Young Gwyneth Paltrow chastising her director over his perfectionism aged 24, her £5,000 haircut and the health guru’s horror over a chip butty! The behind the scenes secrets of Sliding Doors as the film turns 25

It is a genre-defining romantic comedy that tells the story of a woman, whose whole life unbeknowingly hinges on whether she catches one particular train journey.

And as Sliding Doors celebrates its 25th anniversary since its release, we take a look at the behind the scenes secrets from when the film was shot in the late nineties.

After shooting to stardom following her breakthrough role in Peter Pan spin-off Hook, Gwyneth Paltrow was lined up as the leading lady in the cult classic.

The actress, who was 24 at the time, starred as Helen opposite John Hannah as her love interest James, who comes into her life after he picks her earrings up off the floor at in a lift at a London Underground tube station.

In one reality, Helen catches the train and sits beside James, before heading home to discover her boyfriend Gerry in bed with his American ex-girlfriend, Lydia.

Iconic: Sliding Doors celebrates its 25th anniversary since its release, we take a look at the behind the scenes secrets from when the film was shot in the late nineties

Helen packs her bags and moves in with her friend Anna, before striking up a romance with James, who she had met on the tube.

In an alternate reality, Helen misses the same train and is then mugged when she gets off the next one, leaving her in hospital and ultimately missing catching Gerry and Lydia in the act.

The film then follows the two narratives as viewers watch how Helen’s life pans out after the ‘sliding doors’ moment alters her future.

Speaking of his experience of working with Gwyneth at a recent Sliding Doors 25th Anniversary screening, director Peter Howitt suggested the star has been headstrong from a young age.

He admitted that some of the filming – it was his first time directing – had been fraught and at one point, Gwyneth, then aged just 24, had told him, ‘Just let it go, Pete.’

The event was hosted by Jennie Becker, founder and host of the Sliding Doors podcast which discusses life-changing moments. 

She has recently released a new mini-series on the podcast called, SD25, which features interviews with the cast and director of the film.

During a segment with John Hannah, the actor described the hilarious behind the scens moment where Gwyneth, who is now a health and lifestyle guru, discovered a British ‘chip butty’ [a bread roll with chio while shooting in London.

John said: ‘Before we started shooting, you know how the crew all go and do reccys, they check out various locations and stuff.

Starring role: After shooting to stardom following her breakthrough role in Peter Pan spin-off Hook, Gwyneth Paltrow was lined up as the leading lady in the cult classic

‘So we had a little mini bus one day and we did a reccy of the locations, that doesn’t sound much but I don’t think I’ve ever been invited onto a reccy on any other job that I’ve done. 

‘We went round and looked at places and said that’s where we’ll do that and this, then we said let’s go and get some lunch. 

‘We got some fish and chips from some famous chippy on Marlebone Road, I remember I had a bread roll with my fish and chips and I made a chip butty.

‘Gwyneth was just like “what? what are you doing? that’s carbs on carbs!” I was like, “it’s a roll of chips, it’s brilliant.”

Offering his opinion on co-staring with Gwyneth, he said: ‘It was terrific. I thought she was great. She was fun, she was present, she was great, her accent was great.

‘She played two characters with an accent.’

He went on to give another nugget of information about what went on behind the scenes, revealing that they previously considered another male lead before him.

Chance meeting: The actress, who was 24 at the time, starred as Helen opposite John Hannah as her love interest James, who comes into her life after he picks her earrings up off the floor at in a lift at a London Underground tube station

John said they wanted someone taller, but eventually fixed the logistical issue. 

He said: ‘She [Gwyneth] was taller than me, but they can always put lifts in my shoes. I got Tom Cruise lifts, I felt like I’d made it you know. 

‘At first they were going to get a taller actor, but then they got me and just made me taller. But it was great, it was a great feeling and Pete was lovely. It was a good experience.’

Elsewhere during episode two of the podcast series, Peter revealed how they helped the audience work out which timeline they were watching. 

Peter said: ‘We had so many conversations in preproduction about how we would make the audience know where they are. How will we make it not confusing?

‘We didn’t want it to be confusing, what’s the point in that? You want it to be watchable and fun, so we did decide one story is on the left and the other is on the right.’

What will it be? The film then follows the two narratives as viewers watch how Helen’s life pans out after the ‘sliding doors’ moment alters her future

‘I don’t need you to know that, I just hope that maybe somewhere subconsciously, the fact we were moving from story G to J [Gerry and James]. We’d move from left to right.

‘For example, when they are both drunk at the end of the first night and Anna is bringing Helen into the bedroom, she brings her in from the left to right.

‘And Gerry brings her home and puts her on the bed and he brings her in from right to left. We had no idea if that was going to help but subconsciously we hoped it would place the story on another side of your brain.

‘We didn’t want the auidence to say “oh I know what they are doing”, look ones on the left and ones on the right. It wasn’t meant to be that specific. 

‘But we wanted to help the audience, because we didn’t want them to be lost, because if they are lost they’ll just stop watching.’

Another key – and likely the most noticable – difference between each narrative is Gwyneth’s hairstyle.

The film’s producer, Phillipa Braithwaiste, revealed the eye-watering cost of the haircut because Gwyneth insisted on flying out her own hairdresser. 

She said: ‘We decided the hairstyle quite early on because when we went to pitch to all these film companies, most people really liked it to be fair, but couldn’t quite understand how we were going to do it.

‘I think early on, Peter and I decided well we will just cut her hair and in the other have it long, her real hair was the short hair and probably the most expensive haircut in history because Gwyneth quite rightly – she had lovely hair – wanted her hairdresser to come over from New York, so we had to fly him over by concord. 

‘It ended up costing £5,000 that hair cut. Then we had a wig made, the long hair was the wig.’ 

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