Michelle Pfeiffer: What went wrong?

I think had her time as one of the top actors in the country and then walked away when it was over. She probably wasn't interested in taking shittier and shittier roles just to continue working. I don't think of her as someone who threw away her career. She was much bigger than Robbie is now and at least as big as Charlize. Robbie will probably retire in the next five years.

Age. It happens to all of us. It'll happen to you too unless it has already.

It might just be me, but Michelle did nothing for me in the ‘80s & ‘90s, I thought she was an okay actress & slightly above average (barely) in looks. But then, fast forward to around 2010-now, I think she’s stunningly gorgeous, breathtakingly beautiful.

Why do people have to remain perpetually in the spotlight to be considered successful? Go out on top! Think of how much better off she’d be if Madge followed that advise.

I want her to portray me in my life story, "Life Rules".

Just googled her. She still looks pretty great.

Got married to someone rich, powerful, and in the same business. Had kids and stayed married. I think it was a tradeoff. I don’t think you can have it all.

You prefer the multiple plastic surgery Michelle, R3? Ok. But she was beautiful back in the day, whether you think so or not. I think she was overhyped and underestimated. She is not one averse to discussing her own beauty. The public never seemed to warm to her much. One Fine Day is a very charming and high class RomCom. She's never bad in anything. White Oleander was also overlooked.

She's wonderful in What Lies Beneath. A gorgeous performance - virtuosa. Too bad the film is considered a formula. Because Pfeiffer elevates it to classical music.

She was also recently fantastic as Ruth Madoff. I think she is perpetually undervalued. She's subtle. And beautiful. That doesn't win awards.

Mongo no have answer. Mongo sad.

She did seem to lapse into standard commercial type roles. No daring choices. No big transformational roles. Never really tried to stretch via Broadway.

Even now hasn't really delved into streaming or TV series much

BUT

It's mostly age. Look at Holly Hunter, Geena Davis etc.

The roles stop coming.

M got all the older women roles.

G went back to the stage and was one of the first to venture into TV (I remember people were shocked when she joined The Shield cast.)

Jess was kind of done (except for stage roles) until American Horror Story relaunched her (but she hasn't continued the run really.)

She was so pretty in "Scarface". It's hard to sustain a career with good roles for decade after decade. She's done OK.

She's soon to be seen as Betty Ford. With Viola as Michelle Obama and I forget the third first lady. Michelle should have fun with Betty Ford. She likes to let loose. Make no mistake about her ambition. She doesn't say yes to much but she works very hard at her portrayals.

Michelle does still look good. But she should stop claiming to have had no cosmetic work done. She appears "different."

Maybe she was smart and just wanted to enjoy being rich without having to work.

They keep heralding a comeback, but it never seems to happen. Maybe she did just become sick of it. Did she do much stage acting?

Nothing "went wrong." The films OP mentions as being so daring were all mainstream, big studio films. Her role in Married to the Mob was a bit of a departure and a risk, but the others? Not at all. In fact, Frankie and Johnny was heavily criticized at the time of release for Michelle's casting, since Kathy Bates played her role on Broadway and it was clear Hollywood was doing its usual glamming up.

So the career arc you describe didn't really happen, as far as I can see.

Stage-wise, she did "Twelfth Night" in 1989 for Shakespeare in the Park when she had no theater experience, and got bad reviews, She said she'd never do Shakespeare on stage again, but did do the movie "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I don't think she has additional theater credits anywhere.

r15 That's fair, but I think she was showing an impressive range during that period that she suddenly stopped aiming for. And the directors of those late 90s films were certainly no Scorsese, Demme, Burton (when he was good), etc. I guess she was producing during this period so she wanted to call the shots and just didn't have great taste/judgment in her choices.

Maybe it's possible that among the arguably big stars, a small percentage of them make a conscious effort to wind down their involvement in the star making machinery, and transition back into our world. I imagine the pressure, the constant frenzy and mania that comes with fame, can become intrusive. If an actor or musician is smart with their earnings, they can afford to work for x amount of time, then retire. It's rare a star takes time away and returns to the same level of fame that they left.

Over the last five years she's given three of her best performances in Where Is Kyra?, The Wizard of Lies, and French Exit. And she's given at least another dozen great performances. Sure, there have been some misses and dry periods as with any other actress who's been at it for over forty years, but her career has been far from a disappointment. Plus she's settling into a nice resurgence in her 60s, which is when a lot of actresses fall off the map entirely.

I suggested in a thread a while back that I wouldn't mind seeing her as Norma Desmond in the Sunset Blvd musical film. Sadly, Glenn probably has first dibs on playing Norma in the film adaptation.

R19 is correct. I especially loved French Exit. I think if not for Covid, and if enough people had seen it, (meaning industry people), she not only would have gotten an Oscar nomination, she might have won.

I implore OP and any other fans on this thread to see it.

Pfeiffer's performance in French Exit was certainly better than Gaga in House Of Gucci.

She's a fairly limited actor in my view, she's often brittle and icy, she's great at delivering stinging barbs whilst maintaining vulnerability.

I always got the impression that it was her decision to take a step back and be around her children as much as possible.

God knows she could have worked more - surely she'd have been cast as Renata Klein in her husband's little tv series if she'd been interested.

[quote]She's soon to be seen as Betty Ford. With Viola as Michelle Obama and I forget the third first lady.

Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt

I think she had other priorities (like family). She wasn't was an OK actress but nothing special. Few would have cared if she never returned to the screen.

I always compare her to Nicole Kidman, very similar to me in terms of acting.

Except is short.

