Gwyneth Paltrow was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the other night to promote goop’s new face oil. They begin by talking about New Year’s Eve celebrations and pandemic lockdown and how she and her family are coping. She says that it’s been especially hard on her son, Moses, who is 14 years old and is really missing social interaction. Celebrity or not, this prolonged distance from our friends and family is tough on everyone – and as G says, for those who are in developmental phases, connection is critical. It’s so f-cking sh-tty that there are millions of people around the world who aren’t building friendships, learning how to be friends, learning how to nurture and navigate relationships in person, which was already an issue pre-pandemic with social media and devices. (Yes, I watched The Social Dilemma.)
From there the conversation moves to what G was like in high school and she talks about throwing parties and drinking when her parents were out of town, you know, John Hughes-type sh-t but what I kept thinking about was the light, and how that would have driven a director crazy. Gwyneth has positioned herself near a window and, yes, natural light is always good but natural light also changes – clouds, time of day, etc. So the shadows keep moving across her face and in the background and I’m telling you, because I go through this every day when I’m shooting at home and my shot position is near several windows, the way the light is different minute to minute and different every day is an issue we are futzing with every day. Lighting is such an important part of film and television and it’s hard to control outside of studio settings (sometimes it’s hard in studio too) and even though there are more and more people buying their own lighting kits to self-shoot these days, the fact is, there are experts in our business who do it the best, and whose work is greatly missed this year. Please appreciate the lighting techs out there (on The Social we work with “Karen”, hi Karen!), their talent is often underappreciated.
As for the final part of the interview, this is when Gwyneth and Jimmy get into her face oil and “detoxing” which I’m not giving any more energy than it deserves except to talk about face oil application because she’s all like, rub a few drops into your hands and then pat into your face which never makes sense to me when I see it because isn’t all the product then going into your hands and not your face? I drop the product from the dropper directly onto my forehead and one drop on each cheek and then smooth it around with the tips of my fingers. Is that wrong?!
Also attached - Gwyneth and Brad Falchuk out for a walk in LA a few days ago.
