Smoking pot, casting couches and sex at 73 – Gwyneth’s mum Blythe Danner is a total blast

GWYNETH PALTROW may grab the headlines but her mum, legendary actress Blythe Danner, is a class act as she headlines a new film I'll See You In My Dreams and has me in stitches in a warm, witty and pretty bawdy interview.

Blythe Danner is marking her 50th year in the industry in high style with her first ever leading film role.

When I open our chat by telling her I loved the fact that she's the lead in a film about sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and karaoke, she's delighted.

'You're the first person to put it that way, I like that," she smiles. "I've never been in a film where I'm in every scene and my agent said, 'You're nuts if you don't do it.'"

Even so, it's not every day a Hollywood actress smokes pot and has sex with Sam Elliott at 73.

"You can never roll over," Danner tells me. "Too many people my age tend to curl up and say 'I've done it all.' It's tragic."

Petite with glowing skin and that inimitable husky voice, she is a delight to interview and puts so many guarded and PR-managed younger stars to shame.

I was never on casting couch, nobody ever asked me
Blythe Danner
It's worth remembering that Danner has had a remarkable career on stage since winning Tony Awards in 1968 and 1970 for The Miser and Butterflies Are Free. On television she made a huge impact as Will's mum in Will & Grace and won consecutive Emmy's in 2005 and 2006 for Huff.

After five decades she is still going strong with two films, I'll Be Seeing You and Tumbledown in cinemas. She also starred as Ruth Madoff opposite Richard Dreyfuss as the infamous disgraced financier Bernie Madoff in a major mini-series on US television earlier this month.

In her new film, she plays a widow rediscovering a passion for life with the help of her three best friends, a handsome young pool man and a dashing older suitor. Oh yes, and a little marijuana.

I gently set Blythe up for some cheekier questions by asking how much she drew upon her own life for her new film.

"It's inevitable, it informs everything you do," she says.

"Good, because I was going to ask about your sex life," I reply.

There's always a worry that a star will not take a question well, or freeze up, but Blythe simply bursts out laughing.  

"If only I had one," she smiles, gleefully catching me off balance in return. "Not that I'm not open to it but no-one as magical as my husband has come along."

The actress was married to Bruce Paltrow (father of Gwyneth and Jake) from 1969 until his death in 2002 after complications while fighting throat cancer. It was regarded as one of Hollywood's happiest, and least headline-hogging, marriages.

"When you had the best, forget the rest," she smiles.

In the film, however, Blythe is playfully wooed and ends up naked between the sheets with the eternally handsome Sam Elliot.

"We were in bed," she remembers, "and I threw my leg over him and Sam looked at me like, 'What the hell are you doing?'

"I said, 'Well, I was so comfortable, I forgot you weren't my husband.'"

I suggest that this is a wonderful reverse on the usual situation where film stars are worried that their mums or grandparents will see them in racy or shocking scenes on screen. This time, it's Blythe who might have to explain to her kids what she's been up to.

"They would love it," she promises me. " They'd say, 'Live it up, Mum.'"

I also wonder who brought their 'expertise' to the hilarious pot-smoking scene she shares with June Squibb, Rhea Perlman and Mary Kay Place.

"We all grew up in the sixties," she smiles. "It always made me anti-social, so I didn't become a pot-head. To my regret."

It may not be the 1960s now, but Hollywood is having a resurgence of activism against the established old order. I ask her what she thinks about the growing campaigns against sexism and racism in the film industry.

"It seems to me to be improving as far as women's roles go," she says.

"As for sexism, I was never on a casting couch, I guess I was never attractive. Nobody ever propositioned me," she adds with a naughty smile.

Danner speaks passionately when when she talks about the new initiatives in Hollywood to include more minorities at every stage of the film-making process. She recalls with pride how Bruce was at the forefront of training black students to be directors.

"My husband won the first Diversity Award from the Directors' Guild for his show St Elsewhere. He set the pace in our family for that," she says.

I ask her if there can possibly be any unfulfilled dreams or challenges she'd still like to tackle.

"I feel very fortunate that I've done as much as I have," she says. "This last year was the 50th Anniversary of my entering the business and I thought, 'What a nice way to celebrate (with this film).'"

She also smiles remembering the thrill of performing a gorgeous karaoke version of Cry Me A River for the film.

"I wanted to be a jazz singer more than an actor, initially," she reveals. "That was always a dream of mine, to sing a song (on film)."

73 years old, still fulfilling new dreams and utterly charming to boot – Blythe Danner is a real class act.