After she got married and had kids, she had millions banked and married someone even more financially successful. She lost interest in pursuing roles that required her to leave LA. that REALLY narrows it down.

A long time ago I happened to see her audition for a stage role. She was tiny in stature, gorgeous, and very thin, however her acting was lacklustre. I thought: what is she doing?! Why does she seem to disinterested, unless that was what she was going for.

[quote]She lost interest in pursuing roles that required her to leave LA.

That is the reason why she dropped out of EVITA. Initially, the film was going to be made in 1989 starring Meryl Streep in the title role with Oliver Stone directing, but political unrest in Argentina and Streep suddenly pulling out put a halt to things. Five years later, Stone was hired once again as director with Pfeiffer starring this time, when the whole production was to take place entirely in LA and the surrounding areas. But once Stone got the go-ahead to shoot in Argentina, Michelle dropped out. Eventually, Stone did, too, due to high production costs.

She should sue her plastic surgeon.

She raised a family. Anyone on this thread that says she is an ok actress is crazy. She was amazing in Batman Returns,We all know the stores of what she turned down. Maybe she wasn't all that ambitious. And not that stunning either according to some on here? Well ok. Not everyone can be Meryl Streep either. Actors are different and can offer different things. Ok.

R23 Are they doing the Vagina Monologues?

She was at her hottest in grease 2. She got too thin after and looks gaunt . Cocaine thin . Audiences never warmed up to her . Like most too thin women, she’s cold and icy .

[quote] Robbie will probably retire in the next five years.

I very much doubt that, she seems extremely driven. And judging by her lack of fear trying different kinds of roles she's possibly not deadly scared of aging.

Pfeiffer was for quite some time one of Hollywood's biggest stars. It was surprising how she suddenly seemed to abandon her career but then again it takes a certain kind of person to stay on top in Hollywood your whole life, and maybe her leaving the business for her family says something very positive about her character.

There were two options to hire Pfeiffer after she started a family: Shoot near where she lives or shoot for no longer than two weeks at a time. She did herself out of work. But she's always good value. I haven't even seen the Hairpsray remake in its entirety but I made sure to check Michelle's scenes. I wasn't impressed with what I saw of that recent French set movie.

She's a sliding doors version of Lisa Hartman (Black).

I don't think she abandoned her career. Her looks started fading and the roles dried up. It wasn't a choice.

I agree with R8–she was both overvalued and underestimated. She is classically beautiful but more unconventional than she looks. I like her films a lot but she’s yet to get the really meaty, star part her talent deserves.

Margot Robbie won’t retire—she’s becoming a major producer and spending time and effort fostering young talent, I think she wants to be a big player and not “just” an actress.

Nonsense. Suzie Diamond... Selina Kyle AND Catwoman... She was transcendent.

[quote] She's wonderful in What Lies Beneath. A gorgeous performance - virtuosa

I really don’t agree with this though I really liked the movie formulaic or not. Dangerous Liasons and Batman Returns? Definitely.

She married a rich successful producer and had kids. Actors a just people and acting is a job and not all want the crap that comes with being a superstar. She chose her family.

I remember people really coming down hard on her about how old she looked in What Lies Beneath, when she really didn't look old at all, but she was in her early 40s and back then people generally believed a beautiful actress's career was over at that point. She may have decided that it wasn't worth the struggle to stay in the game.

R33 of course “too thin” women are cold and icy. They’re starving themselves! Why do you think so many successful Hollywood actresses are such bitches?

I think Mongo nailed it tbh

Could Michelle play Martha? She's not cutesy like Flockhart.

She has admitted she doesn’t have the best instincts when it comes to picking roles (see: everything she’s turned down) but all things considered she’s done well. She still works when she wants and she’ll have no regrets about being there when her kids were growing up. I’d personally like to see her get one more Oscar nod.

She’s very, very likeable which is rare for someone so pretty and sensual but there are limits. The Age of Innocence should have worked, it didn’t.

Don't leave out her performance in The Age of Innocence when considering her career.

I think she was the most beautiful in the 90's, when she had aged a little bit. She is stunning in Frankie and Johnny and Wolf.

Nothing went wrong OP, she just decided to focus on her personal life and family...some people aren't too wrapped up in the whole stardom thing.

[quote]I remember people really coming down hard on her about how old she looked in What Lies Beneath, when she really didn't look old at all, but she was in her early 40s and back then people generally believed a beautiful actress's career was over at that point. She may have decided that it wasn't worth the struggle to stay in the game.

People were shocked they didn't hire a 20 something to play 58 year old Harrison's wife.

She deserved to win the Oscar for her terrific performance in The Fabulous Baker Boys instead of Jessica Tandy for that ridiculous movie Driving Miss Daisy, one of the stupidest acting Oscars to ever be awarded.

She had that great run from Fabulous Baker Boys to Age of Innocence, but then her stardom faded fast. She’s not that great of an actress, with a tiny voice and wan appearance. She has tried for years for a comeback but none of her attempts are successful.

She turned down Silence Of the Lambs . Not smart

I don't think she can play all kinds of roles. She is kind of cold and icy, which worked for Scarface.

[quote] Robbie will probably retire in the next five years.

I don't even like Robbie, she's just never been more than serviceable, but I don't think she's going anywhere. I mentioned her because she's ambitious as hell. Look at all the directors she's been working with. She's racking them up. Even if they are small, thankless roles (like OUATIH), it still matters.

Pfeiffer felt like she was a year or 2 away from winning an Oscar (back then, I think they liked to make them wait a little as opposed to now, where they just throw awards/nominations at you the second you're "hot") but then just started doing films that were only a step above Lifetime dramas with nobody directors.

r53 Yes, big mistake though I can't really imagine her in the role now.

