Bill Clinton wasn’t really feeling Emma when it screened at the White House.
During a Hot Ones interview Thursday, Gwyneth Paltrow answered a question about a rumor that Bill Clinton had “passed out asleep” during a showing of the 1996 film based on the Jane Austen book.
“True!” Paltrow said. “He was snoring right in front of me.”
“I was like, ‘Wow, I guess this is going to be a real hit movie.’” she added. “But it was! So fuck you, Bill Clinton!”
Paltrow’s performance in that film earned rave reviews at the time, including from Rolling Stone. “Gwyneth Paltrow works such magic in Emma that you can almost hear the click of a career locking into high gear,” read the review by Peter Travers.
Paltrow starred alongside Toni Collette, Alan Cumming, and Ewan McGregor in the film, which earned the Oscar for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score. Meanwhile, she won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy or Musical at the Satellite Awards.
During the interview Paltrow also reflected on when she filmed Shakespeare in Love and the changing landscape of films in the 21st century.
“I think, if I look at the industry as a whole, this sort of big push into superhero movies — you can only make so many good ones that feel truly original,” she said. “Yet they’re still always trying to reach as many people as possible, which sometimes hinders quality or specificity or a real point of view.”
“I grew up doing those movies, and I sometimes lament the fact that I look back at some of [mid-budget] movies I made in the Nineties and think, ‘That just wouldn’t get made now,’” she added.
