- Title: UK: GWYNETH PALTROW ATTENDS THE PREMIERE OF HER NEW FILM "SLIDING DOORS"
- Date: 27th April 1998
- Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 27, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) GWYNETH PALTROW BEING ASKED ABOUT THE "WHAT IF" CONCEPT, "IT'S VERY TEMPTING AND I THINK IT'S SOMETHING WE ALL DO - SAY I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED HAD I NOT LEFT THE HOUSE AT THIS TIME. I THINK IT'S A GOOD THING TO DO. IT'S NATURAL BUT IT CAN BE A VERY PARALYSING CONCEPT. IF I GO LEFT RATHER THAN RIGHT I COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF MY LIFE DRAMATICALLY. YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT TOO MUCH."
- Embargoed: 12th May 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVAE5F27UERZ4OGUUD52AY2KEKF2
- Story Text: Director Peter Howitt has good reason to ask himself "what if" -- a question posed by his new romantic comedy starring Hollywod hot property Gwyneth Paltrow.
"Sliding Doors", which explores fate, destiny and parallel lives, nearly didn't get made.
Fortunately Sydney Pollack spotted the script years after it was written and raised the money.The acclaimed film opened the U.S.Sundance Film Festival in February.
Paltrow, who attended the film's London premiere on Monday (April 27), had no doubts the part was for her.
"From the first moment I read it, I felt connected and felt I had to play it," she said.
This was good enough for actor-turned-director Howitt, delighted to have Paltrow's star appeal for his directorial debut which took six years to hit the screen.
Paltrow's cut-glass English accent appears once again in her role as a sacked and unlucky-in-love young career woman.
The New Yorker first impressed audiences across the Atlantic with her perfect English vowels in the Jane Austen adaptation "Emma".
In the film, Helen (Paltrow) is fired from her job at a London PR (public relations) firm, mugged by a purse-snatcher and jilted by her live-in struggling writer boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch), whom she discovers in bed with ex girlfriend Lydia (Jean Tripplehorn).
By chance, she bumps into handsome stranger James (John Hannah of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" fame).
But while she is indeed being betrayed by Gerry, the latter turn of events is one Helen sees only in her fantasy life, an alternative reality that is triggered when the sliding doors of a tube car close on her and she imagines what might have happened if she had made the train.
The idea for the film almost literally hit Peter Howitt some five years ago when crossing a busy London street.
"I stepped off the pavement by Leicester Square and narrowly missed a car, which just screeched to a halt in time.
It then struck me that the split instant could have changed my whole life as well as that of the driver...I knew I had a great idea for a film," he said.
Paltrow is currently in Britain shooting "Shakespeare in Love" alongside Joseph Fiennes (Ralph's younger brother), Geoffery Rush (of Shine fame), Colin Firth, Oscar nominee Judi Dench and Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral).
Paltrow turned down a role in "The Avengers" in favour of "Sliding Doors".
Famously wary of accepting too much too soon on the advice of her actor parents, she felt ready to take on a weightier role after her performance in "Great Expectations" now on international release.
She also avoids what she calls the "gross" heart of Hollywood, turning down Kate Winslett's role in "Titanic" and opting to live in New York rather than Los Angeles.
"Sliding Doors" opens in Britain on May 1, after a successful release in the United States on April 24.
Elsewhere in Europe, it opens in France and Belgium in June, the Netherlands in July and Germany, Italy and Spain in September this year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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