Her husband has written roles for Meryl but not for her. Ouch

She can and has played a lot more than just cold and icy. She's just been stereotyped as that sort of Hitchcock blonde type.

[quote]Robbie will probably retire in the next five years.

???

Agreed R57...she was great in Frankie and Johnny, among others.

I've always liked her and her performances. And she continues to be stunning. Aging beautifully...with some help.

She’s the only part of Scarface I like.

[quote] Nothing went wrong OP, she just decided to focus on her personal life and family...some people aren't too wrapped up in the whole stardom thing.

Exactly. I don’t get thread topics like this. “Why did so-and-so’s career go straight down the shitter?” What the fuck? What is YOUR career like these days? OP’s title is just a slightly more polite version of the “down the shitter” thread titles, but is no less ridiculous.

It’s not like Michelle is Lara Flynn Boyle or something. ( now THERE’s a tragic case).

Even if things did really go off the rails, who the hell has time to sit around contemplating these things?

No one is saying she has had a bad career. Just that she never could bounce back after kids in her 40’s. Happens to most Pretty Women, like former star Julia Roberts.

She’s quite engaging on Instagram with her fans. She seems really at peace .

Most working actresses today would probably give their left nut to have such an “unfulfilled career” like Michelle Pfeiffer’s.

Julia is and has never been attractive

She makes perfume. It's interesting, but scent is a trigger at work.

She married David E Kelly. She's doesn't need to beg for jobs for money, so can sit back and wait for interesting things to come to her.

I do find it odd that she's never turned up in any of his shows, even for a guest starring Emmy bait run.

I don't think anything went wrong she's had a very successful career. Pfeiffer has long been favored by critics but her performances leave me absolutely cold. She never embarrasses herself but I never feel moved by her and usually find myself wondering what a different actress would have done with the role.

R68, the pics of David look so unhappy and even cold behind the eyes. I hope he’s good to her. He is a masterpiece of an episodic writer

R69, she’s closed off .

Isn't she supposed to have a bigger role as Janet van Dyne in the next Ant-Man movie?

She decided breeding was more important.

She’s warmed up quite a bit

[quote] "Well, one thing that's great about having kids, especially given my career, is that it forces you out of your narcissism," she said. "I mean, I'm in a career where my product is me. So it was nice to have something, someone, come along and take the focus off me. I really needed to give myself some distractions from myself."

Michelle has a great husband, one child she adopted and then she married David and gave birth all in the next year. She seems like a content woman. Except for the obvious eating disorder.

She also is one of the few female movie stars who was a consistent draw at the box office during her prime years, although she seldom headlined a film.

Shitty low-brow, low-information, artless opening troll by OP.

Like Demi Moore and Meg Ryan she was bulldozed by the Julia Roberts MAC truck. But she's a much better actress than all of them.

STARDUST is about the only fantasy film I like. She’s charming in it.

This hit, that ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold, This one, for them hood girls, Them good girls, straight masterpieces

She had sufficient.

She acted steadily for more than two decades from age 20 on, then slowed down.

Which really, if one is financially solvent and not in need of constant applause, is a perfectly sensible thing to do.

While we're contemplating aging actresses, I wish Joan Allen worked more. She's another one that seemed to be in a lot of high profile films in the late 80s and 90s, then seemed to disappear.

Joan Allen is kind of like Jobeth Williams - perfectly fine, but not star material.

Not one of those big 90’s actresses is big now: Demi, Michelle, Jodie, Meg … all kind of done. Ant Man is a scrape on the bottom of the barrel.

[quote]R83 Ant Man is a scrape on the bottom of the barrel.

Well, for which she’s undoubtedly being paid millions for a few days work.

Jealous much?

Nope

Sure.

[quote] Not one of those big 90’s actresses is big now: Demi, Michelle, Jodie, Meg … all kind of done.

I would say that Sandra Bullock is still a big name. Julia has a following, but she decided to step away from the business and raise her kids.

Michelle has been VERY open that she stepped back on her career to focus on her kids. Her husband was making plenty of money and she picked occasional work that let her be a mother. Once the kids were grown about 5 years ago, she prioritized work again.

“Before the kids were born, my work was my life—and it was in a good way,” she says. “When they were small, I could just pack them up and bring them with me. But then it became, ‘Okay, how long will this separate the family unit?’ When they got into school it became even more complicated, because I didn’t want to just take them out of their routine, so I would shoot in the summer and tried to not be away for more than two or three weeks at a time. It became challenging for people to hire me, because it was too complicated. It was easier to get somebody else to do the part.”

Before she knew it, Pfeiffer says, her unintentional hiatus had stretched to five years. “I realized my daughter was looking at colleges, and I saw the writing on the wall,” she says. “I thought, This is going to hit me really hard. It’s time for me to get back into moviemaking.”

She was in David E Kelley's Picket Fences for a quick cameo. A masseur known for happy endings was murdered. She was one of his clients brought in for questioning.

She was always a little too ethereal/airy fairy to me. I liked the stronger actresses the rose to stardom after her, like annette bening and frances mcdormand.

[quote] I don't think she can play all kinds of roles

Agree. I think she does a certain range very, very well.

Some people can do a broad range, and some are very good at a specific type of role. Nic Kidman and Reese Witherspoon seem to be snatching up all her possible ice queen roles.

I think she could have success on a TV show in a supporting role. She is too boring to lead a film now.

She was in a David E Kelly film - but it was a bomb. To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.

