Celebrating the film icon’s contribution to cinema with a look back at her impressive career.
Today marks Michelle Pfeiffer’s 60th birthday and while most actresses are all but discarded when they reach such an age, only to be casually remembered by modern-day cinephiles, the three time Oscar nominee’s popularity among fans remains strong. Besides being name-dropped in songs by popular artists, she’s still being sought after for high-profile roles and is able to shine and conjure up on-screen chemistry with a variety of co-stars from Robert De Niro to Jennifer Lawrence.
One other consistent factor about Pfeiffer that remains is a lack of interest when it comes to publicity and a reluctance to revisit her past work. Therefore it came as a great surprise to fans when she agreed to take part in the 35th anniversary reunion of Scarface put on by the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this month. The event soon hit a sour note however after Pfeiffer was asked by moderator Jesse Kornbluth exactly how much she weighed while making the iconic movie. Though the intent was to find out the lengths Pfeiffer went to in order to bring her character (the cocaine-addicted Elvira) to life, the execution of the question reeked of tackiness, causing a large number of boos to erupt throughout the audience. The flood of social media backlash hit almost instantly with many fans leaping to Pfeiffer’s defense and causing such an uproar with cries of sexism and chauvinism so loud that Kornbluth was forced to (clumsily) defend himself in the press.
Even as critics of Kornbluth began to turn on each other, the lone figure who walked away unscathed from the incident was Pfeiffer who, although somewhat taken aback by the initial question, gave an answer full of dignity and composure in a way only she could. It was a move which seemed to tipify the kind of strength the actress brings to her work as a champion of strong female characters. While her glamorous image and sexual allure haven’t made her the most apparent of on-screen feminists akin to Bette Davis, Jane Fonda or Meryl Streep, there’s always been something in the work Pfeiffer does, and the way she interprets the characters she brings to life which greatly speaks to female empowerment.
From her early obscure stuff and even after she garnered a small amount of attention, Pfeiffer, like most young actresses, was typecast as “the girl;” the pretty face with the flowing hair who was the object of desire which the film’s leading man was determined to win over. Yet there’s something about Pfeiffer in this mold which seemed to suggest that although she was playing such a role, it was not without making a statement. Grease 2’s Stephanie Zinoni dares to go against the Pink Lady code and go after someone who isn’t a T-Bird, while Scarface’s Elvira spends most of her screen time silently judging Tony, Frank and the lifestyle they all share until she reaches her breaking point. In both cases Pfeiffer’s characters know they’re better than the worlds they’re in. For them, their hunger for something more and their self-awareness are just too big for both Rydell High and the Miami nightlife to contain.
It’s funny how Pfeiffer’s first tastes of box-office success came from playing a trio of women who, on the surface, had little in common. Yet Suki Ridgemont in The Witches of Eastwick, Jo Ann Valenari in Tequila Sunrise and Angela De Marco in Married to the Mob all contain a common thread. Although possessing different social statuses, each one is a woman of independent means. Suki is a divorced mother of six whose husband up and left, while Angela is a widow with a young son and Jo Ann is like a wounded animal having escaped a troubled past. Their professions as journalist, hairdresser and restauranteur, respectively, say more about the societies in which they’ve chosen to assert their independence and how much of their lives they must devote to them. Yet the roles showed an ability to exist outside of the world which defined them in the past by being able to develop new identities. Above all though, each woman never forgets that she is indeed still a woman by allowing herself to embrace her sexuality by attractions to Mel Gibson’s reformed drug dealer, Matthew Modine’s undercover cop and Jack Nicholson’s devil.
The three roles feel like a definite precursor of sorts to what would inevitably be one of Pfeiffer’s most identifiable films; The Fabulous Baker Boys. As the former call girl turned lounge singer Susie Diamond, Pfeiffer’s character may lack the success to rebound the way her characters in the aforementioned movies did, at times coming off more scrappy than independent. Still, there’s a worldliness and a radiance about Susie’s rough edges that flows through every scene she graces. As a character, she wants nothing more than to be left alone by the rest of the world while the world itself cannot help but become transfixed by her.
By the time the 90s rolled around Pfeiffer was now a twice Oscar-nominated star and a bonafide Hollywood player with studios, producers and directors all chomping at the bit to work with her. It’s ironic (or perhaps unknowingly intentional) then that she should gravitate towards projects in which her characters blatantly go against the system. The Russia House saw her character Katya Orlova, a russian book editor, rebel against the Soviet Union to deliver a manuscript which contains a number of military secrets. Meanwhile in The Age of Innocence, Pfeiffer accidentally courts scandal as Countess Ellen Olenska, whose return to early 20th century New York society is met with gossip and disdain as a result of the character leaving her husband and filing for divorce. The motives and manners of both women couldn’t be more different. Katya’s efforts stem from defiance and look to serve the greater good, while Ellen’s is rooted in the movie’s titular innocence and are purely self-serving. Yet both offer up portraits of women determined to find a better way of life even if it means going against the rules of their societies.
