Gwyneth Paltrow says “Iron Man ”was originally pitched to her as an 'indie film': 'Oh, okay'

"Then the movie was such a huge hit that we didn't make them like that anymore."

Gwyneth Paltrow had a very different idea of what being a Marvel star would entail when she first signed on to play Pepper Potts in the original Iron Man film.

The actress revealed that the 2008 superhero epic, also starring Robert Downey Jr., was originally pitched to her as an “indie film” and addressed just how much the franchise has changed over the years.

“The first film we did was very different from the rest because the studio didn’t think it was going to be a big hit,” Paltrow said during a recent conversation at the Red Sea Film Festival, per Rolling Stone. “They hired Jon Favreau to direct, who was great. And they hired Robert Downey Jr., who was un-hireable at the time. His career was at a very low point.”

Initially, Paltrow's interest in the project was piqued because its creative team wasn’t focused on making a standard superhero film. “They said, ‘It’s going to feel like doing an indie film. We’re gonna have fun, and you don’t have to be in too much of the action part anyway,’” she recalled. “So I thought, ‘Oh, okay.’”

The Oscar winner and Goop founder said the process did feel fun and spontaneous, a vibe she seemed to indicate had been lacking from the installments that followed. “We improvised almost every scene of that movie. We would write it in the morning in Jon’s trailer, and it was like doing [an indie] film,” she said. “Then the movie was such a huge hit that we didn’t make them like that anymore.”

Paltrow would go on to play Pepper in two Iron Man sequels as well as Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. But despite being in them, she "stopped watching them at some point," she told the crowd at the festival.

“I’ve never seen Endgame,” she said. “I’ve never seen any of these. I can’t keep track. I probably should at some point.”

In recent years, Paltrow has been open about her lack of knowledge about the comings and goings of the MCU. She made headlines in 2019 after admitting that she didn't know she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming at all, and, months later, confirming that she still hadn't seen it.

Just last month, she announced that she'd need a call from Iron Man himself to get her on screen now. "It would be very hard for me to do any acting right at the moment, just because of my job," Paltrow told Entertainment Tonight. "But I guess Robert Downey Jr. could probably always get me back."

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.