I love Michelle Pfeiffer she is surrounded by a light and energy I find very welcoming. I try not to know too much about her because I want to believe she is as beautiful within as without.

R87 I'm pretty sure Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock are still considered very big stars. Almost everyone i know young and old loves them.

I've never seen her as icy or brittle. Haunted, street tough, yes. As a young woman, she seemed to have already lived a life. She brought intrigue.

I will never understand how young girls like Pretty Woman so much.

Because they like to shop. Duh

It’s fun to imagine yourself as a prostitute.

Pretty Woman is sold like fairytale. Instead of slaving for a wicked stepmother, she's slobbing knobs. Her prince takes her away from all that.

Michelle does have a strong energy . She’s very smart too

Taking fraus through a tour of Rodeo Drive is catnip too

I for one am glad to see her back at work.

Fuck them kids.

[quote]R100 Pretty Woman is sold like fairytale… Her prince takes her away from all that.

If only he’d taken her away from the screen.

Loved her in Dangerous Liasions. I found her performance stay worthy. I thought about her when she wasn't onscreen

I always thought Michelle was a really good actress. But the Julia Roberts train squashed her which is annoying because she made more interesting movies. The Julia Roberts brand really only belonged to her. Only Sandra got a bite.

Pretty Woman also stars a horse (Julia) and girls like that.

All young women love Pretty Woman. Its creepy . I always assumed its the dream of shopping on Rodeo Drive. Otherwise its creepy. But in all honesty anyone that comes to LA wants to go to Rodeo Drive and that hotel. EVERYONE that visits asks.

If I recall correctly the original ending of Pretty woman was quite dark. I can't remember the details but the studio had it rewritten into something more mainstream friendly.

I think her friend was going to die and Richard Gere broke it off.

So America's Sweetheart and the biggest actress of that generation blew up to stratosphere playing a hooker? Ok.

Julia Roberts didn't squash Michelle Pfeiffer. People forget that Roberts' 1990s was quite fraught. Pfeiffer has never been a joke, like Roberts in "Mary Reilly" was.

Why is DL so obsessed with Julia Roberts? She broke records in the 90s, was the biggest name in Hollywood, but she's been coasting on her past success for 20 years.

Eat the fish, bitch! That role would have suited Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer and Lange in August would have been bette than Roberts and Streep.

I saw Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume on display at the Met.

The woman must not have ate for a year. It was so tiny.

*better

Surely the catsuit stretches?

they are only 10 years apart in age though r115. Not believable as mother and daughter.

I actually liked Roberts in Osage County. She does play bitchy anger well. (probably has a lot of practice with it in real life see Aloe Vera.)

Sally Field should've played Meryl's role in Osage Country.

I remember when my brother and his girlfriend took me to see Flatliners at the dollar theater. He was 18 but I was only 10. He also took me out for my birthday and we went to an ital an restaurant then to the same mall where we went to Mervyns and he bought me a sweater. Nit the first one I picked out because he said it would make me look gay. Then we saw Jacobs Ladder and that's weird he took me to so many movies involving death and crossing over. I also missed when I liked and respected him. I thought it was do cool he had a green chevette hatchback and an awesome job making pies and then later little Caesars and he'd often take me places and buy me stuff. I think mainly to impress his girlfriend's or my parents paid him to.

Michelle was in Miss California and came in 6th. I wonder where those top 5 women are and what they look like!

They weren't more beautiful it's that Michelles is so innate and natural it defies quantification.

That’s sweet. Are you still in touch?

^^ reply to r122

Possibly too that they are subconsciously bitter that something so wholly wonderful exists that they vote her down.

R124. Sadly no. He's a selfish horrid man not to mention rapist. We haven't spoken in about 11 years.

So in the end Hollywood chased Julia Roberts? Yet Michelle was more beautiful and a better actress. But your fraus loved their Julia Roberts. Every frau I know is still enamored with her and Pretty Woman.

I want a cool rider, a cool rider, if he's cool enough he can burn me through and through. I want a rider that's cool.

[Quote] they are only 10 years apart in age though [R115]. Not believable as mother and daughter.

With how badly Langed aged, I would disagree.

Michelle was so beautiful. She was never a Julia Roberts type that was just milked to make money.

[quote] While we're contemplating aging actresses, I wish Joan Allen worked more. She's another one that seemed to be in a lot of high profile films in the late 80s and 90s, then seemed to disappear.

Now she is one I loathed. Even in highly hyped performances like Pleasantville and The Crucible, I was left utterly cold. I always got the impression that critics adored Joan Allen because she is patrician and deemed “classy” because she is plain without being ugly. Actresses of a similar ilk - Sigourney Weaver, Glenn Close, the younger Laura Linney - could act circles around her .

Joan Allen had bad PS. I wonder if that has affected her employment.

what is PS r133

That reminds me of his 18thburthday where and I am completely not kidding but my mom let him have a party at our house. Comeyely unchaperoned with Idk how many people and which she had provided two large barrel drums full of ice and Budweiser. She also bout him a cake where it's shaped like a naked woman but just the torso which says do much about our attitudes about women. She also left my ten year old self as well as my 8 year old brother at home. She went to the bar. I think my two youngest siblings were at my aunt's house but they might actually just have been locked in the back bedroom. We had a latch in the outside if the door for that purpose. Im pretty sure that's the first time I got drunk.

[quote] I actually liked Roberts in Osage County. She does play bitchy anger well. (probably has a lot of practice with it in real life see Aloe Vera.)

