GWYNETH PAL'I'ROW
The codpiece exits stage left and Stratford gets saucy as Shakespeare in Love’s star GWYNETH PALTROW comes clean on cross-dressing, undressing and Brad Pitt
Words: Bruno Lester/IPA
'SOMEWHERE I THINK I'VE HAD a secret desire to be a boyf says (‘nwyneth l’altrow. “I really identify with men and I loved cross-dressing.‘
(‘ertain tabloids would blow a blood vessel at the very thought of a top actress making such admissions. Wild Hollywood parties'.’ Sleazy LA dens of transvestism'.’ Well. no. actually. Paltrow’s trouser-tripping antics came via .S'lmkvspmm' In Low. in which she plays Viola. a young lili/abethan woman who dresses up as a boy in order to audition for the stage. Along the way. she inspires a struggling young playwright named William Shakespeare (played by Joseph Hermes) to write his best works.
'As a boy. I looked exactly like my brother.’ l’altrow continues. ‘l’eople always think we are twins. But in the film we‘re not really asking people to believe I‘m a boy — the audience is in collusion with me. But it was hard because I'm not very manly. l thought of myself as an linglish gay guy dressed in an lilizabethan outlit.’
g v To better get into her i '2 masculine side. the wardrobe department made a triangular
» ._. bean bag that l’altrow put in her f v‘ tights. ‘lt changed your centre of
gravity.’ she offers. ‘lt changed
Kg. the wav I walked and the wav l D 5‘ ‘ . . . . - 5 sat. And II was interesting that all
:j ., '- t . . if; the men working on the movie i ' ' had such a different energy with me when l dressed as the boy. I remember the first day I came on the set in drag. They had this curiosity. they were looking at me and they were strangely excited by it. Then. after a couple of weeks. ljust became one of the guys. It was a jocular energy that they had around me that would change dramatically when I would become the pale. blonde girl.’ .S'llukt’s‘pr’ul‘t’ III [.(ll't’ ., _, is about to change the , " I , A g - I ' ,g ‘ v ' “ perception of Pultrow both
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2‘: Ja'i .1 Fair 1999 THE lIST 11