Steven Spielberg’s tale of a grown-up Peter Pan was one of Paltrow’s first projects.

Why Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t get to know Hook costar Robin Williams until Ben Affleck reconnected them

Steven Spielberg's tale of a grown-up Peter Pan was one of Paltrow's first projects.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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January 19, 2026 3:00 p.m. ET

Ben Affleck reconnected then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow and her 'Hook' costar Robin Williams. Credit:

Ke.Mazur/WireImage; Robin Marchant/Getty

Gwyneth Paltrow costarred with the late Robin Williams in the 1991 movie *Hook*, but it was her ex Ben Affleck who was responsible for her getting to know him.

"I only got to know him a bit when *Good Will Hunting* came out," Paltrow said on a recent edition of Amy Poehler's *Good Hang* podcast. "Because I was dating one of the people who wrote that movie and was in that movie, so I got to know him then."

Gwyneth Paltrow in 'Hook' in 1991.

TriStar Pictures

One of Paltrow's first projects was *Hook*, Steven Spielberg's tale about a grown-up Peter Pan that starred Williams as Peter, Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, Dustin Hoffman as the villainous Capt. Hook, and Bob Hoskins as Hook's sidekick Smee. Paltrow played the younger version of Wendy, while Maggie Smith played the elder version.

But Paltrow said she didn't work with Williams for her minor part.

A few years later, the future Oscar winner and Goop founder found herself dating Affleck — whom she was with for three years before breaking up for good in 1999 — when he and friend Matt Damon co-wrote their career-making movie about a janitor who turns out to be a genius.**

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"Oh, he’s so good," Paltrow said of Williams, who played a counselor to Damon's Will in the drama. "I love that movie. It's a perfect movie. I love it so much."**

Paltrow noted that she was especially a fan of the music by the late Elliott Smith and director Gus Van Sant.

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*Good Will Hunting *propelled the careers of Affleck and Damon onto a higher level of fame. It also made them Oscar winners when their script was deemed the best of the year. Williams himself won his only Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his work.

The *Mork & Mindy* actor went on to appear in movies including *One Hour Photo*, *Night at the Museum*, and *Happy Feet* before he died by suicide on Aug. 11, 2014.

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