Roberts was fantastic in August Orange County, and easily strolled away with the film. She probably should have won the Oscar that year out of the nominees (imagine the Oscars So White screams if she defeated Lupita Nyong’o!). Streep was surprisingly awful in the same film and I agree Lange would have been a better choice. Or, as I thought when watching the play, Judy Davis.

Make a thread for your brother, hon.

Michelle was so beautiful. Yet Julia Roberts became the actress of that generation.

[quote]R133 Joan Allen had bad PS. I wonder if that has affected her employment.

Phone Sex? Play Station? Photoshop?

The actress or the star?

Did Roberts and Streep ever have beef? The queen bitches had to have conflict.

She was in JLaw's bomb, "Mother", and I thought she was terrific.

O please, fuckhead OP. Michelle Puh-feiffer was always a horribly bland wooden actress. She never deserved the 15 minutes of fame she got.

Bland?! Not remotely.

[Quote] Phone Sex? Play Station? Photoshop?

Guess again.

R140 do you consider her a star or an actress? She used to be just an actress but she can actually be a really good actress even if you don't like her.

R132 "because she is plain without being ugly". Yes, U.S. critics go absolutely nuts for this physical type. Sort of a middle American, pretty- plain even featured look. I suspect that this is behind 90 percent of the critical acclaim for Amy Adams and Michelle Williams as well. I do believe that Adams, Allen and Williams are talented...just not as much as they are made out to be.

I feel like she inhabits that space if being an actress who is both nurturing yet also very strong. She's able to demonstrate this strength without sacrificing her feminity. Meryl is almost this but I find something very cold about her demeanor where she always seems to project her bemusement with her own brilliance. Julia just got by with her doe eyes and smile. We all dreamed she would be our cool older sister.

Loved her in, “Witches of Eastwick” especially for having a cold sore, “Stardust” for playing an evil old witch, of course, “Batman”, for which I was initially resistant to the casting, and “Dark Shadows”. I guess I have a type of genre I like, and a lot of other actresses wouldn’t be doing these types of genres.

I loved her in FBB. She played the Hollywood version of her It was her real vs the Julia Roberts fariytale

Flabby Backed Bitches?

Wonder if Pfeiffer ever fucked Harvey?

Laurence Harvey?

She looked amazing in Love Field. Back then still controversial to have an interracial love story, especially with a black man and a white woman, so it was all implied. Much like Far from Heaven over a decade later.

Far From Heaven should have been called Right Next to Shit.

Love Field is great though and one of Pfeiffer's best performance. Little mentioned as few have seen it which is such a shame.

I don't recall Love Field getting much of a release.

R156 It was one of the films caught up in the bankruptcy of Orion pictures. Like Blue Sky starring Jessica Lange was delayed and barely seen.

What do these washed up old bags have to do with Michelle Pfeiffer?

I'm surprised she's gone into the perfume business. It's not like she needs to money. Is she hoping it increases her visibility and strength as "a personality"?

*the money

[quote]I don't recall Love Field getting much of a release.

She was nominated for an Oscar for that role.

Love Field was rushed into release (along with Passion Fish) when the LA Times ran a big article about how there was nobody to nominate for Best Actress and people from commercial films like Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) of Jennifer Jason Leigh (Single White Female) could get in.

Studios so a gap and went for it with one week qualifying runs for Love Field and Passion Fish and it paid off.

The odd thing is that I wonder if Pfeiffer knocked herself out of the lineup. If Love Field hadn't come out would she have been nominated as Catwoman and then again the next year for Love Field?

I guess they weren't big on nominating superhero films (Jack Nicholson despite huge press didn't get in for the first Batman.)

We'll never know though.

She's so good as Catwoman. The Catwoman part is of course great but I love the meek neurotic Selina Kyle she created for the beginning. I think it is a great comic creation and the funniest she ever was on film.....and then she goes all kick ass (to quote Madge.)

saw a gap ^^^^

I believe that Sean Young was Catwoman?

No. Annette Benning, who then dropped out.

Sean Young was Vicki Vale until she was replaced by Kim Basinger.

Young fell off a horse and broke a bone and Basinger took over.

Then Young felt slighted that Burton wouldn't audition her for Catwoman so she went on the Joan Rivers Show and showed a video of her dressed in a home made Catwoman outfit running around the lot trying to see Burton.

That pretty much ended her career since she seemed so crazy.

Burton should have at least let her audition. I think she was owed that after what happened with the first film. Probably would have been easier for him too. Avoid all the craziness. Let her read and then tell her sorry the studio got Pfeiffer one of the biggest stars around to do it.

No, the Joan Rivers appearance came after Young tried to corner Burton. It was an attempt at damage control.

Bening had to drop out when she got pregnant. (All the stress that kid caused her and Beatty makes me wonder if she ever thinks damn I should have aborted and played Catwoman.)

oh ok r169 I didn't see it.

So where did the video of her trying to see Burton in her dopey costume first air? Did Rivers show it?

What did she say to control the damage?

in the three years in between the Batman films Young's career was basically killed by the Dick Tracey firing and the James Woods stalking incident (which I think he now admits wasn't true.)

I read in a Beatty bio that he was paralyzed with indecision about what to do with Young on Dick Tracey. It was clear she wasn't maternal enough for the role and people wanted her gone but he knew firing her after all her other issues would likely end her career and he didn't want to be the person to do that. He probably made it worse by letting her keep filming so many days.

Sean Young was the opposite of a smooth operator. It's surprising that she even lasted the length of the 1980s.

She was a great talk show guest. So crazily outspoken. I used to love seeing her as a teen on Letterman. She was like Teri Garr (a person I'd try to stay up late to watch.)

