"It's Not A Great Wig": Gwyneth Paltrow Reflects On IRON MAN And Shares Surprise At Being In 7 MCU Movies

"It's Not A Great Wig": Gwyneth Paltrow Reflects On IRON MAN And Shares Surprise At Being In 7 MCU Movies

Iron Man star Gwyneth Paltrow has reflected on her MCU role as Pepper Potts, admitting she didn't realise Marvel Studios had put her in seven of its movies. You can find her comments in full here...

By JoshWilding - Mar 20, 2025 06:03 AM EST
Filed Under: Iron Man

Gwyneth Paltrow has had an impressive and varied acting career, but she'll always be Pepper Potts to comic book fans. The actor made her MCU debut in 2008's Iron Man and has since appeared in an additional six Marvel Studios movies. 

Those are Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Paltrow, however, doesn't remember too many of them. 

"That can't be right. I can’t have been in seven. Is that true?" she wondered in the video below before suggesting at least some of her confusion stems from Marvel Studios' secretive nature. "They keep it all very top secret. They think they’re the CIA over there, like it’s national secrets."

"That’s why I didn’t know I was in 'Spider-Man.' They never said. There were no signs that said Spider-Man. The script didn’t even say Spider-Man. It’s all a secret." 

The interviewer asked Paltrow about Captain America: Brave New World (a pretty strong indication this conversation took place at least a couple of months ago). After admitting she didn't even know what that was, the actor trailed off after hinting something else might be in the works. 

That's likely Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars, two movies set to put a Doctor Doom Variant with Tony Stark's face front and centre. 

Paltrow was also shown a clip from Iron Man and remarked, "It’s not a great wig, guys. Let’s face it. We had so much fun on this movie. It felt like an independent movie."

"Jon [Favreau], Robert [Downey Jr.] and I improvised all day every day. There was a lot of rewriting. We’d go to Jon’s trailer in the morning and the three of us would improv," she continued. "It’s not typical to do that on a big budget action movie. Jon was so brilliant and he wanted it to feel like it had a reality to it and that it was character-based."

"There was no pressure on us," Paltrow added. "Nobody thought it would turn into anything. The studio felt they had taken this big risk with Robert as a leading man and it probably won’t even be a hit. And then it came out and it changed the course of that studio."

We last saw Pepper suiting up as Rescue to help turn the tide against Thanos; later, she was shown mourning her husband, Iron Man, after he made the ultimate sacrifice to save the universe. That left Petter alone to raise their daughter, Morgan. 

You can watch the full interview with Paltrow in the player below. 

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IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 3/20/2025, 6:56 AM
I don't fault her for not remembering being in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was a cameo, and Tom Holland likely was not even present on set when they filmed her scene.
tylerzero
tylerzero - 3/20/2025, 7:27 AM
I distinctly remember her scene in the first Avengers movie in which she was barefoot in booty shorts.

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While she was sans booty, it was still

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IAmAHoot
IAmAHoot - 3/20/2025, 11:58 AM
@tylerzero -

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TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 3/20/2025, 7:28 AM
Her obliviousness aside , I think she’s always been good as Pepper and had chemistry with RDJ’s Tony so I would be down to see her & Morgan again…

Would be nice to see how both of them are and what have they been up to since Tony is no longer around.
AC1
AC1 - 3/20/2025, 8:17 AM
@TheVisionary25 - It'd definitely be interesting to see what's happened to them post-Endgame. Obviously losing Tony would've been a massive thing for them, but then I think the last we really heard about anything to do with their lives was that Stark Industries was under federal investigation due to the events of Spider-Man FFH and NWH so that could've also lead to another huge change in their lives too.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 3/20/2025, 8:45 AM
@AC1 - yep

I feel like something like Armor Wars would have been perfect for that but who knows when or if we’ll get it.
BraveNewClunge
BraveNewClunge - 3/20/2025, 7:59 AM
Lol I love how honest she is.😬

Most actors pretend like they care about the source material but a lot of them are just collecting cheques for films they feel are easy pay days. 😅
Blergh
Blergh - 3/20/2025, 9:30 AM
@BraveNewClunge - I think she’s just mentally „above“ it all at this point. As the resident Hollywood-meangirl she already had a reputation for being nasty and for stealing roles. And now with her cosmetic brand she has zero need for new roles anymore anyways. She can just say whatever she likes and Marvel will pay her to return. Something she will always do if the money is right.

I don’t even think she still acts outside of Marvel stuff. If I was retired, brought back regardless of my interest and paid handsomely I’d also say whatever I wanted.
SATW42
SATW42 - 3/20/2025, 8:40 AM
People need to realize that actors do not digest this material the same way we do and give her a break with the spider-man cameo and how many marvel movies shes been in stuff.

Adam Scott hosts a podcast with Scott Aukerman who really likes to needle Adam (and really anybody) about anything and everything. He played a game with him once called where Adam had to tell him which project he was in when Scott named the characters name. Adam flat out didn't know most of them.

But no one attacks the star of Severance over that...
Blergh
Blergh - 3/20/2025, 9:31 AM
@SATW42 - it’s a job, you don’t have to care about the material as long as you do a good job. The only ones that should be „fans“ of the source are the writers or directors.
fanboy03191
fanboy03191 - 3/20/2025, 12:07 PM
@Blergh - Just look at Harrison Ford. He probably doesn’t know but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. It’s a job to him.
QuietStorm
QuietStorm - 3/20/2025, 8:43 AM
Why did I read "It's not a great wig" in this voice smh lol
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JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 3/20/2025, 1:15 PM
maybe she should have been in Falcon and Winter Soldier. I think she could've spared the $50K Falcon needed to fix up Jenny and get back to shrimpin those Louisiana waters.

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