- Gwyneth Paltrow reflected on how the public turned on her after her Oscar win on "Call Her Daddy."
- She won the Academy Award for best actress for her role in 1998's "Shakespeare In Love" at 26.
Gwyneth Paltrow has reflected on taking home the Academy Award for best actress for her role in the period drama "Shakespeare in Love" in 1999 when she was just 26 years old — and how the public turned on her shortly after.
On the latest episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, the Goop founder said she experienced an "identity crisis" following the big night because "people were so mean" about her crying on stage.
"Once I won the Oscar, it put me into a bit of an identity crisis, because if you win the biggest prize, like, what are you supposed to do? And where are you supposed to go?" she told host Alex Cooper.
Paltrow said the experience was "disorienting" and "really unhealthy," adding: "I was like, 'This is crazy. I don't know what to do. I don't know which way is up.' It was a lot."
She continued: "Not that I would give it back or anything. It was an amazing experience, but it kind of called a lot of things into question for me."
After beating her fellow nominees, including Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett, Paltrow took to the stage and delivered a tearful acceptance speech, something she continues to be mocked for over two decades later.
"I felt a real pivot on that night because I felt like up until that moment everybody was kind of rooting for me in a way," Paltrow said. "And then when I won, it was like too much, and I could feel a real turn."
The "Iron Man" actor explained that part of the reason why her emotions were so high was that her father Bruce Paltrow — who, along with her mother, Blythe Danner, had accompanied her to the ceremony — had been recently diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2002.
"He was really debilitated," Paltrow said. "It was just this totally overwhelming moment."
She added that she had to endure the vitriol of the British press when she found herself working in England in the weeks following.
"I remember the British press being so horrible to me because I cried," she said. "And they didn't necessarily know that my father was dying of cancer."
"And, you know, I was 26," she continued. "I cried and people were so mean about it and I just thought, 'Wow, there's this big energy shift that's happening. I think I'm going to have to learn to be less openhearted and much more protective of myself and filter people out better.'"
Elsewhere in the interview, the actor also opened up about her famous exes, including Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck, describing the latter — whom she was dating at the time of her Oscars win — as "technically excellent" in bed.