Gwyneth Paltrow was ‘so starstruck’ around Meg Ryan she ‘couldn’t even be myself’

She comes from a showbiz family.

But even Gwyneth Paltrow was ‘so struck’ that she ‘couldn’t even be myself’ when she met her fellow Hollywood blonde Meg Ryan.

They became acquainted while filming the 1993 movie Flesh And Bone, as Gwyneth, 48, recalled on a recent Radio Andy interview.

Side by side: Even Gwyneth Paltrow was ‘so struck’ that she ‘couldn’t even be myself’ when she met her fellow Hollywood blonde Meg Ryan; pictured in 2018

When the movie was being filmed Gwyneth was a 20-year-old actress just starting out but Meg was already a huge movie star.

The shoot occurred in Texas in 1992, three years after Meg starred opposite Billy Crystal in the smash hit romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally….

Flesh And Bone got tepid reviews and Gwyneth confessed that it was it was ‘not a successful, you know, from a box office perspective, film at all.’

However she heaped praise on the ‘great, really talented’ writer and director Steve Kloves who as she pointed out ‘went on to’ write most of the Harry Potter films.

As seen in the film: 'I got this part of this really tough, young grifter in Texas who was stealing jewelry off of dead bodies at funerals and hustling people,' Gwyneth dished

As seen in the film: ‘I got this part of this really tough, young grifter in Texas who was stealing jewelry off of dead bodies at funerals and hustling people,’ Gwyneth dished

‘I got this part of this really tough, young grifter in Texas who was stealing jewelry off of dead bodies at funerals and hustling people,’ she dished.

‘When were my friends were all starting their sophomore years in college, I was living in Austin, Texas – and you know, that was our kind of base – and then I was traveling all over Texas for basically that whole quarter,’ she dished.

Gwyneth said of working with Meg: ‘I was so starstruck around her, like I could not – I felt like I couldn’t even be myself.’ 

The daughter of actress Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow added: ‘I was so nervous around her – and she had just had a baby. She was so nice.’

Star power: Meg was already a major celebrity when she filmed Flesh And Bone in which she is pictured alongside her then-husband Dennis Quaid

Star power: Meg was already a major celebrity when she filmed Flesh And Bone in which she is pictured alongside her then-husband Dennis Quaid

After the film was made ‘I didn’t work at all,’ but things turned around when Gwyneth ‘got a lot of critical acclaim for my role and that’s when things started moving.’

Flesh And Bone also starred Meg’s then husband Dennis Quaid, whom she divorced in 2001 and who has married a woman called Laura Savoie who is 39 years his junior.

Her interviewer pointed out how strange it was for her to be awed by celebrities considering that she came from a showbiz background.

She's a hit: After the film was made 'I didn't work at all,' but things turned around when Gwyneth 'got a lot of critical acclaim for my role and that's when things started moving'

She’s a hit: After the film was made ‘I didn’t work at all,’ but things turned around when Gwyneth ‘got a lot of critical acclaim for my role and that’s when things started moving’

Gwyneth explained that ‘when you’re a kid and like Michael Douglas is at dinner or something, you’re a kid. Like you don’t know. That’s just your parents’ friend. And then you grow into the idea that this is a big movie star.’

The Goop icon went on: ‘But when it’s your own thing, like it’s – you know, I had this reverence for Meg Ryan and, or like a Julia Roberts, you know, when I saw Pretty Woman when I was a senior in high school.’

She said that ‘in those women, I felt like illumination within myself. Like: “Oh my God, this is what I wanna be! I – they’re so brilliant and charming and funny, and they’re lighting up the world and that’s what I wanna do!” And it – so it felt so personal to me, you know? So that when I first met Meg I was so, you know, I couldn’t believe it.’

Early work: Gwyneth heaped praise on the 'great, really talented' writer and director Steve Kloves who as she pointed out 'went onto' write most of the Harry Potter films

Early work: Gwyneth heaped praise on the ‘great, really talented’ writer and director Steve Kloves who as she pointed out ‘went onto’ write most of the Harry Potter films

Six years after Flesh And Blood, Gwyneth appeared in Shakespeare In Love in the role that won her the Oscar for best actress.

In a recent interview Glenn Close gossiped that Gwyneth’s triumph at the Academy Awards ‘did not make sense’ to her.

While on Popcorn With Peter Travers Glenn, 73, dished that she thought Fernanda Montenegro should have won for the Brazilian film Central Station.