Gwyneth Paltrow has starred in a roster of hit films from Se7en to Iron Man. But a much lesser known project the veteran actor did was the feature Sky Captain And the World of Tomorrow.

One of her main incentives for starring in the underperforming feature was that Jude Law was in the film as well.

Jude Law was a big reason why Gwyneth Paltrow did ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’

Law and Paltrow’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a bit of a letdown financially. According to The Numbers, the film only made $49 million at the end of its run. But despite its box-office receipts, it received moderate reviews from critics, with the slight majority giving it a favorable rating.

Paltrow was attracted to the sci-fi project for several reasons. The veteran actor had just gotten off of a dark and emotionally taxing project called Sylvia.

“And then to finish that and go do Sky Captain it was fantastic because, even though I was still kind of in heavy grief about my Dad a lot of the time, I had to forget about it while I was at work, and I had to kind of dress up and have the blonde hair,” Paltrow once told IGN. “It helped me kind of cross over to the next phase where I realized I wasn’t going to die and I had to keep going.”

Sky Captain offered Paltrow the lighthearted experience she needed during a particularly rough period in her life. Her co-star Law proved to be another exciting incentive for Paltrow to do the film.

“I really love him as a person. I love working with him – it’s so easy. He’s a guy who’s a pleasure to be with, which is part of the reason I wanted to do the film. A big reason to do it was to be with him every day. I think we have a really good working relationship. We have an ease between us and good chemistry,” she once said according to Female First.

How many films have Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow starred in?

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow wasn’t the only movie that Law and Paltrow did together. Both actors were featured in the 2011 pandemic feature Contagion. Before that, however, the two actors could be seen in The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was a movie that Law held close to him, as he credited the critically acclaimed picture for being his first breakthrough role.

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“Life-changing. Just in terms of the scale of the attention, the caliber of the people I was suddenly rubbing shoulders with in the business,” Law once told Esquire (via Slash Film). “Anthony had won nine Oscars, Matt had just won an Oscar, Gwyneth was about to, Cate [Blanchett], Philip [Seymour Hoffman] … All of them had a lot of attention and I was in with them. And it intensified the spotlight on me.”

Many predicted that Law would be a big star after his performance in Mr. Ripley.

“He shows this interesting tension between grace and danger. He has extraordinary charisma and lust for life, but he also has cruelty in him,” the film’s director, Anthony Minghella, once said to SF Gate.

When Law eventually started getting larger film roles, Paltrow was proud to see her co-star flourish.

“For years Jude has gone against the ‘beautiful guy’ thing – he’s done character roles. It took a lot for him to step up and decide to be a leading man,” she said.

Gwyneth Paltrow had no idea where her sexual chemistry with Jude Law came from

Paltrow and Law were used to playing couples onscreen. Still, she asserted that the two never dated in real life. The Shakespeare in Love star theorized that their strictly platonic relationship was what helped fuel their onscreen chemistry.

“There’s never been any kind of flirty energy between us in real life, that probably exists on screen. Sometimes I think it’s like if people are involved with each other in real life, it’s diffused on screen. And if they’re not involved with each other in life sometimes it’s charged on screen. I don’t know why that is,” Paltrow said.