It has to be said that if you look at Michelle's career it is inconsistent and probably one of lost opportunity as she could easily have been a talented version of Marilyn Monroe, as she was hyped to become after 'The Fabulous Baker Boys'. This is a very superficial opinion as the opportunities were available to her so only she could say they were wasted or lost. The inconsistencies derive from the fact that she has always gone after something different, instead of using her star power after 'The Fabulous Baker Boys' to jump on board a high budget, 'big' picture such as 'Dick Tracy' she did 'The Russia House'. After the huge success of 'Batman Returns' she did the period romance 'The Age of Innocence' and then took a years break turning down prestigious roles such as 'Sleepless in Seattle'. Many people including myself look at what could have been, Michelle could have had 'The Silence of the Lambs', 'Basic Instinct', 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'Thelma and Louise' and 'Batman Returns' all in the space of a few years. She would have won Oscars and been the biggest female actress, she could have had any role that she wanted and that’s the point, she did have any role she wanted. The fact was that the quality of those roles were high but Michelle didn't want to take them, she played Hollywood her way and how she wanted and still became one of the biggest actresses of the 90s.

I personally find similarities with one of the biggest actresses of our time in Renee Zellwegger, she won a big part out of nowhere in ‘Jerry Maguire’ as Michelle did in ‘Scarface’ then spent her time in lower profile movies. She resurfaced with star driven comedy ‘Me, Myself and Irene’ as Michelle did with ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ and then did a breakthrough role in character comedy ‘Nurse Betty’ as Michelle did with ‘Married to the Mob’. Renee will be third billed in period drama ‘Cold Mountain’ as Michelle was in ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ and became a huge star on the back of ‘Chicago’ whereas it was a music based movie that did it for Michelle. The reason I am making this point is because I look at them both and see character actors with leading lady status but the differences are that Renee has many, many more roles available to her as there are big differences between the treatment of women now and then. Another difference is that although Renee has made it on her terms, her terms do include the promotion of movies and working on movies back to back, which Michelle was very rarely willing to do. If Michelle had been a little less introverted and more willing to work all the time like Renee, Nicole and Sandra maybe things would be different in terms of her career now. But Michelle has always done what she wanted to do and survived. Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Kim Basinger, Ellen Barkin, Rene Russo, Daryl Hannah, Geena Davis are all gone although the first three are experiencing a sort of renaissance. Maybe when we criticise the choices she makes we should remember that the aforementioned actresses were as big, if not bigger and they haven’t been able to sustain their career as Michelle has.

Written by Richard Doyle for Michelle Pfeiffer, The Face

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