet again for his role in A Few Good Men. And reviewers didn’t hold back in their praise for the star’s turn as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup in the movie. One critic even called Nicholson’s turn “spellbinding” and suggested that his character “blazed and roared.” So it was no surprise when Nicholson won a third Oscar a few years later.

Nicholson picked up that award for Best Actor for his part in As Good As It Gets. The critics weren’t alone in loving the movie, either, as it proved a massive box-office success – confirming that Nicholson was still at the top of the acting game. But, unbeknown to the public, this role would mark the beginning of the end of the star’s output.

Around the end of the 1990s, Lara Flynn Boyle became the latest in a string of ladies who had fallen for “the man no woman could resist.” But Nicholson and Boyle split in 2004, and the once-legendary womanizer – it’s claimed that he’s bedded 2,000 women – became solitary. And apparently, by the late 2010s, Nicholson was a lonely figure.

The 1990s also highlighted a controversial occurrence in the actor’s career. In 1994 a motorist accused Nicholson of vandalizing his car with a golf club. The event was alleged to have taken place after the star had felt he’d been cut off while in traffic. Nicholson later referred to the moment as “a shameful incident in [his] life.” The actor subsequently faced charges of vandalism and assault.

But the case went away after Nicholson agreed to a settlement. In 2007 the star blamed his busy schedule and hectic personal life for the incident. He explained to Golf Digest, “I was on my way to the course, and in the midst of this madness I somehow knew what I was doing because I reached into my trunk and specifically selected a club I never used on the course: my 2-iron.”

Yet the 2000s saw little reduction of Nicholson’s star power. After About Schmidt came a couple of comedy roles. And then in 2006 he popped up in a monster success, as Frank Costello in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The actor followed that up with another comedy called The Bucket List – and that was almost that.

In 2010 Nicholson made what is – at the time of writing – his last film appearance. And it all looked promising for How Do You Know. The cast was stellar, and director James L. Brooks had enjoyed countless successes – including helming Nicholson to Oscars with Terms of Endearment and As Good As It Gets. But what looked good on paper didn’t look so great on screen.

In fact, critics hated How Do You Know. The A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin described it as “hopelessly muddled,” while Roger Ebert moaned, “I expected this movie to be better.” Ebert also suggested that the script had let Nicholson down, saying that his character had been written as a “creep.” Fans seemingly agreed, and moviegoers stayed away from the box office.

The film brought in less than $50 million – despite the eye-watering production costs of $120 million. So it may be that Nicholson decided after this kind of failure he was no longer the draw at the box office that he had been. And, if that is true, he wouldn’t be the first actor to come to the same conclusion.

After all, Gene Hackman has not been seen on screen since 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport – which ended up being a commercial and critical flop. And Sean Connery decided that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was an apt swansong in 2003. But both of these stars had been pretty open about their retirements...

Yet as the 2010s wore on, and Nicholson continued to stay away from the silver screen, nobody was certain that he’d actually given movies up. After all, hiatuses were getting more and more common for the 84-year-old star. He had a four-year break before The Pledge and three before The Departed. And he certainly seemed no worse for the rest.

But in the fall of 2013 Radar Online reported that a Hollywood source said the superstar had indeed retired. The reason given was a bombshell, too. According to the article, the insider said, “There is a simple reason behind his decision: it’s memory loss. Quite frankly… [Nicholson] has memory issues and can no longer remember the lines being asked of him. His memory isn’t what it used to be.”

Around that time, it was also reported that Nicholson had passed on a role that he’d been tipped to take on. He’d been wanted for 2013’s Nebraska – whose central role seemed ideally suited to the acting legend. Nicholson didn’t show any interest, though, and the role went to Bruce Dern – who gained an Oscar nomination for his performance.

Yet Nicholson is still a presence around town. According to Radar Online, the source said, “[He] has no intention of retiring from the limelight. He’s not retiring from public life, at all.” And the insider suggested that he had a reason for not announcing a retirement, saying, “He just doesn’t want a tribute. He’s happy to tacitly join the retirees club, like Sean Connery.”

But people close to Nicholson soon struck back. They claimed that talk of retirement, let alone dementia, was completely untrue. In fact, NBC’s Maria Shriver told website E! News in September 2013 that the star had no plans to retire. And another person near to the star claimed that Nicholson was still reading scripts, intending to continue his career.

And the man himself gave an interview to U.K. newspaper The Sun in which he dismissed concerns about his mental acuity. Amid quotes from existentialist philosopher Albert Camus and facts about the drug war, Nicholson noted, “I have a mathematician’s brain. It looks at everything mathematically, including relationships. It’s all statistics and laws of probability.”

Yet Nicholson explained that he didn’t feel the same drive that he once had. He said, “I [learned] how to function within ‘out there.’ Then you get older, you change. I mean, I’m not a loner, I’m not a recluse, but I don’t need all that any more. I don’t enjoy it, simple as that. I’m not going to work until the day I die, that’s not why I started this. I mean, I’m not driven.”

In fact, even when at his height, Nicholson had always been choosy over which roles he’d accept. He knocked back parts in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Godfather, for instance. It’s also claimed that he said no to many other roles, including the 2013 sports film 42 and 2014’s The Judge.

In 2017 friend Peter Fonda told Page Six that he thought Nicholson “is basically retired” – although he did say that the star might return for something appealing. And for a while, that return looked like being a remake of Toni Erdmann – a 2016 German comedy that had taken the U.S. by storm and found its way into critics’ hearts.

Original director Maren Ade gave the idea a big thumbs up, saying, “Jack Nicholson is one of the best actors that has ever been alive… I actually think I will enjoy sitting and watching a remake of Toni Erdmann.” However, even that high praise was not enough to keep Nicholson interested in the project, and he pulled out.

So why did Nicholson stop starring in movies? Well, perhaps he just doesn’t feel that there is anything left for him to prove. He’s a legend with three Oscars under his belt, from a dozen nominated performances! And it may be that he has simply decided that enough is enough – leaving a legacy of great films and wonderful starring roles. He may have even looked to Gene Hackman and Sean Connery as inspiration.