Gwyneth Paltrow has confirmed the long-held rumour that former US president Bill Clinton feel asleep during a White House screening of her film Emma.
Paltrow starred in the title role for the 1996 Jane Austen film adaptation, directed by Douglas McGrath, and received critical acclaim for her performance.
However, during a recent appearance on the long-running YouTube series Hot Ones, Paltrow made it clear that Clinton wasn’t one of the film’s fans.
Presented by Sean Evans, Hot Ones sees celebrities take on an array of progressively spicier chicken wings while answering questions.
When Evans asked if the rumours of Clinton falling asleep during a White House screening of Emma were true, Paltrow replied: “True – he was snoring right in front of me.”
She joking added: “I was like, ‘Wow, I guess this is going to be a real hit movie.’ But it was! So fuck you, Bill Clinton!”
Also during her appearance on Hot Ones, Paltrow suggested that you can “only make so many” good superhero movies.
The actress – who starred as Pepper Potts in a number of Marvel Cinematic Universe films alongside Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man – was asked about her opinion on director Cord Jefferson’s recent Oscar speech.
Jefferson won the Best Adapted Screenplay award for his film American Fiction and, during his acceptance speech, pleaded with Hollywood producers: “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies.”
“I absolutely understand where he’s coming from,” Paltrow said. “You want the best chance to have a strong ROI. People put a lot of money into these things and they want them to be profitable.”
She added: “But if I look at the industry as a whole, this big push into superhero movies… you can only make so many good ones that feel truly original, and yet they’re still always trying to reach as many people as possible, which sometimes hinders quality or specificity or real point of view.”