Teri Garr was charming.

Letterman had her back towards the end of the run of his CBS show. He credited her with making their show a hit. He said it was an event whenever you (Garr I mean) came on. (She's sadly been in bad health for a long time now.)

Michelle in "Scarface" is so young and yet so womanly. It's like she's an absolute broad 1940's style. A part of me hates that movie since my ethnic background is Colombian and all, but I've seen it twice and Michelle played her character like a grown ass sexy woman who had been around some and I liked that. That's the Michelle Bruno Mars is paying a bit of an homage to in that overplayed song.

I think she's cool. Her filmography is diverse and she's scandal free. She needs to eat more at her age though and I'm sorry but I shudder to think of what her bone density must be like.

Didn’t she setup some surprise where she lured her husband into a cage with a dangerous animal that mauled him and ate part of his body like a tow or something? Was it attempted murder? Did she serve time and maybe went away for awhile?

R178 I think that was Sharon Stone and her husband.

Oh, those skinny blond white woman of a certain age look so alike. I don’t know why I thought Sharon Stone had never really married.

[quote] I want a cool rider, a cool rider, if he's cool enough he can burn me through and through. I want a rider that's cool.

The male lead, whose name I have forgotten, ruined that movie. He was not cool at all!

Has or had a severe eating disorder. I heard she switched doctors while pregnant since she didn't want to be told to put on pregnancy weight.

R180 Stone’s never been “skinny/skinny.” But yes that was her husband Phil Bronstein.

I’m not sure if this has been discussed yet but her Amy Heckerling comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman is finally available after years of obscurity on Apple. The theatrical release got botched but it’s a lovely, charming film where Pfeiffer plays a Heckerling stand-in working on a Clueless type TV show.

Check it out. It’s a cute movie. It’s a shame it’s not more well known.

R113 right? JR was big but she really aint anymore and hasnt been for years...what is her ass doing lately?

R182 She and Keira Knightley could have worn each other's clothes.

I just watched Love Field for the first time. I doubt that anyone who's seen it would say that Michelle Pfeiffer can only play cold women convincingly.

Michelle has a lot of class

Sorry to dredge up the past, but wasn’t Sean Young on Letterman dressed as Catwoman? That was really the only late night show I watched religiously back then, and I remember her coming out in the costume with a mask, talking to the studio audience and the camera as if they were Tim Burton. She did a mini “routine” and then sat down in the guest seat for the interview. But it’s been 3 decades now, so maybe my memory of the venue is off.

[quote]I’m not sure if this has been discussed yet but her Amy Heckerling comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman is finally available after years of obscurity on Apple. The theatrical release got botched but it’s a lovely, charming film where Pfeiffer plays a Heckerling stand-in working on a Clueless type TV show.

It has its moments but it also has some editing that's so bizarre it's distracting.

[quote]Dangerous Minds was a hit but it was middlebrow junk. Just like Up Close & Personal, One Fine Day (ok, this was a cute romcom and probably the best of a weak bunch), A Thousand Acres

Wasn't A Thousand Acres based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel?

Old age

Once an actress loses her looks, and unless she has talent, then she no longer is a muse to directors and she starts to get smaller, bad parts. It’s the curse of being pretty.

[quote]Julia has a following, but she [bold]"[/bold]decided to step away from the business and raise her kids[bold]" (or so her publicist claims).[/bold]

FIFY.

I have a feeling has a big ego and she probably had to make concessions for it

^^^ her husband David E. Kelly, you can trace when she married him to when her career went downhill

Pfeiffer is very good in “A Thousand Acres,” as is the whole cast.

I think it wasn’t a bigger success because basically the story’s a downer. Plus it got dubbed “a feminist screed,” which is rather unfair.

She took time off to raise her kids

Too true and simple R198. OP used the dumbassed trope, and people love to lob onto that one.

Just because something is a stereotype doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Plenty of actresses have put careers on hold to raise kids. It may have even been Pfeiffer who said she saw a lot of screwed up rich kids in Beverly Hills whose parents were devoted to the film industry, and she didn’t want to do that to hers.

And in Pfeiffer’s case it’s easier to do this after decades of being a star… rather than passing up your first big break.

Always loved Michelle. Although she was probably approached to do it. She never seemed to give in to plug in money roles like Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts. She wanted to play real parts. It's admirable

I think her performance in What Lies Beneath is possibly her most transparent as an actress where you get the best sense of her as a person. Although she does fall back on her pouty lips bit when she plays inhabited by the ghost.

She is fabulous in The Fabulous Baker Boys (and we hear her sing) but I think perhaps her performance is too much about her hair.

What a silly comment.

She’s doing Ant Man for the money. It’s not like she is a theater actress. French Exit was excruciatingly awful.

Peter DeBruge/Variety disagrees with you, R205.

Don’t bother watching it. It’s as awful as A Thousand Acres.

Anne Tyler + Muriel Spark -Annie Lennox. Great colors.

[quote]r207 Don’t bother watching it. It’s as awful as A Thousand Acres.

I’ve had just about enough out of you, young lady!

A Thousand Acres does have Jessica Lange as a plus.

Michelle Pfeiffer: What went wrong?

Should wouldn't swallow.

r 211: What went wrong?

Should wouldn't schoolin'.

R212 Oh Fuck. I really screwed that comment up.

She wouldn't swallow.

I like Michelle and she doesn't seem unintelligent but she is not especially bright. She barely attended community college and then fell into that weird vegan cult in her early 20s before Peter Horton rescued her. Once she hooked up with David E. Kelley she gravitated towards safe, uninteresting roles.

