Comics2Film has posted transcripts of Gwyneth Paltrow's Comic-Con interview:
Gwyneth Paltrow: Hi guys...
Q: Hello. Serious shoes you've got there.
Paltrow: Don't show my orthopedic surgeon my shoes.
Q: How is your knee?
Paltrow: It's coming along. I got off the crutches two weeks ago and the cane yesterday. I've been doing a lot of physical therapy. I'm seriously not supposed to be in these shoes.
Q: Tell us about the character you play in 'Iron Man'.
Paltrow: I play Pepper Potts who is Tony Stark's, aka Iron Man's girl Friday. She's his assistant. His confidant. She's really the closest person to him.
He's a womanizer and kind of a lose cannon and she's sort of his center, in a way.
Q: Talk about working with Robert in the film. He brings a lot to it, doesn't he?
Paltrow: Oh my God. He is so brilliant. I'd always wanted to work with him. It had always been like a dream of mine to work with him and I was so happy to have had the opportunity because he's just amazing.
He's so free and he's so present when he's working and he tries all this great stuff. It just feels very electric. It feels very...it feels new. You don't feel like you're trudging through your day. It's always something unexpected.
Q: It's quite and amazing ensemble in the film.
Paltrow: Exactly! That's exactly why I did it.
I love Jon Favreau's movies. It's dream! Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Robert Downey Jr...How do you say no to that?
Q: Why make your return to acting with this movie?
Paltrow: What happened was, when my son was about six months old I started to feel the fire again. It had been a really long time. I kind of understood and became OK with the fact that there is part of me that's an artist and that was OK. It was OK to work.
So I thought, I'll wait 'til he's one so he can have all my attention and I'll be there every day until he's one. Then, if there's a movie for me, if people haven't totally forgotten about me that'd be great.
This came up and I started it right after he turned one and it was really good. It was really important for me. It was great for me to have that break. I really needed that break and I've come back to the whole world with such an appreciation for it. I feel really excited about it. So it's been really nice.
Q: Physically were ready for this, did you have to get ready fast or did you jump right in?
Paltrow: No.
I was like, post-baby, like, nightmare. I worked really, really hard. I had an amazing trainer. I worked out twice a day. Did cardio and felt like a complete nerd. I just really worked hard and got in shape. I got a stomach bug in Mexico, which really helped.
And there you go. I was ready to go.
Q: Were you aware of the comic book character before you did the movie?
Paltrow: Nope. No. I was not a comic...I mean I was in sort of a tangential way. I'd heard of Iron Man. I'd heard of Spider-Man. My brother had comics around, but I didn't really know anything about comics, except for my brother's underoos, you know, in 1982.
Q: How is your comic-con experience?
Paltrow: It's amazing! It's really nice to have feedback. You never kind of get that. It was really exciting to be in the room when they played the trailer. I was really excited by it.
Q: How did they convince you to come out here?
Paltrow: They said, "Will you come out?"
And I said, "Does that mean I get one night in a hotel with no crying children?"
And they said yes and I said, "OK! I'm there!"
Q: During the panel Robert seemed to be making you laugh. How was it working with him on the set?
Paltrow: It was the best. He is a totally amazing human being and he made me laugh all the time. His sense of humor is so weird. He talks in theses bizarre...he's a modular thinker. He's not a linear thinker. He comes out with all this amazing stuff and analogies and it's hard to follow and he's here, then he's there. So he really kept me on my toes.
Q: How did you find the reality in a story like this? These comic book stories can be pretty "out there" and the key to making them work is the reality and the heart of the story.
Paltrow: For me what was so great is, our relationship for me is at the heart of the film. It was a very layered, real, complicated relationship.
I wasn't there when they were blowing everything up.
Q: Jon Favreau has said he favored practical effects over green screen. Did the use of practical effects make playing in the scenes any easier?
Paltrow: Well, it was easier because it actually hurt your ears when the guns are shot and things blow up.
Yeah, they did crazy things. They blew up a whole...I'd better not give anything away...but they really blew things up, and it was like "Wow!"
It's not your average day at work. It would take eight hours to set all the charges and it was like, "They're really gonna blow this whole thing up!"
Q: Is there something that you were passionate about when you were a kid that you've taken forward into your adult life? That you would share with your kids.
Paltrow: Those old musicals, like Mary Poppins, I love those. And like the Haley Mills movies. I was obsessed when I was little. So I'm excited to show those. I've already shown Mary Poppins to my kids.
Q: Does your character get to do any physical stuff? Any stunts?
Paltrow: At the end...
Q: ...fight or use a gun?
Paltrow: Not fight. I don't have a gun. I have...[points to her head]
