Gwyneth Paltrow Makes Bold Return to Acting, Starring in Steamy Film with Timothée Chalamet

When Gwyneth Paltrow was contemplating a return to the big screen after years away, she turned to an old friend for advice. “Cameron Diaz is one of my best friends, sorry to namedrop,” the 52-year-old told Vanity Fair in a dishy new cover story. Her pal, who had recently revived her own acting career after a long hiatus, encouraged Gwyneth to “think about the richness and the deepening of your life” in the intervening years, telling her, “That’s all material.”

As the Oscar winner discovered, during her absence, movie making had changed — big time. She’ll star in what the mag calls the “Ping-Pong romp” Marty Supreme, out Dec. 25 ,with redhot Timothée Chalamet. The pair play illicit lovers in the 1950s-set flick. “I mean, we have a lot of sex in this movie,” she told VF. There’s a lot — a lot.” While her kids, Apple, 20, and 18-year-old Moses, with ex Chris Martin, are fans of her 29-year-old costar, Gwyneth, now wed to Brad Falchuk, had never seen his work.

“He’s such a thinking man’s sex symbol,” she says of the waifish New York native — leaving unsaid how he differs from hunky past costars such as her exes Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck.

Credited with helping boost the #MeToo era, the actress admitted she was also taken aback by the intimacy coordinator on set for sex scenes. “I was like, ‘Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on,’” she told the mag, confessing that she all but opted out.

“I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but… I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that,” she explained, joking that she wasn’t worried with Timothée. “I was like, ‘OK, great. I’m 109 years old. You’re 14.’”