Up Close & Personal could have been a good movie had the producers stuck to the darker original story (a biopic of the pioneering but messy anchorwoman Jessica Savitch), but Scott Rudin turned it into mediocre schmaltz. The same happened with Frankie and Johnny and The Deep End of the Ocean. White Oleander was similarly ineffective because the producers bowdlerized the novel to such a degree that the story and character motivations as depicted on screen made no sense. I am Sam, the Story of Us, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday--terrible, terrible, terrible. Despite her great work in Dangerous Liaisons was awful in Chéri, which was a complete misfire.

The only exception to this pattern is Darren Aronofosky's Mother!, but most people won't see her very good performance because the movie was so polarizing/controversial.

Was White Oleander safe? Didn't she play a murderess?

I don't think Frankie & Johnny was schmaltz. Pfeiffer played a wounded woman very well. I know people were offended that Pfeiffer wasn't fat or plain, but pretty isn't the all encompassing protection blanket some imagine it to be.

I agree R216, Pfeiffer was fine, but Garry Marshall was *not* the director for this material, which suffered from all the extra characters added to mask its theatrical origins. It was if he were trying to make Moonstruck II.

And R215 In one sense yes, but the movie omitted all the most difficult parts of the novel--Astrid's more degrading foster homes, her turn to drugs and prostitution, and even the ways in which she eventually moved on from her mother and made her own life. This doesn't happen in the movie; her changing hair color was the most dramatic change over the years of her life. In the movie, Ingrid (Pfeiffer) is just selfish and manipulative; all we get is her flaxen hair and sneers.

Pfeiffer (and Pacino) was good in Frankie & Johnny but it would have interesting to see F. Murray Abraham & Kathy Bates play those roles - I believe they played them in a stage production.

She did become a bit obvious I must say. “I am Sam” was also Oscar baiting stuff. I feel like in all her films there’s this key Michelle pfeiffer moment like in dangerous minds - “there are no victims in this classroom”. Same with Tom cruise, in all his movies you see the scene he thinks is going to get him an award. I find her beautiful and she’s a nice presence but I have to say she makes me cringe often in her movies, not sure if it’s her performance, poor material, or a bit of both.

I loved Wolf. Michelle stepped away to raise her children. Nothing went wrong. Priorities shifted. She is back but as she aged she was more selective of roles that came by and fewer did because of how Hollywood works.

Michelle is a talented painter 👩‍🎨

She excels at supervising cooking and cleaning staff.

I never found her exciting, just kind of self-conscious and boring at times. She's a good actress given certain material. She's not a natural like Juliette Lewis. With Pfeiffer I'm always aware she's acting.

Juliette Lewis munches scenery at every opportunity.

Lewis in What's Eating Gilbert Grape was a joy to behold.

[quote]R217 In the movie, Ingrid (Pfeiffer) is just selfish and manipulative; all we get is her flaxen hair and sneers.

I don’t remember the mom being significantly different in the novel. You did observe her spiraling into desperation more when that man rejected her, though.

That would have been very dramatic to explore a bit more. It’s the first time in Ingrid’s somewhat long life she’s been rejected, and she can’t deal with it.

White Oleander is one of the most disappointing adaptations I've ever seen. The book is excellent. The movie is well acted, but the story went through a pasta strainer.

Neither of her kids are instahos, reality stars or tabloid fodder so I say she made the right choice

What went wrong - that she had a career in the first place.

R229 Hush or your out of my husband's show, DeeDee!

[quote]She turned down Silence Of the Lambs. Not smart

No one has mentioned Casino. Did she just audition for it, or did she actually turn it down?

Considering her apparent love for working with De Niro, it was probably the former. But it was a big mistake if she was offered it.

But Casino is second string Goodfellas. Pfeiffer already had Scarface for the straight male population.

r231 Pfeiffer wouldn't have had to audition for anything in 1995.

Like Meryl, Michelle has a number of good to great films that will be remembered.

It’s more than I can say for same-same Sandra and Julia.

She's got the kind of beauty that makes it hard to get roles after a certain age, because she still looks like a movie star rather than like an authentic person who can do character work. It's a testament to how fantastic her innate talent is that even despite her looks and her limited training, she still gets fine lead roles in indie films like in "French Affair."

She will almost certainly be given a lifetime achievement Oscar. I wish he had won for both "Dangerous Liaisons" and "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (in both cases, her best work), but I doubt a competitive Oscar is going to happen for her now.

^French Exit?

Or as Lucas Hedges calls it: "French Entrance."

What happened is that she has gotten old!

Speaking of White Oleander, Alison Lohman has retired from acting and turned full Q.

Anyone that would say no to ‘the silence of the lambs’ and yes to ‘dark shadows’ and still has a career is very lucky indeed!

Alison’s career completely dried up. She basically had no other choice but to retire. I would think she’s a little bitter. Or maybe a lot.

Amy Adams is anything but "plain without being ugly." but I do agree her acting is overrated.

"Plain without being ugly" actresses with overrated acting talent fits Jennifer Jason Leigh (kind of attractive in the 20s, though) and certainly Laura Dern.

Michelle Pfeiffer was very pretty and kind of a good actress, much better than you'd expect for someone so pretty, but I never found her all that good. She was fine, had a good run, married well and got old. There's your answer.

It's a combination of bad project judgment and putting her family to the forefront.

Considering she arose from Grease 2.....I'd say everything went right.

