Index:
After taking a break, she's ready
to dazzle us again in three new
films. We talk with the actress
about where she's been, what she
thinks of "the older woman,"
and how she sees herself now.
On the cover:
HAS STYLE, WILL TRAVEL. AFTER flying
in from Northern California, cover
girl Michelle
Pfeiffer arrived at our L.A.
shoot wearing a romantic brown tunic,
low rise Yanük
jeans and espadrilles. Instead of
dressing up in glittering gowns,
the actress indulged her hippie
chic side by sporting her own denim
paired with sheer, flowy tops and
brocade jackets. "The
look was easy and fresh not like
she was walking on the red carpet,"
says stylist Freddie
Leiba. After refueling with
Java from the nearby Coffee Bean
& Tea Leaf shop, she wrapped
up the shoot and hopped on a flight
back home. Style setter? Always.
Jet setter? Absolutely. Alysia
Poe
"I look
back and cringe that I look some
things so seriously. I laugh at
myself more now. Ii is so liberating!"
"Since
we met, David and I have had date
night every Saturday. I still really
look forward to it"
Why is this woman
in such a playful mood? One successful
marriage, two fun kids, three big
films in the pipeline… and
countless pets. What’s not
to smile about?
MICHELLE
PFEIFFER.
SERIOUSLY.
Written by JOHANNA
SCHNELLER
Photographed by SATOSHI
SAIKUSA
Styled by FREDDIE
LElBA
MICHELLE
PFEIFFER CAN'T SLEEP. IT'S
ALL THE rustling around and panting.
Not from her it's from her Newfoundland
puppy, whose bed is in the corner
of her room. "And
he's going to get three times larger,"
Pfeiffer
says, her blue eyes wide. She can't
pass him off her daughter, Claudia
Rose, 13, and her son, John
Henry, 12, each sleep with
a dog of their own. And then there
are the cat and the tree frog, the
horses and the miniature donkeys
a pair of them. "They
suffer from depression if they're
alone, so we had to get two,"
she says. "They're
pretty darn cute, these tiny things
with enormous eyes and huge ears.
They're smaller than the dog."
Until recently the family also had
a rat, but it died.
If you're wondering where Pfeiffer
has been (her last film was White
Oleander in 2002), there's
one answer: Two years ago she and
her husband of nearly 13 years,
the TV writer/producer David
E. Kelley (Boston
Legal), moved from L.A. to
Northern California. "My
life is just ever so slightly slower
now," Pfeiffer
says. "L.A.
has been incredibly good to me,
but we wanted to try something different.
I create busyness wherever I am
though. In fact, I'm busier than
ever."
She has been getting the family
settled, "figuring
out where to buy a shoelace,"
she says. She has also been getting
lost "literally
every time I'd leave the house.
It's a running joke with me and
my kids: 'How lost will Mom get
today?"'
Looking at Pfeiffer,
you'd never know she was the mistress
of a menagerie. When she enters
a room backlit by the smoggy sunlight
pouring in from floor to ceiling
windows of a house in the Hollywood
Hills, her beauty is staggering.
When she ponders an answer, her
head falls over the back of her
chair, exposing her long throat,
her butter blond hair hanging like
a gleaming shield. Her legs, in
snug jeans, go on and on, like those
of her horses.
Pfeiffer
is 48 now and comfortable enough
in the role of older woman to poke
fun at it. In her new film, I
Could Never Be Your Woman,
she plays a TV exec who falls for
Paul Rudd,
II years her junior. "Honestly,
I don't feel older,"
she says. "I
certainly see that I've changed;
I just try not to dwell on it. Now
it's easier than it was in my early
40s. I'm over that hump. Aging happens
to every single one of us. Once
you accept that, it unburdens you."
She thinks about plastic surgery,
she says, "just
like all women. I toy with it. When
I'm rested, taking good care of
myself, exercising, happy, I think
I look pretty darn OK. I can hold
off on that facelift for another
few years. When I'm feeling weary,
then I think, Maybe I better make
that appointment." And
right now? "Not
thinking about it,"
she replies. "On
the one hand, I've seen some amazing
looking plastic' surgery. But who
knows if that's what you'll get?
There are some freakish things going
on right now. I'm hoping I'm courageous
enough to age gracefully."
