Beauty Break: Michelle Pfeiffer's Cover Girl Comeback
Monday, October 16, 2017 at 12:40PM by Nathaniel R
Hollywood's greatest blonde is back after a way-too-long hiatus and she's the covergirl for both Variety for their Women in Hollywood issue and in the "Edit" insert of Net-a-Porter for their "white" issue (the clothing trend not the race!). And with these fine profiles / interviews come photos. So let's share beautiful portraiture and the best quotes after the jump...
Variety
Variety is after the clickbait so they lead with Ant-Man and the Wasp, in which she'll play the original long presumed dead Wasp to Michael Douglas long-retired Ant-Man with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily leading as those heroes in the now. It's her return to superhero cinema so in this cute video from Variety they ask her about Catwoman (could Catwoman take Wonder Woman in a fight) and whether she's seen any recent Batman movies. We still suspect she'll have an itty bitty role in that one. So better to focus on mother! and Murder on the Orient Express and Where is Kyra (if anyone will ever distribute that!).
Asks to name the last movies she loved she says Hidden Figures, Baby Driver and Wonder Woman. But it sounds like she got to Hidden Figures after its Oscar race, whoops.
The Variety interview was obviously very short since there are only a couple of quotes but worth singling out is this bit on turning down Thelma & Louise (1991).
I still can’t watch Thelma & Louise. It was a direct conflict, so it was one film or the other. It still kills me. You can’t always do everything. You’ve got to give something up.”
About mother!'s "F" cinemascore she says
It’s what Darren set out to do... make a controversial film that was going to engage people and enrage people and provoke people. It’s certainly thought-provoking and got people talking.”
Net-a-Porter
She's interviewed by her Murder on the Orient Express actress Olivia Colman in this issue. They first worked together on I Could Never Be Your Woman and so I must note that when I interviewed Colman for her amazing performance in Tyrannosaur in 2011, I couldn't help but bring up that earlier collaboration!. Colman brings out a lovely non-guarded side to Pfeiffer in this interview but Pfeiffer uses the increased comfort level to talk about how uncomfortable she is with people (ha!) so it amounts to the things she always says in interviews: hates fame, has social anxiety, loves Judi Dench, rinse and repeat.
On her need for lots of quiet time by herself (even on set):
I'm a bit... antisocial, let's call it.
On how she copes with being so recognizable:
I hide. You learn how to move through the world; you become a little like a shark. If you just keep moving, people [double take] but you’re gone. At the beginning, it really terrified me. I remember when the big shift happened for me. I went to Europe and spent time with [my co-stars] Cher and Susan Sarandon and while we were away the film [The Witches of Eastwick] was released. When I came back, it was just this change, it literally happened overnight. It was terrifying.
On her name-check in "Uptown Funk"
I was shocked and delighted and flattered – I’m a huge Bruno Mars fan. It did get a little embarrassing when I’d be at an exercise class and it would come on. Everybody just pretended that it wasn’t happening because they knew I was so embarrassed.
And this cute exchange with Colman about watching their own work...
OC: Do you ever look back at early work of yours and wish you’d done it differently?
MP: I look back at everything and wish I’d done it differently. I’ll see a film – which is becoming harder and harder for me – but I’ll see it once it’s finished and I’m gearing up to do press and I need to know what I’m talking about, then I never watch it again.
... How are you about watching yourself?
OC: I don't mind, actually.
MP: That's because you're so perfect.
OC: Oh, shut up, Michelle Pfeiffer."
Hee.
A lot of actors pay lip service to hating their lack of privacy but La Pfeiffer continues to be one of the only ones we believe because she actually does hide out inbetween films and is elusive with the media even when she's promoting something.
Reader Comments (23)
She triggers an intense nostalgia in me. I suppose it has everything to do with her being a mega star in my developing years. Add her public elusiveness and no other living actress favoring her feature wise and you have all the components of an all timer.
Divine Goddess. I just watched Married to the Mob recently and absolutely loved it. She does screwball so well. I wish she and Demme had collaborated again for Silence of the Lambs.
Weird to think that she didn't want to do that film because it was so dark and now she's in mother! I'm hoping this means we see her work more frequently with challenging directors since she seems to have a hunger in her now.
Gwyneth P honored michelle at the Variety event heres the video of it and michelles speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfWOk0ipY8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTO6eCCI8jA
Goddess! and I respect her honesty.If Michelle can be anxious it's ok for us to.
Speaking of the greats. Did you see Jane Fonda and Nicole Kidman on the Graham Norton show? it was so adorable!!
she looks and sounds amazing but what the HELL were they thinking putting "all white now" on the front of a magazine given the current administration / surge in white nationalism ???
My God how is she so perfect?
Has the backlash against the backlash to mother! started yet? Can we please just give her a damn oscar now!?
Thanks, Nat, for this.
Thanks, SN, for the links.
I love the backlash to the backlash, MB.
Thanks for the repfeival, Pfeiffer.
Michelle Pfeiffer is a cinematic treasure. She is just getting better with age and is overdue for an Oscar. Way overdue. Plus, can we get her to reunite with Michael Keaton for a film?
I love her, but I'm so glad Sarandon and Davis were Thelma and Louise. They're unsurpassable.
We'll never know, will we Peggy Sue? :-)
Pfeiffer is movie star for the ages
I didn’t think I could love her more, but now I’m gonna be stuck wondering what her favorite song from a Lemonade is.
I was just thinking about Where is Kyra the other day. Weird that it hasn’t found a distributor yet.
@thefilmjunkie : Where is Kyra? does finally have distribution, it just hasn't been announced publicly yet. It's a smaller, still kind of new company. They distributed Frank & Lola with Michael Shannon . It will be out March 2018 it looks like.
adelutza -- Well... I do. Basically because she was totally wrong for both roles. Too young for Louise and not naive enough for Thelma.
@Heyya - thanks for the info! I'm looking forward to seeing it.
@thefilmjunkie : no prob! if you happen to live in the Philadelphia area, it's playing at the Philadelphia Film Fest, I think on OCTOBER 26th.
My new happy place is being in exercise class with Michelle Pfeiffer when Uptown Funk is on.
Does anyone know what conflicted with Thelma & Louise? Was it Frankie & Johnny?
thank god Michelle is back. i loved MOTHER! and she gives it a gigantic squeeze of lemon. my favorite part of that interview is when she and Olivia discuss Josh Gad doing impressions of Javier Bardem, and Penelope Cruz filming him and sending them to Javier. priceless!
Mike -- it was Love Field actually.
No wonder why she regrets her choice.
As much as I love Michelle, this is Hollywood hype. None of her recent roles have fully connected.