MICHELLE Pfeiffer, 58, didn’t really leave Hollywood. She just became picky with her projects to the point where she became “unhirable.”
“I feel really at home on the movie set. I’m a more balanced person, honestly, when I’m working. But I was pretty careful about where I shot, how long I was away, whether or not it worked out with the kids’ schedule. And I got so picky that I was unhirable,” Pfeiffer told director Darren Aronofsky, who interviewed her for Interview magazine.
“And then ...I don’t know. Time just went on. And now, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I’m more open now, my frame of mind, because I really want to work now, because I can.”
She revealed that she’s currently empty nesting. Her children with show creator and producer David E. Kelley, Claudia Rose, 24, and John Henry, 23, are all grown up.
“And these last few years I’ve had some really interesting opportunities,” Pfeiffer told Jennifer Lawrence’s rumored boyfriend.
In fact, Pfeiffer has three projects currently in post-production, one of which is being directed by Aronofsky, where she co-stars with Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Domhnall Gleeson and Ed Harris.
Pfeiffer will soon be seen in the HBO television drama The Wizard of Lies co-starring Robert De Niro, who was also her co-star in her last screen project, the movie The Family.
Another upcoming project is Murder on the Orient Express, where Pfeiffer co-stars with Kenneth Branagh, who is also directing the adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel. The film boasts of an all-star cast including Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad and Daisy Ridley.
“Murder on the Orient Express was deceptively challenging. It’s really well written. I love the character and she’s really funny. The dialogue is really clever. But it has this period, 1930s vibe to it. And when you do a period movie, you don’t want to play the period,” Pfeiffer said of her character Mrs. Hubbard.
Pfeiffer, known in Hollywood for her beauty, grew up in Orange County where she was crowned Miss Orange County in 1978. She then participated in the succeeding Miss California pageant. While she didn’t win the contest, she got herself an agent, which signaled the start of her Hollywood career.
She started with small television roles and supporting roles in unsuccessful films. Because of her good looks, Pfeiffer said most of the parts offered to her were that of a bimbo. She knew then she had to learn how to act.
It was 1983’s Scarface, opposite Al Pacino, that finally catapulted Pfeiffer to commercial and critical success.
Since then, Pfeiffer has received three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress in Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and for Best Actress in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and The Love Field (1992).
Pfeiffer told Aronofsky that growing up, she didn’t really have a chance to go anywhere because her mother couldn’t drive and her father just didn’t drive. But that’s how she discovered her love for films.
“I didn’t really go anywhere. But what I did do is I would stay up really late watching old movies on television. I can’t even tell you what they were because I was so young. But I remember watching what they were doing and saying to myself, ‘I can do that,’” Pfeiffer remembered.
“So, then in high school, I took theater to avoid taking an English course because I was terrible in English. And all of the kids in the theater department were thought of as being the strange kids on campus. But I felt right at home, which meant, I suppose, that I was one of those strange kids on campus. But nobody told me. And I loved it. I ditched every other class but that one,” she added.