While a guest on Netflix’s new celebrity cooking show, The Chef Show, Gwyneth Paltrow let it slip that she didn’t know she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now, we all forget things from time to time. However, it’s hard to imagine forgetting being in a movie. But, here we are! It happened. Although it sounds like maybe she didn’t forget but...just didn’t realize?
The show, which is co-hosted by fellow Marvel franchise alum Jon Favreau, featured Paltrow in an episode about a recipe for a pepperpot. The popular Guyanese stew was the nickname inspiration for Paltrow’s character, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, because Favreau, who directed several of those Iron Man movies she co-stars in, is a foodie like that.
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Part way into preparing the dish, Paltrow and Favreau are catching up with co-host and professional chef, Roy Choi. Paltrow asks what the show is for. Favreau informs her that the idea had been in the making since the two of them were filming Spider-Man: Homecoming. The citrus hadn’t even been zested when Paltrow responds with confusion, “Spider-Man?!”
Put down the orange Gwyneth! The banter comes to a halt as Favreau tries to explain to Paltrow that some of the scenes they filmed together weren’t just for Avengers. “No you were in Spider-Man also,” responds Favreau. You can see Paltrow frantically searching his face to see if he’s joking. Favreau summarizes the scene in question. “Remember Spider-Man in the end and Tom Holland’s there, and you’re going to walk out and do a press conference?” he said. All of a sudden it all comes back to Paltrow. Surely, filming a scene with Tom Holland would be unforgettable. Just us? Okay. Anyway, it appears that Paltrow didn’t know which film that scene was intended for and assumed it was all for Avengers. To be fair, she only appears at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming so she could have easily filmed that while working on another Marvel movie.
Marvel Studios are known for purposely keeping as many people in the dark as possible. It helps them keep spoilers from getting out. Brie Larson recently revealed that she wasn’t told some of her scenes were for Avengers: Endgame until she was on set. “I flew to Atlanta to start shooting, had no idea what I was doing. I arrived and they gave me a piece of paper,” Larson explained on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “It was a full page of dialogue and action, but all of it was redacted except for my one line.”
With the extensive secrecy Marvel shrouds its films in, even keeping actors in the dark about major plot points or where scenes fit in the franchise, it becomes easy to understand how Paltrow could have not known which movie the scene was meant for — or just not remember, if the shoot was tacked on to an Avengers or Iron Man filming.
When you’re as big of an actor as Gwyneth Paltrow, you probably don’t bother to check your IMDB page regularly.