Pfeiffer
makes the cliché come true:
She just keeps getting better. In
her younger days (see sidebar, page
103), she felt unsettled, desperate
to be in control, sometimes drawn
to men who weren't right for her.
"I think
I was a little too enamored with
danger and things that were not
good," she says. "Now
I can't even imagine what went on
in my head to make me find that
attractive. Snore."
She often felt like "a
conquest, a trophy. I hated it."
But much to her surprise, Pfeiffer
has lived a pretty logical arc.
When it's pointed out that she established
her personality in her teens, her
career in her 20s and her family
in her 30s, she responds: "I
hadn't thought of that until this
moment. When you're in it, finding
yourself, it just feels like a big
mess. I was so convinced that I
was going to screw up my life. But
if you had told me then that in
my 40s I would have a great career,
an amazing husband and beautiful
children, I never would have believed
it."
Though Pfeiffer's
main challenge remains balancing
work and family, she's ready to
make movies again; she just finished
shooting the fantasy film Stardust,
opposite Robert
De Niro. "I'm
a better mother if I also work.
Leaving home for little spurts is
actually good. Things don't fall
apart. It empowers them without
me hovering, making everyone feel
inadequate." She laughs.
"What
I love about the ages the kids are
now is that I don't have to filter
myself as much. I can slowly unload
on them." She laughs
again.
She peels off a set of photo shoot
false eyelashes, readying herself
to fly home. The only thing she
still misses from her former life,
she says, is sleep. "After
Claudia was born, I remember thinking,
When she sleeps through the night,
I'll catch up. Then my son came,
and I thought, OK, eventually I
won't feel tired. I realized last
year that that is never going to
happen. The good news is, I run
well on adrenaline. I'm probably
more efficient than if I'm rested."
Just as well, since Pfeiffer won't
be sleeping anytime soon this month,
she's getting another puppy. Because
at this point in her life, there's
no such thing as too much.
A Look Back
Pfeiffer recalls
childhood bunnies, teen romance
and her early years in Hollywood
Michelle’s
childhood…
"I remember being dirty, barefoot,
with stringy hair, running around,
nobody knowing where I was half
the time, I could not stop talking
back to my mother. I was very willful,
and I couldn't take no for an answer.
I drove my parents insane. I had
rabbits that I loved, but I don't
remember having a lot of friends.
It seemed like a transient neighborhood
[in Midway City, California]. I
would become friends with somebody,
and then all of a sudden they'd
move. I started wondering if some
of them were running from the law
because they'd just disappear! This
happened over and over again. How
sad! [She laughs] No wonder I find
it hard getting close to people."
As
a teenager…
“I was always out because
I hated being home, although I loved
my room, stereo, guitar, clothes
and makeup. I was anywhere but at
school, I got my drivers license
on my 16th birthday; that changed
my life, I had a group of girls,
and we palled around. Mainly I was
preoccupied by boys. I had my first
serious boyfriend when I was 16.
We went to the beach a lot, misbehaving.
I started college a couple times.
I was drawn to the arts, but I couldn't
focus. I really wanted a career,
so one day I asked myself, 'What
is it you want to do?' Not, 'What
do you think you could do,' but
'What is it, if somebody could just
hand it to you?' And it was acting.
So I thought, Well, I'm young enough;
if I fail I can do something else.
I started taking classes, got a
commercial agent and started commuting
[to L.A.]."
In
her 20s…
"My 20s were all about acting.
Whenever I was studying acting,
singing or dance, I was happy, Having
come from feeling as a teenager
that if left to my own devices I
would certainly mess up my life,
I learned in my 20s how to keep
myself centered and balanced: anything
having to do with the arts. I knew
I was good at it after I'd done
a couple of television movies. They
weren't big parts, but I was cast
against type, not for my looks.
I felt I'd proved to myself that
I could really do it. I’m
not going to say which TV movies!
But it felt good at the time."
Then
her 30s…
"My 30s really became about
family. Becoming a mother was my
big focus; work took a back seat,
I never wanted to stop working and
solely stay home, but everything
shifted. There's nothing harder
and more rewarding than being a
parent, especially when you’re
a type A, it better be perfect personality.
But I surprised myself with how
much. I loved it. Before, when I
knew they were coming, I had that
period of time where I thought,
What am I doing? I don't know how
to be a parent. I'm going to fail!
Complete panic. Then Claudia came,
and my only thought was, Why did
I wait so long to do this?"
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