Ryan Reynolds Discusses How He Convinced Gwyneth Paltrow to Star in the Astronomer Ad
Ryan Reynolds reportedly played a significant part in convincing Gwyneth Paltrow to appear in that ad for Astronomer following the Coldplay controversy.
Reynolds’ company, Maximum Effort, was behind the creation of the promotional video, which launched just days after Astronomer’s married CEO Andy Byron was spotted with a colleague on the Kiss Cam at a Coldplay concert in July.
“Just 14 hours later, I’m paying for that,” Reynolds commented about Paltrow’s PSA during the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Council Summit on Tuesday, November 18.
Regarding the playful ad featuring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s ex-wife, Reynolds added: “[I didn’t] have their blessing yet, but I [knew] that no one at that time… knew what Astronomer does. So I thought, ‘What if Gwyneth explained it?’”
In the video shared on Astronomer’s official X account with the caption, “Thank you for your interest in Astronomer,” Paltrow, 53, served as the company’s “Temporary Spokesperson.” She was there to clarify the company’s mission while humorously addressing the unexpected incident involving Byron, 51, and Astronomer’s Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot.
“I’ve been engaged temporarily to represent the 300-plus employees at Astronomer,” Paltrow explained, noting the surge of inquiries the company had received recently.
“OMG! What the actual f?,” flashed on screen, but Paltrow avoided the question, instead discussing “airflow, running data ML and AI pipelines at scale.”
When another question appeared, “How is your social media team holding [up] …” she again shifted focus to the company’s “game-changing results.”
“It turns out, Astronomer’s an incredible company,” Reynolds emphasized on Tuesday. “They truly do some amazing work.”
“This was a genuine chance for them to redirect the conversation from something quite toxic to a topic that mattered, in a fun, engaging, and emotional way,” Reynolds added.
During Coldplay’s performance at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on July 16, the band utilized a Kiss Cam to feature couples in the audience on the jumbotron—Byron, however, didn’t seem pleased when he was caught with Cabot, 53, instead of his wife, Megan Kerrigan Byron, who was absent.
“Whoa, look at these two. All right, come on. You’re OK,” Martin, 48, remarked. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy. I’m not quite sure what to do.”
He added, “Holy s***. I hope we didn’t just cause something bad.”
Both Byron and Cabot resigned from their positions at Astronomer following the incident, and Cabot, who was separated from her husband Andrew at the time, later filed for divorce.
Byron has not publicly addressed the situation but was recently seen with his wife on multiple occasions. Both were spotted wearing their wedding rings in photos obtained by the Daily Mail.
For their part, Paltrow and Martin were married from 2003 to 2014 and share two children, Apple, 21, and Moses, 19. They redefined celebrity splits when they announced their separation via a Goop post titled “Conscious Uncoupling.”
