A few weeks ago, Gwyneth Paltrow said she was "a bit old" to keep playing Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But she's not too old to get her Beyonce on!
The actress and Goop mogul wished her friend, trainer and business partner, fitness guru Tracy Anderson, a happy 44th birthday on March 3 with a post showing the two of them wearing workout gear and doing a choreographed routine to Beyonce's "Formation" in a beautiful exercise studio.
"Happy birthday to my favorite dance partner of all time," Gwyneth wrote. "Thanks for somehow keeping me motivated after all these years (nearly 13!) @tracyandersonmethod #tamily 💖."
Gwyneth has been a devoted fan of Tracy's workout plan for more than a decade and helped put the trainer on the map. Two years ago at the opening of Tracy's flagship fitness studio in New York City, she recalled the first time she met Gwyneth.
"I went to go and train her because she had a girl that was in her life, and she kept seeing her changing and changing and changing," Tracy told VanityFair.com. "[Gwyneth] was having a hard time losing the baby weight after her second baby [son Moses] — she was like [to her friend], 'What are you doing? What are you doing?' So she heard about me. So I went and trained her once, and Gwyneth was like, 'That was the hardest thing I've ever done… I have to start filming a movie in a short amount of time; I need to get the baby weight off.'"
So Gwyneth asked Tracy to train her full-time and approached her in such a way that the fitness expert couldn't say no. "The first thing [Gwyneth] said to me was, 'I realize you have a son and you don't live where I live. I promise you that I will make sure that he's fine and taken care of and make sure you can still be a mom. Will you please come and do this?'" Tracy was shocked at how "gracious and lovely and genuine and transparent and vulnerable and respectful" the actress was with her, she explained. "I already had met with celebs that were 100 percent not aware like that — entitled, acting like I could be bought in some way…"
Gwyneth and Beyonce have also been friends for years. They connected while they were with their husbands — Gwyneth's now-ex, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and JAY-Z — at a benefit in New York years earlier. "We just kind of hooked up and became really close," Gwyneth told Ellen DeGeneres in 2010, as reported by E! News. "And they're incredible people. They're very, very kind, generous, good, good people." Last year, Gwyneth admitted to ABC News that the most famous person in her phone was still Beyonce.