While Gwyneth Paltrow garnered traction for her works on Seven and Emma, it was the controversial Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love that pushed her to prominence and earned her an Academy win for Best Actress. Interestingly, despite enjoying an illustrious run since then, Paltrow has had her fair share of mishaps, including some high-profile roles that she turned down.
This involves Paul Thomas Anderson’s revered Boogie Nights, starring Mark Wahlberg, a film that the Iron Man star was initially adamant about doing.
Gwyneth Paltrow had to let go of Boogie Nights due her grandfather
Although Mark Wahlberg doesn’t look back on Boogie Nights with a particular fondness due to his faith, it doesn’t take away from the film’s brilliance, which marked a turning point in both PTA and Wahlberg’s career. Another highlight of the film was Twin Peaks star Heather Graham, who played Rollergirl, a part originally intended for Gwyneth Paltrow.
Despite being fixated on the gig, Paltrow eventually had to step out due to her conservative grandfather, given the film’s graphic nature.
She recalled (via Howard Stern):
I really wanted to do it. I was very, very close to [my grandfather] and he was pretty conservative, and I just thought, ‘I can’t be totally naked and giving a BJ onscreen. I’ll kill my grandfather.’ So yeah, I didn’t do it. And by the way, Heather Graham was perfect and so it works out perfectly
On the bright side, she didn’t lose her sleep over it as Heather Graham was flawless in the role. As for Paltrow, it only took her another year to make it big in Hollywood.
Heather Graham went against her family to pursue Boogie Nights
Like the Iron Man star, Graham’s family wasn’t too keen on s-xually explicit roles. Even though the Twin Peak star initially turned down such gigs, she eventually went against her family’s wishes to boost her career with Boogie Nights, whose script was too good to resist (via Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum).
I had turned down a few things where there was sexual content, and then I saw other people, having really good careers. I just said, ‘Screw it. I wanna do this. The [Boogie Nights] script is amazing.’
Despite initially finding the s-xually explicit scenes hard, once she stepped into Rollergirl’s mindset, things started to click in for the actress. As for her overall experience, Graham still looks back fondly at the film.
Boogie Nights is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
