Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow on Tomatoes, Giraffes, and Making Marty Supreme

The tone is set before the introductions. Asked for the most niche table tennis fact she picked up while making the film, Paltrow says she learned nothing about table tennis. She only watched Chalamet play, which she calls "very impressive." Chalamet says he loves "an honest Gwyneth."

0:32

Icebreakers: Tomato DNA, Tron, and Car Songs

The recently learned interesting fact is that tomatoes have more DNA than human beings. The speaker says they came across it while planting heirloom tomatoes and reading up on them. The other says they never would have guessed it.

The last movie one of them watched was Tron: Legacy, seen on a flight back from Abu Dhabi. They list Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, and Olivia Wilde, and praise the "great Daft Punk score." The other says they had never heard of it.

Paltrow's first album bought with her own money was the Go-Go's debut. She couldn't remember its title but knew it had "Our Lips Are Sealed" on it. When the question turns to the first album Chalamet ever got, he offers Michael Jackson's Bad. They can't work out whether that came earlier or later, and they skip ahead.

For car singing, Chalamet's current pick is "Lady" by D'Angelo. Paltrow usually puts on Bonnie Raitt, whom she describes as an "amazing, kind of Americana singer" with "the most beautiful voice," and she promises to text him a song. Chalamet hadn't heard of Raitt. He asks whether she knows Weyes Blood, whom he places somewhat in the Lana Del Rey world. He says Weyes Blood sang some of the background vocals for Marty Supreme. They agree to check out each other's picks.

On accidentally causing chaos, Paltrow first suggests the question suits Chalamet better. She brings up his appearance at a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest, then concedes that probably wasn't an accident. Her own answer is a roast chicken dinner she "totally biffed" while busy with wardrobe fittings for the press tour. The chicken should go in at room temperature, she explains, but she put it in cold. It wasn't undercooked, she says, just rubbery with a strange texture. "That was chaos to me."

2:51

Getting Personal: Speaking Up on Set

Asked about their funniest moment together, Chalamet names the times Paltrow got a little impatient on set. He found her "voice of authority" refreshing. Even as one of the film's leads, he says, he never felt he could speak up. He paraphrases her frustration as something like "What the hell are we doing? What is taking so long?"

He then gives some context. When a scene is intense, the actors want to keep going. On this film in particular, he says, there was a lot of waiting around. The cinematographer, Darius Khondji, was "a legend," and many people needed space. As a result, the actors' time on camera sometimes got "lost in the cracks." Paltrow always spoke up, and he thought that was great. He jokes that it made him laugh because he'd think she had places to be, like a helicopter to catch to Wildflower Farms. She goes along with the joke.

Off set, Chalamet's comfort food is what he calls "Southern comfort." He pretends he's from Baton Rouge and has mac and cheese, fried chicken, biscuits, collard greens, and okra. He says that fills him up for two days because he's "a thin guy." Asked whether he watches what he eats while working, he says he does, more and more with age. In his early-to-mid twenties he could eat anything. Now even his cheat nights are modest, which he calls "pathetic."

For a little-known fact, one of them says they have a very raunchy sense of humor that few people see or hear. The other says they could have guessed that.

Asked what they disagree on, they say they've never had an open disagreement and describe their relationship as cordial and respectful. They briefly imagine screaming at each other on set. One says it would be horrible and traumatizing. The other says it would sell tickets.

4:55

The First Day of Shooting: A Play Within the Film

In the Marty Supreme round, Paltrow says her first real shooting day, after an earlier costume test, was the entire play sequence, and Chalamet was there. She calls that "a blessing." She was nervous, but she began her career in theater, so being on a stage steadied her.

She says she was happy to be there, not regretful about taking the role. Her nerves quickly gave way to fun. The scene was staged like blocking a play, with a lot of freedom. When she asked where she should stand, she was told essentially to go wherever she liked. She found that freedom "exhilarating, but also a little scary." She also recalls laughing at a moment when Chalamet came out during the scene, and she says she broke a few times. She praises the co-star transcribed as "Fred."

Chalamet asks whether she went back to her trailer, looked in the mirror, and said, "I'm back, baby." She says she didn't. He says he would have.

6:05

Giraffes and Table Tennis Balls

Asked about unexpected preparation for the role, Chalamet says he watched many videos of giraffes to study their elongated posture. Paltrow asks whether that's true. He insists it is and says close viewers will notice moments mid-scene where he elongates himself. Asked why a giraffe, he explains that the original logo on ITTF world championship balls was a giraffe and that the giraffes were only removed recently. Someone then asks whether they're "being punked," and the conversation moves on without settling it.

6:48

Costumes and Favorite "Fits"

On choosing wardrobe, Paltrow says she's involved "the regular amount." She loves clothes and costumes and sees them as at least part of the battle of inhabiting a character. Both praise costume designer Miyako. They describe the process as looking through lots of pictures, trying on "a million" vintage suits, and talking it through. They call her "extraordinarily talented."

When asked about Marty's favorite "fit," Paltrow doesn't recognize the slang. Chalamet teases her by pretending it's an acronym that requires an "initiation" to learn. His favorite outfit is a fresh mint short-sleeve tee layered over a sweater. It appears in the lunch sequence with Kevin O'Leary set in Paris, which he says was one of his first shooting days. He adds that director Josh Safdie had him wear real glasses, so while walking around outside in New York he "really couldn't see a thing." At least, they agree, the outfit was good.

8:27

Looking Back at Old Photos

Next they're shown photos. Chalamet quickly places one of himself, which he says is embarrassing to know so fast. It's from a pre-SAG Awards party when he was 16 or 17. He points out tomato sauce on the left side of his face, since he hadn't expected any photos.

Paltrow recognizes a very '90s premiere look of hers and says she still owns the piece. Chalamet calls the photo "a Pinterest favorite." He asks whether she feels she represents the coolest generation in Hollywood. She says she doesn't generally think that way. He argues his generation is "slacking" and says the '90s had a great vibe. Asked whether it's now hard for anything not to feel referential, she says "yes, extremely," because she has "seen everything before."

She explains that there were no stylists then and she was her own. For red carpets, designers sent look books and she picked pieces herself. She calls the process low-fi and fun, and more a way of expressing yourself. She describes the attitude as "very Gen X": "we're too cool to try that hard."

They also look at a picture of the real player named in the transcript as Marty Weisman ("what a cool guy") and one of Kevin O'Leary with two watches. Chalamet explains that O'Leary simply wears two watches. They were his personal watches, and O'Leary told him their value would go up if they made it into the movie. Paltrow notes that O'Leary is a watch collector.

10:17

Lightning Round

Both keep read receipts off. One remarks that turning them off says something psychologically interesting, though not about any single type of person. Then they're reminded it's supposed to be a lightning round.

Script or improv: both.
Now or Later (the candy): later.
Text or call: call, which draws an "old-fashioned."
Sweet or savory: savory.
Never or forever: forever.
New York or LA: New York. The New York answer comes from Paltrow, who says she was born elsewhere but mostly grew up in New York. Chalamet says he associates her with her Architectural Digest house tour and calls her "Queen of California."
Yes or no: yes, "like the Jim Carrey film," followed by the remark that "he's a go-getter."

They end by thanking Vogue.