Five icons, five stories, one rule: never let Hollywood define you

Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Emily Blunt, Sydney Sweeney and Elle Fanning - who are considered to be top actors - opened up about the challenges of Hollywood at The Envelope’s 2025 Oscar Actresses Roundtable.

The icons shared how they faced tough roles, bad reviews in the industry and the pressure to fit into career boxes while starring in most talked-about films of the year’s.

Jennifer Lopez

Music icon and actress Lopez talked about the huge responsibility of playing Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic.

She explained that the story of two prisoners imagining themselves in a musical during Argentina’s dictatorship is still important today.

However, the musical drama shows how people with complete different backgrounds and beliefs can find humanity in each other.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow reflected on her role in Marty Supreme, where she played a faded Hollywood star named Kay Stone.

The 53-year-old actress shared that the character was inspired by Grace Kelly and went through tragedy that shaped her life.

Paltrow also admitted returning to film after years away made her nervous, but she relied on her theater experience to feel confident again.

Sydney Sweeney

The 28-year-old actress shared how she transformed physically and emotionally to play boxer Christy Martin, which unfortunately got flopped.

Sweeney trained hard, gained weight and spent most of the time with the boxer Martin to bring her story to life, revealing that the fight scenes on set were complete real, and she got all the bruises and injuries to make the film more real.

Tessa Thompson

Thompson spoke about The Smashing Machine, saying her role focused on struggle and personal challenges rather than just fighting. 

She described the difficulty of playing Hedda, a character as complex as Hamlet.

Elle Fanning

The 27-year-old actress, who has teamed up with Dakota Fanning for new project, talked about Sentimental Value and how working on a small art film after a big action movie helped her grow as an actress.

Furthermore, all five appeared to be agreeing on one thing which is ignoring negative reviews, Hollywood labels and staying true to themselves.