If there was another archetypal 90s Pfeiffer character, it was surely that of the woman who sheds her skin and finds her voice. Nowhere is this more evident than in her most famous role; Batman Returns. As Selina Kyle (who must die and transform into Catwoman so that she can make the real Selina Kyle come alive), she portrays not a villain, but rather an anti-hero finally unleashing her true self onto the world. Yet in a lot of ways it’s her Oscar-nominated turn in Love Field (released on the heels of Batman’s success) which better illustrates this theme. As Lurene Hallet, the bleached blonde housewife who idolizes Jackie Kennedy to no end, she finds herself making that final leap into adulthood when she defies her husband and sets off on a mission to attend JFK’s funeral. Watching Lurene go from someone who has devoted her life to both her louse of a husband and the First Lady only to realize that she’s worthy of an identity away from the two figures is nothing short of beautiful.
The great thing about Pfeiffer’s choices is how even her most seemingly throwaway of Hollywood fare contains telling aspects of female empowerment. Wolf’s Laura Alden may not be the strongest of Pfeiffer’s roles (even she herself labeled her part as “the girl”), but there’s something incredibly intriguing and human about this lost soul who banished herself from a society because she felt she didn’t belong there. One Fine Day’s Melanie Parker may seem like she doesn’t have things together throughout the fluffy comedy, but in a day which consists of having to watch her child, handle one of the biggest milestones of her career and fall in love with George Clooney’s Jack, it’s more than clear that she does. Even the swiftly-dismissed comedy The Story of Us in which her and Bruce Willis star as a married couple at the beginning of a divorce ends with a conventional Hollywood happy ending, but only after Pfeiffer’s Katie Jordan is shown to have been the one who insists on the break-up and eventual reconciliation, refusing to take Willis’s Ben back until she is sure she wants him back.
One could make the case that not all of Pfeiffer’s choices have been 100% pro-feminism. The romantic drama Up Close and Personal and the horror thriller What Lies Beneath see Pfeiffer’s characters being guided by the men in their lives; essentially pulling the strings and designating the former’s Tally Atwater into the shape of successful news anchor and the latter’s Claire Spencer into dutiful housewife. Yet it’s interesting to note how by the time both movies end, Robert Redford’s Warren and Harrison Ford’s Norman have both perished, leaving Pfeiffer’s heroines to show they have the ability to flourish after their husbands’ deaths.
There’s also a rather brave quality of some of Pfeiffer’s choices which show how power can oftentimes corrupt a woman. Rose Cook Lewis from A Thousand Acres becomes a sort of land barron, taking over the family farm and nearly destroying her relationship with sister Ginny (Jessica Lange) as a means of revenge against their father (Jason Robards). I Am Sam’s Rita Harrison Williams is shown to have lost touch with her humanity as a result of a need to thrive in her career, White Oleander’s Ingrid Magnussen pays for the depth of her obsessions with her freedom and Stardust’s Lamia is a flat out criticism of the trappings which come with desire. While none of the characters contain much to praise, Pfeiffer nonetheless paints interesting pictures out of all of them in which she intelligently explores the darkness of femininity in various complex forms.
What’s been interesting to see over the last 10 years is that even though the nature of Pfeiffer’s parts have changed (as they would for any actress as she ages), the sensibilities within them have echoed the characters of her starlet years. I Could Never Be Your Woman’s Rosie, Hairspray’s Velma and Cheri’s Lea each see women from different eras and social experiences break a different glass ceiling by taking on positions of power. Personal Effects’ Linda and People Like Us’ Lillian are both illustrations of women dealing with grave loss and coming out the other end, while The Family’s Maggie Blake and The Wizard of Lies’ Ruth Madoff show Pfeiffer inhabiting women plagued by the actions of their husbands who emerge scarred, but strengthened.
Pfeiffer may never be recognized for her work in the way Katherine Hepburn and Faye Dunaway have been for portraying women both forceful and formidable. But through the bulk of her film output, Pfeiffer continues to bring to life time and time again to an array of characters who continue to challenge norms, customs and notions of the kind of woman who should exist in the various worlds her films are set it. Last year’s phantasmagorical mother! saw the actress in a tour-de-force turn as a 21st century Eve serving as a guardian angel to Jennifer Lawrence and Murder on the Orient Express cast her as socialite Mrs. Hubbard; a sort of bull in a China shop with no care towards 1930’s social boundaries.
At the stage in life when actresses are relegated to TV guest appearances and bit roles in forgettable films, Pfeiffer enjoys a thriving assortment of parts which have begun to surpass the careers of her contemporaries. The actress recently enjoyed some of the most glowing reviews of her career for playing a desperate woman bent on survival by any means necessary in the indie drama Where is Kyra? Meanwhile, fans eagerly await her return to the superhero genre this July as original Avengers founding member Janet van Dyne (a performance which Marvel boss Kevin Feige has labeled as “amazing” and “iconic”) in Ant-Man and the Wasp. With recent news of her starring alongside Angelina Jolie in next year’s Maleficent 2 (playing a queen, no less) causing a celebratory frenzy among fans, it seems that as Pfeiffer reaches this milestone birthday, the actress still has plenty to do and more to say.
