Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she had never heard of the Iron Man comics before signing up to the first film as she joke slapped Robert Downey Jr during a press conference.
The actress, 40, admitted that she didn’t know anything about the Marvel superhero when she was first approached to play his love interest Pepper Potts.
She told a room full of journalists at the London press conference today: ‘You know I had never even heard of Iron Man until Jon Favreau [director of the 2008 film] called me.
‘I wasn’t reading comics at all. When the first Iron Man came about I’d taken a few years off and I was at home having kids and stuff, there was no script…
‘Robert and Jon talked me into doing it and it’s been a great journey playing Pepper.’
She added: ‘I never would have thought of myself as being in a comic book superhero movie.’
The actress used the press conference as an opportunity to get tough with co-star Downey Jr after he made a joke about her being a snob.
Gwyneth whacked the actor in the face after she admitted she was surprised after watching the film.
She jokingly slapped him after he cheekily chipped in: ‘Shocked – such a snob!’
Paltrow then explained: ‘I was surprised because normally I find it hard to follow the plots of these on paper… but the movie played so well and it was really fun to watch.’
Iron Man 3 is released in UK cinemas on April 25.
