Gwyneth Paltrow nearly missed out on her Oscar win due to Brad Pitt split

Who doesn’t recall Gwyneth Paltrow’s memorable Oscar win at the 1999 Oscars? That speech. That dress! Well, it turns out there’s one person who can’t recall what was said up there — and it’s Gwyneth herself. In fact, she even forgot to take home the envelope after winning Best Actress.

However, it turns out she could have missed out on her Academy Award win due to her split with Brad Pitt in 1997.

In an interview with Variety, the 46-year-old recalled how it was a role that almost never came to be.

“The movie had many iterations,” Paltrow declared. “Julia Roberts was going to do it for a long time, and then that version fell apart. It ended up in Miramax, and I was the first person they offered it to.”

The actress, in her mid 20s at the time, initially wasn’t interested because of personal reasons.

“I was in the middle of a terrible breakup,” she said, alluding to her high-profile split with Brad, “and the idea of going to England and being far from home just seemed … I didn’t even read it. I was just like, ‘I can’t read anything right now. I’m having a really hard time.'”

Julia initially signed on to the project over at Universal Pictures but dropped out when her choice for Shakespeare, Daniel Day-Lewis, declined to jump on board.

The rights for the film were sold to Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax. After Gwyneth said no, the role of Viola De Lesseps was offered to Kate Winslet, who passed too.

Gwyneth eventually read the script months later and “just couldn’t put it down”.

“It was perfect,” she recalled.

The script may have been perfect, but the circumstances were less than ideal. Agreeing to star in Shakespeare in Love meant working with Weinstein again. The disgraced producer has been accused of sexual harassment, misconduct and/or assault by nearly 100 women, including Gwyneth.

“I had one really uncomfortable, weird experience; then he was never inappropriate with me again in that way,” the actress explained, referring to the 1996 incident she said occurred when they were collaborating on Emma.

She claimed Weinstein summoned her to his hotel room, put his hands on her and asked her for a massage.

Brad, who was dating Paltrow at the time, threatened to kill Weinstein over the alleged harassment.

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