Gwyneth Paltrow returning to acting

Gwyneth Paltrow, nominated for best actress in a drama for her work in 'Proof,' arrives for the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards in this Monday, Jan. 16, 2006 file photo, in Beverly Hills, Calif.(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, FILE)

Gwyneth Paltrow, on hiatus from acting for more than two years, is ready to get back to work.

"For a long time, I thought, `I've done it. I've done what I wanted to do. I'm not interested. I just want to be home with my family,'" the 33-year-old actress tells Harper's Bazaar in its September issue, on newsstands Tuesday.

"I had no spark for work, but I feel the feeling back. And I'm excited about the prospect. I want to do something kind of fun. I don't want to do anything depressing or mad. I want to do a really great, funny, weird character."

Paltrow, who won a best actress Oscar for 1998's "Shakespeare in Love," stars in "Running With Scissors," based on Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir. The film opens Oct. 11.

She has a 2-year-old daughter, Apple, and 4-month-old son, Moses, with husband Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay.

For Paltrow, parenting is "a total joy" - and a major time commitment.

"I do not know how single mothers have more than one child with no help," she tells the magazine. "It requires so much of my life, and I don't have to change sheets and clean toilets, you know."

Paltrow doesn't read celebrity tabloids, and says the family's home in London helps them avoid the paparazzi. "We have a gate and a car. It's easier to control it a bit more."

"I just hope the whole paparazzi thing continues in the way it's been going, which is with less interest in people like me and more interest in people like Nicole Richie - who I think is an excellent dresser, by the way," Paltrow says.

"She's supercute. It's really fair that the press attention goes to those who want it and court it. I think that's great."