[quote]She is not one averse to discussing her own beauty.

if that's so, then that's a complete change. You used to always go on in interviews during the height of her fame about how insecure she was about her looks. Finally the mother of her boyfriend at the time, Fisher Stevens, told her she needed to stop doing that because she sounded like an asshole.

Pfeiffer would have made a great Hitchcock blonde. She's the perfect type and look for his movies.

As Betty Ford she looked like a mature gene tierney. She could play an older gene in a biopic and maybe get an Oscar non a la Jessica Lange in “Francis”

"She was fine, had a good run, married well and got old"

This. End of thread.

Meg Tilly revealed that Pfeiffer was in the final two with her for Agnes in "Agnes of God."

10:50

R242 Are you fucking kidding? Laura Dern and. Jennifer Jason Leigh are both MUCH better actresses than Michelle Pfeiffer, and JJL was quite pretty in a wholesome way when she was young.

Pfeiffer had a very long time on top (10 years), had a family, that's your simple answer. Why is there this insistence on DL that beautiful women some how struggle for careers in acting?

Oh, please. Jennifer Jason Leigh is so fucking predictable. You know the performance she's going to give before seeing it.

I have a feeling that Ms. Pfeiffer is very content, prioritized her life well....and has many good movies under her belt. She married well and is set for life. She can pick and choose to do whatever she wants as far as roles offered. Plus, she still looks beautiful. Not a bad position to be in....

[Quote] She can pick and choose to do whatever she wants as far as roles offered.

I don't think that's quite true. She stopped paying her dues and she suffered the consequences.

Even if she's "predictable" I don't think Michelle Pfeiffer has given a performance as good as JJL has in Last Exit in Brooklyn, Miami Blues, Short Cuts, Georgia, and The Hateful Eight. Among less indie fare like Fast Times and Single White Female.

Pfeiffer has consistently been entertaining, but I don't think she's a great talent. Her best work is in shallower films like Scarface and Batman Returns. She was the weak point in The Age of Innocence, passable in Dangerous Liaisons and The Fabulous Baker Boys. People just make her out to be better than she is because of her beauty (which I have always founded overrated too, she's too brittle).

I loved her in The Fabulous Baker Boys...great movie.

Passable in Fabulous Baker Boys!?

I think it's one of the worst American movie industry crimes that she never got an Oscar, in particular for Dangerous Liaisons. She was always underrated, probably because of her beauty. Maybe she didn't sleep around - always kept a low profile. She aged, yes, and also prioritized family, but she still have great potential since beauty and talent are there even past 2000's. I think she never sold herself to certain producers/writers.

She had a decent run as an A lister. Then she got older and lost the urge to compete. She was always a bit laconic in terms of energy.

To answer OP's question.....nothing. She sends her love.

One of many A-listers whose resume was more impressive when they were competing for roles. Sometimes once they start choosing for themselves, they don't make great choices. Or they make choices that are good for them but don't connect and sell tickets. Michael Keaton is another one. It's not related to how much talent they have.

I’ve always preferred Kim Basinger over Michelle

You preferred The Marrying Kind to Married to the Mob?

GREASE 3 demands to be made........Maxwell should available!

Someone like Steven Soderbergh should make GREASE 3 with Maxwell, Michelle, Olivia and Travolta......jump start all 4 of those careers!

Bump!

OP- You failed to mention Scarface (1983) and her best line

You're an immigrant spic millionaire

I'd say nothing went wrong. She aged and cashed in.

She was great as Betty Ford, unlike Viola Davis as Michelle Obama. Couldn't get past the lips.

JLC said when she went on auditions and she saw that Michelle or Debra Winger were on "the list" then she knew any chance she had was over. Now look at her!

R264- I saw him completely naked in a play once.

I've always loved Michelle Pfeiffer. Gorgeous too. I think she will play different roles for as long as she wants. Like Diana Rigg.

Do tell, R71.

I mean R271

She’s so open on instagram. She invites you into her home and when she was in spotlight, she openly resented any invasion of her privacy

She probably has several homes with high security. She's not "open" and "inviting you into her home." She's trying to play the Instagram game, now.

R276, yeah fame whore shameless promotion

r277 Don't knock it. It can win you an Oscar.

First you're another sloe-eyed vamp, them someone's mother, then you're camp. Then you career from career to career...

At 63 some odd years old Michelle Pfeiffer did "Ant Man" sequel.

MP has worked consistently pretty much since her first television series in 1979 (Delta House) to aforementioned Ant Man sequel.

Whenever people ask where is or what happened to or what went wrong with this or that actress it's well to remember this is Hollywood we're talking about.

[quote]When you look at, say ... Margot Robbie (blonde beauties who made good), it's almost like they're what Pfeiffer should've been.

Said no one ever.

She did nothing for me, ever, neither as a "beauty" or for her acting which at best has struck me as passable at best.

Age of Innocence was ruined for a lot of reasons, her contribution to that I wouldn't single out, but she was just barely acceptable and likewise in Dangerous Liaisons. A lot of her films were big in their time maybe, but very much light fodder if the period.

She's just not a name I would think of in answer to, "You know who would be great in that?"

I agree, she does look better older than she did in the late 80s/90s.

She wanted to be an at home mom so she stopped making loads of features. She’s stunning. She’s the opposite of Julia and Reece, Michelle has talent, looks and is a kind person to work with.

The R280 pics shows a Planet of the Apes chimp-type nose to mouth area.

Pfeiffer deliberately took time off to raise her children, and so did fewer projects for quite a number of years.

Bump . She came across as very ungrateful and uncomfortable in her beginning of stardom . She lost a lot of weight after Grease 2 . She became hard to warm up to.