Entertainment

Watch Gwyneth Paltrow Realize That Yep, She Really Was In 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'

by Julia Emmanuele
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Amy Sussman/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

If you have a hard time keeping track of which actors have appeared in which movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you're not alone — even the stars themselves can't always remember. During an episode of Netflix's The Chef Show, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that she forgot she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and her stunned reaction to hearing about her cameo for the first time is absolutely hysterical.

According to Entertainment Tonight, the Oscar winner was chatting with her good friend and Iron Man costar, Jon Favreau, about the origins of his new cooking series when she discovered that she had starred in Spider-Man. "We actually started [filming] when we were doing Spider-Man, Favreau said, leaving Paltrow confused. "Yeah, we were in Spider-Man together. Remember we were in Spider-Man?"

"We weren't in Spider-Man," Paltrow replies. "No. I was in Avengers." Despite chef Roy Choi's attempts to jog Paltrow's memory, the actor doesn't remember anything until Favreau describes the specific scene she filmed as Pepper Potts. "Remember, at the end, when Tom Holland's there and you're gonna walk out and do a press conference? That was Spider-Man."

"Oh my god!" Paltrow responds, staring at Favreau with complete shock and disbelief. The Oscar winner's stunned reaction instantly won fans over online, which means it's only a matter of time before "That was Spider-Man?" becomes Twitter's new favorite reaction gif.

Even more surprisingly, Paltrow isn't the first Avengers star to admit that she had no idea she was filming something for the MCU until after the movie aired. In April, Brie Larson revealed that she filmed Avengers: Endgame before she was officially told that she would be playing Captain Marvel. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Larson confessed that Marvel keeps things so tightly under wraps that she "had no idea" what she was filming when she arrived to the movie's Atlanta set. "They gave me a piece of paper that was a full page of dialogue and action, but all of it was redacted except for my one line," she recalled.

"I even went to hair and makeup and I was like, 'Who else is here?' And they said, 'We don't know.' They're not allowed to tell me either!" she continued. "I wasn't until I went on set that I was like, 'Oh, crap! I'm in a Marvel movie right now. And then I couldn't talk about it."

Marvel's secrecy didn't just extend to Endgame; Larson also confessed to Fallon that she didn't know she filmed the Captain Marvel credits scene where Carol meets the Avengers for the first time until she saw the movie at the premiere. "I didn't know what that was that we were shooting," she explained. "I was by myself on a green screen." The other Avengers were represented by tape marks around the room, so it wasn't until she saw the movie for the first time that Larson learned who, exactly, she was talking to in that moment.

Tom Holland has also been open about the fact that he is given very little information about the scenes he's filming in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In January 2018, the actor revealed at the ACE Comic Con that he filmed an entire fight scene in Avengers: Infinity War without knowing who, exactly, he was fighting. "I remember for Avengers, the Russo Brothers are like 'So you're just standing here, and you're fighting this guy and just do whatever' and I'm like, 'Okay, who am I fighting?'" Holland recalled.

"And they were like 'Well, we can't tell you because it's a secret,'" he continued. "... So, I'm just standing there punching the air for 15 minutes and when I took the job I didn't think that's what I'd be doing. I've gotten used to it now." Holland also admitted on Live! With Jimmy Kimmel that he was told that the Endgame cast was filming a wedding on the day they shot Tony Stark's funeral — although that could have more to do with the fact that Holland is known to spill spoilers about the Marvel films in interviews.

When it comes to keeping secrets, there's truly no franchise in Hollywood that can keep details under wraps better than the MCU. After all, it doesn't get any more intense than keeping secrets from the cast of the films themselves.

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