IRON MAN: GWYNETH PALTROW

NEW YORK --The Continuum today begins a series of interviews from last weekend's Iron Man press junket with Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Pepper Potts.

Following is an edited transcription from the roundtable interview:

Question: Did you read the Iron Man comic books?

Paltrow: Growing up? No, not all. Not untl I took the job. That's when I started reading them and familiarizng myself with the world of Iron Man and Tony Stark and Pepper Potts and everything.

Question: Did Jon (Favreau, director) suggest specific ones to read?

Paltrow: Basically, I asked Marvel to send me comics they thought would best...because there are a lot of books and obviously I couldn't read from 40 years worth of comics. They send me a couple of big binders, and a lot of them were very old comics that they had xeroxed. Some of were partial bits of comics that they thought were important and then some of the later ones, where I would read the whole thing.

It was very interesting. She's had a lot of different hair styles, colors, outfits. She made quite a transition over the years.

Question: Your character is reminscent of that vintage woman kind of woman. How did you interpret who you wanted to be inside that character?

Paltrow: When Jon kind of explained to me how he saw the relationship between Pepper and Tony, he kind of described it as sort of that 1940s screwball comedies and he wanted that kind of repartee. I didn't look to one specific film for inspiration, but, I think growing up watching all those films, it's kind of a world that I understood and pulled certain things from. And I really liked the texture of their relationship. And I love that time, too. It's such an innocent, yet sexy, time. So it was really fun to kind of recreate that.

Question: This is the second sci-fi adventure you've done. Do you have an affinity for the genre?

Paltrow: I think I have an affinity for working with people that I think will be inspiring. That could be any genre. If it was a horror film, but it was Martin Scorsese...I would do anything. Maybe porn I would skip. But other than that, I'm kind of open to anything.

Question: Pepper kind of keeps Tony's life together. Is there somebody who keeps your life together or are you on top of everything?

Paltrow: I try to be very organized. I like things to be organized. I'm a Libra, so if things go off balance, they go very off balance. I try and maintain balance, and for me that's like knowing there everything is, what everyone's doing and having all those doctors' numbers. I think that's just women, though, isn't it? We're the brain of the house, the multi-tasker.

Question: With the face-to-face discussions with Tony, there's some very witty things going back and forth. Were there any moments where you broke because it got funny or awkward?

Paltrow: We sort of stayed right in it. A lot of it was improvisation, so it was all part of the thing we were creating. He is hilarious, so luckily I was able to not ruin it.

Question: Jon played down his part (Happy Hogan), although he plays a pretty major role in your life in the comics. Was that something he did deliberately, not wanting to make a big deal about it?

Paltrow: I don't know. I don't know if that's something if they want to develop at a later point or another movie -- or not. Because she marries his character in the comics. You never know, we'll see. If he wants to make out with me, maybe he will.

Question: Has there been discussion of a 2, 3, 4?

Paltrow: When we signed on for 1, we signed on for 2 and 3. They like to scoop you up for the whole thing all at once. And I would be totally thrilled if there was another one, basically because my work experience was such fun and the people involved were so talented.

It's not sort of your run-of-the-mill super-hero movie in a way. The talent is so incredible, and everyone's so nice, too. Sometimes you work with people who are talented but they're tricky people. These guys were so nice to be around and I just had the best time.

So, if this doesn't bomb, then we'll do another one.

Question: What do you about the way the relationship is portrayed in Iron Man as opposed to traditional romantic films?

Paltrow: What I think is different about it is that it's complicated. They have so many dynamics. She's his assistant, so he is her boss. He's a very powerful, serious guy. So there's that dynamic.

But then, she's also his Jiminy Cricket in a way. She keeps trying to pull him back to center. And there's also a bit of mothering tenderness that she has for him where she worries about him. And then there's also sort of a sexual kick to it all.

That's what I loved about it. Because that was kind of real and fun and it wasn't such one note.

Question: You haven't done that many movies lately. What was it about this movie that made you want to come back?

Paltrow: It was a sort of a concurrence of a number of things. I had taken off a big chunk of time and I was home and I was very happy being home. Then when my son was six months old, I started to feel a bit of the urge to start work again. I thought, "No, I can't work until he's a year," because I had given my daughter all this time at home, so I wanted to do the same for him.

And then, just about that time when it was a year, Jon called me and he told me about the project, who was involved. He explained the characters and what it was going to be like and that the scenes were going to be good acting, fun scenes. He said, "It's going to be a good movie. It'll be an entertaining summer movie, but it will be good. I promise you. I make good movies and it's going to be good."

So it was really that. It all just happened at the right time. And I had also wanted to work with Robert, ever since I was little. And Jeff Bridges, if you're an American actor, he's like God. He's The Big Lebowski and all these amazing roles. So how do you say no to that group of people? It's impossible.