|  Michelle
Pfeiffer was supposed to plunge into
a swimming pool for her close encounter with
her devil. The script called for the witches
to frolic in an underwater ballet as Nicholson
and Pfeiffer made love. Director George
Miller finally realized that the scene
was impractical. Nicholson was not too disappointed.
His devil 'hot-tubbed' Pfeiffer's Sukie.
George Miller
was 'encouraged' to, as he puts it, 'jazz up'
the film with special effects. He said, 'The
studio executives wanted to play it safe. A
camel is a horse designed by a committee. My
job was to avoid making too much of a camel.'
The crucial problem with the film was enormous
– what was it meant to be? A low-key amusement
or a firecracker filled with special effects?
When the effects won it wasn't any fun for Miller,
and the experience made him abandon movie-making
for a long time.
 Pfeiffer
didn't drown in her hot tub, but she did suffocate
from her role as Sukie, a mother of six children,
who were played by a set of triplets, twins
and Heather Coleman. She recalled how 'The
first time I met the children I went out of
my mind, completely overwhelmed. I panicked.
I mean, what do you do with six children? I
hadn't studied for that!' Pfeiffer settled
into the film after the rough edges with Sarandon
and the script were smoothed: 'Each
of us witches represented a different aspect
of femininity. Sukie is the nurturing one who
needs to develop the masculine side of her personality.'
It was a little like typecasting. The actress's
sister Dee Dee Pfeiffer
said:
"Our mom is an incredible
woman and has a huge heart. She'll take anyone
in. She is kind, unjudgmental, totally loving.
Because of her we all have the lost-puppy-dog
syndrome. Especially Michelle. She's such a
caretaker. She takes incredible care of her
friends and family. We all love and nurture
each other very much."
 "It
was a terrific part,' said Michelle
Pfeiffer. 'I was
very fertile – one set of triplets, one
set of twins and one single child. I read the
script in 1985. I'd been complaining to my friend
Wally Nicita
[she was then a casting
director at Warner Brothers Studios and later
one of the producers of Cher's Mermaids]
that there weren't any good parts for women
and she said I ought to read The Witches of
Eastwick. Then when George
Miller came on
the picture she must have mentioned me because
I got the role.'
Pfeiffer took tennis lessons to play Sukie
playing tennis, rather supernatural tennis,
with Nicholson's Daryl Van Horne. She also spent
time in the Barden: 'I
could finally have a tan. Sweet
Liberty was
period so I had to be pale. In Ladyhawke
I never saw the light of day. And in Scarface
I was always deathly white – for six months
I had to bleach my hair, wear false nails, be
plastered in make-up and stay out of the sun.
I couldn't even swim in case my hair turned
green.'
 There
were no such enforced inhibitions for
The Witches of Eastwick.
But she was concerned about the special effects.
They included her levitating over a ball-room
turned into a swimming pool at a haunted, palatial
Eastwick estate. In the film, it's been bought
by Nicholson's Van Horne as a playpen to indulge
in wicked abandon.
Sarandon was almost electrocuted dangling from
wires during a levitation scene, and Pfeiffer
said, 'It was stupid.
It takes the movie off in a direction that is
confusing. I don't know why it's in there for
other than production value. I don't think any
of our hearts were in it. George didn't want
to do it. We did it thinking they wouldn't use
it. But the studio came down and said, "Use
it."'
The studio in this case is a euphemism for
Jon Peters who
ran ramrod on the production. Pfeiffer went
on, 'I was disappointed
about the special, effects because they took
away from the strength of the piece, the close
parallels in the human relationships. It was
full experience. We had a good time together.
We really worked well together. That's worth
all the garbage we had to put up with, frankly.'
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