Gwyneth Paltrow is not shying away from the ‘nepo baby’ label as she reveals she got one of her first roles in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 film Hook without audition.
It’s surprising, given that the auditions are purportedly a ‘must’ in Hollywood. Nevertheless, the Academy-winning actress recalls that Kate Capshaw is a good friend of her father.
The person in question is Steven’s wife.
“Kate was actually my father’s best friend. They were best friends. Kate Capshaw … so I grew up with them … they’re really our family,” she shares while speaking during a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations event, noting being a ‘nepo baby’ comes with “certain advantages.”
Nonetheless, close ties with the pair paid off in an unexpected way, the actress recounts.
Gwyneth, who was 18 at the time, remembers Steven offering her the role in Hook as they were on their way to see The Silence of the Lambs.
“We were going to the movie theater, and Steven was driving … I was in the back seat, and he kept looking in the rearview mirror and squinting at me … I was like, ‘Do I have something on my face? Like what?”
“And then he said, ‘Gwenny, will you do me a favor?’” she recalls Steven saying, “‘Would you play young Wendy in ‘Hook’ in this movie that I’m doing about Peter Pan?’”
Speechless for a moment, Gwyneth reacts with disbelief. “I said, ‘Oh, f*** off.’ You know, no. Oh, I did not say that … I said, ‘Yes, I will. I will do that.’”
It is worth noting that in Hook, the actress portrays Young Wendy; though the role was brief, it was considered one of her first.
