AIRED ON CNBC EUROPE ON NOVEMBER 2 AT 9PM GMT ON CNBC
In honest interview with CNBC's Tania Bryer, Paltrow talks Hollywood, the Boardroom and her family.
Click here to view the trailer.
CNBC's "Trailblazers" with Tania Bryer will tonight meet Oscar winning legend Gwyneth Paltrow in Los Angeles. In tonight's programme Gwyneth talks about her move from Oscar winner to CEO; the relationship with her father and how she's stayed grounded and also comments on the Hollywood Harassment scandal:
On the Hollywood Harassment scandal…
I think it's incredible what's happening. I think this is long overdue. There's been this incredible confluence of events that's really led to women coming together – and feeling safe in numbers to come forward and talk about their experiences across all different industries. It's my hope that this is the beginning of something important and different and that my daughter, when she goes into the workplace, won't experience what you, presumably you, and I and millions of other women have had to endure. So it feels important and I'm happy that I have played a small part in it.
On the relationship with her dad…
"My father was really the rudder to the ship of my life. He was very pragmatic, very funny. Scrappy, really hardworking guy. He did not grow up with money and so he was very insistent on kind of instilling us with values and work ethic and having us understand that like where we were, and that it necessarily, that it wasn't by accident…There was a period of time where he was like 'you're going off course here. You're like believing your own legend.' I was probably 27 or 28 years old. And I remember him sitting me down and saying 'you're kind of an asshole.' And I was like, 'oh, oh my god.' But it was so great b/c he was so clear and so straight and so loving and what he was pointing out was like 'this isn't you. Don't think you're something great. You know who you are and what you are is great. Don't get carried away with all this noise and fame and attention.' You know, it's pretty intense."
On becoming a CEO…
"I think that I had a lot of trepidation about planting this little flag – and saying I want to do this but i don't know if this could be a business or how I could execute the business but it was scary for me to do it. Immediately there was a lot of 'why is she doing this?' I remember once I also had a movie coming out around the same time and there was a huge article in the NY Times about why am I doing this? And I thought, this seems extreme, like I'm just writing banana nut muffin recipes! But I think almost immediately there was a lot of interest in what I was doing and why I was doing it both in a positive and negative way. And I was such a neophyte. I had no experience."
On struggling as an entrepreneur…
"It's funny, when I look back at those days in London and I had this very secret ambition that one day I would build something that we're on our way to building right now. And me alone trying to figure out Wordpress and Mailchimp.. and sending out a banana nut recipe.. I was like – man, what was I doing? But it's sort of the foundation of the brand, and it was always very from the heart and earnest. I started in this place where I had no idea, I had no concept of how to actually create a business, and what it would look like and how we would eventually monetize it. So it was a very long and slow process."
On why people don't want her to succeed…
"I think the celebrity equally helps and hurts at the same time. When you're a celebrity, people have a pretty clear preconceived notion of who you are and who you should be in the culture. I just felt like I had a lot of wind in my face and I wasn't looked at just like an entrepreneur who was in her 30's and starting something. There was a lot of baggage that came with it. But then of course, the celebrity piece is an important lever that we can pull in the business when we need it. And I had sort of wondered, because I over my career represented various brands and I thought – what would it be like to leverage your own brand – for your own brand? Instead of a third-party brand. And how would that work?"
For the full transcript of the interview, contact Lee.Thompson@CNBC.com.
All creds should go to Tania Bryer and CNBC.