Pfeiffer’s Fairytale
By Marianne Gray
“As a little girl it was my fantasy
to be an actress," says Michelle
Pfeiffer with a blue eyed smile. “My
mother used to think I was very melodramatic. Now I'm finding
out what the reality of that fantasy is all about in many
ways it's much better, in some way's it's er,"
she pauses, puffing away nervously at a cigarette and looking
marginally anxious, "it's, I suppose,
worse. I think I'm definitely experiencing a problem coping
with stardom."
Which is not surprising since it has come suddenly after
three short sharp leading roles. First there was Scarface
with Al Pacino, playing the classy
blonde in the life of a Miami cocaine king. Then Into
the Night and Ladyhawke.
"I know this is probably the most exciting
moment of my career, but I simply wasn't expecting it! I'm
still being rather naive about it all."
It is exactly this naivete which is part of Michelle Pfeiffer's
charm, a charm very much in the tanned, leggy Californian
mold. Except that at 26, she has a certain edge over the rest
of them: a notion of elegance which onscreen is a killer.
Off screen she's a boyish WASP. Her shortish brown hair is
ruffled and doesn't look like it's seen a stylist's comb in
months. Her clothes have a very street worn, natural chic.
Born in what she describes as "the
very low key" Orange County, just south of Los
Angeles, she's one of four from a very close family. Her father
runs his own air conditioning business. Her mother's a housewife.
Of the four kids she and sister DeeDee headed north for Hollywood,
an hour's drive away. (DeeDee apparently fared less successfully.)
"I studied theatre at high school but
when I left at 19 and wondered what I should do with my life,
I didn't automatically think 'Ah, yes acting!'. "
She reckoned being Miss Orange County wasn't substantial
enough to let her rest on her laurels and toyed with the idea
of doing court reporting. But instead she had a set of photos
taken, got a job behind the check out till at a supermarket
and began going to acting workshops.
Soon after she had her first role. It was so small she was
merely billed as The Bombshell. However it was in a TV series
called Delta House which although
short lived, meant at least she had got her foot on the TV
patch. Commercials followed and then her first film.
"In Hollywood
Knights I played a carhop and almost immediately a
second film came up, playing a rich debby girl in Peter
Ustinov's Charlie Chan and the
Curse of the Dragon Queen. I also went out to try for
theatre work and then I heard there was a nationwide talent
contest on for a leading role in Grease
2. I'd seen Grease and
loved it, so naturally jumped at the chance."
The major role was for The Pin Lady. It was, along with the
movie, major disaster. It nearly wrecked the burgeoning career
of the pretty, petit actress. She didn't work for ages after
that. In fact It was so bad that when director Brian
de Palma was casting Scarface
he actually refused to see Michelle because of her Grease
2 track record.
"I fought for that part for about
four months," she says, stretching to her full,
willowy 5' 6". "I was on the
point of giving up when I got it. It's so impossible to tell
what's going on in Hollywood. I got my next two films, Into
the Night and Ladyhawke
with great ease."
Scarface she found “intense
and exciting." Working with Pacino clearly terrified
but inspired her. Into the Night,
almost a Who's Who of Hollywood film makers was easier, except
for the scenes with David Bowie.
“I was so nervous, knowing what a huge
rockstar he is. I used to have to leave the room when I wasn't
actually working. I was, for some reason overwhelmed. Pretty
dumb of me. He's a really nice guy!"
Her latest film, Ladyhawke,
is a medieval fable in the true Saturday matinee tradition.
Michelle plays a beautiful maiden who, due to a curse made
by a malevolent bishop, is transformed into a hawk at sunrise.
She has to spend her daylight hours as a feathered persona,
on the wrist of her handsome lover, played by Rutger
Hauer, who, it goes without saying, is transformed
from a man to a wolf at sunset.
“Such is the way of fairy tales.
You sometimes can't win. It was a sweet film to work on and
it marked my first trip abroad, to Italy where it was filmed."
Life otherwise is a fairly quiet affair. Married for nearly
four years to an actor she met at drama class, Peter
Horton, they live in a Spanish stucco house on the
beach at Santa Monica. As a couple they shun the Hollywood
scene. She claims to dislike crowds and parties with unknown
people, preferring to stay at home and do things like repainting
the house or building a patio in the back garden.
“Of course sometimes I like to dance
till dawn but generally I prefer the quieter aspects of life.
I don't do any regular exercises and certainly wouldn't want
to exercise for the sake of it jog and things like that. I
eat carefully l'm a vegetarian and play some of the fun sports
like raquet ball. But I'd rather be taking my bike to pieces.
“I haven't mastered any sort of star
attitudes at all. I don't long for the golden age of Hollywood
glamour. Hell, I wasn't even born then. Peter and I are happy
to just stick around at home. It's tough enough spending so
much of our time separated on jobs. You should see our phone
bill!"
And what of the future?
"I think it'd be good to investigate
the things I've already done and try to do them better. Do
similar roles but better. Get to grips with those characters.
I'd also like to do theatre in New York and I'd love to do
a neurotic Tennessee Williams play
on film."
She pauses and puffs furiously for a while.
"I think perhaps right now I’d
like to do a real far out comedy."
Wasn't Into The Night a pretty
way out satire with comedy?
"Oh no," she replies
airily with a tomboy smile. "I
mean real far out comedy, I'know, one that's weird."
I'm not sure that I do know, but whatever she means,it will
be interesting to see a far out Pfeiffer. |
