Though she never attained the box-office clout to warrant it, Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the few female actresses who answers to Movie Star. Beautiful, elegant, talented, beautiful, Pfeiffer would have been a screen icon in any era, and at 50 she’s still got It.
Movie Stars, however, don’t typically appear in straight-to-DVD films. Personal Effects (pictured), though, in which Pfeiffer costars with Kathy Bates and Ashton Kutcher, will be released on video on May 12. This follows I Could Never Be Your Woman, a sweet romance with Paul Rudd that limped straight to video last year.
Is Pfeiffer a victim of the shrinking independent scene, poor career choices, or just a shifting audience that can’t recall how she looks atop a piano? This June, she’ll headline Stephen Frears’ Parisian romance, Cheri, but what she needs is a winning role in a studio film. She was funny and sexy in 2007’s Hairspray, and I still think she was George Clooney’s most formidable onscreen gal, in 1996’s One Fine Day. While her female contemporaries are proving there’s life after 50, it would be a shame for Pfeiffer to be wasting her time in films cast directly into the $3.99 rack.
What was the last Michelle Pfeiffer movie you saw in the theater? Would you like to see her in another romantic comedy? How about a Woody Allen film?
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I thought she was fantastic in “Stardust” and was surprised there was no major Best Supporting Actress Oscar buzz for it.
I might be wrong, but I think that Michelle is more interested in being a wife and mother than in being an actress. As far as the sort of film roles I’d like to see her take on, I’d like to see her explore her cold, dark side, as she did to great effect in Batman Returns and White Oleander.
I personally thought she was going to get some recognition for Stardust and Hairspray, two of her better performances. However, I feel that she is one of those acttresses whom we all expect great things from, so when she does wow us, we don’t feel the effects becuase we expected it to a degree. She definitely has a career ahead of her, I just feel right now she is stuck in the ‘nothing’ time frame where roles are either too young or too old for her. But I still have faith in her. And yes, a Woody Allen film would do her talent justice. Hell, it does almost any talent justice – just look at Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
i love the pfeif but it seems like hollywood has no idea what to do with her (which means their lazy and still wanna give jessica alba work)… id love to see the pfeif work in a woody allen movie… besides almodovar and tarantino, he’s the best director that knows how to write great material for women.
Nic Cage’s movies deserve to go straight-to-DVD.
I’ve loved me some Michelle Pfiefer ever since Grease 2. She’s been so fantastic in so many movies including one of my top five: The Age of Innocence, (talk about Oscar snub). I hate that she’s going straight to DVD, she certainly deserves better but that’s just the way it goes. Would love for her to make a comeback in a role that does her talent justice. Thought White Oleander was the part but, oh well.
This lady should be in the same level of a Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and so one. But instead is in the level of an Annete Bening and Glen Close: wonderful actress that dont have the chance and the luck they deserve in this industry. It is a shame.
Plese, some studio or director give this woman a big role… Now!
As much as I am a big Pfeiffer fan, I think she also is more interested in raising her family at the moment than her career. When Stardust came out I recall reading an interview that she was very content moving out of LA and only taking roles that held interest for her. Regardless she will always be a star-a naturally gifted actress who was more than a stunning face. I always respected the fact she went after rich, interesting roles (and not just try to cash in on her looks) like Batman Returns, Married to the Mob and Fabulous Baker Boys. Pity she was up against Jessica Tandy for the oscar that year.
I just saw I Could never be your woman, a great funny film, she looks beautiful and Paul Rudd proves what a great romantic leading man he can be!!!
I saw “Stardust” with little to no expectations, and I was so surprised by how good Michelle Pfeiffer was in it. I shouldn’t have been, of course, thinking back to One Fine Day, I Am Sam, Dangerous Liasons, etc. (I’m sure I’m missing plenty of good performances). Anyway, if her career is a priority at the moment (caliban821 could easily be right), I hope she sticks in there because she deserves to be right in the mix with Glenn Close, Annette Bening, and Susan Sarandon as one of the best American actresses over 50.
She is a consistently great performer (Grease 2 not included). Woody Allen doesn’t much like older women though does he? It is frustrating though to see her not get better roles.
I am a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan and am very sad that she is making films that are going straight to DVD. I am however looking forward to seeing her in Cheri. I loved Michelle in What Lies Beneath and would love to see her make a studio movie like this again.
Woody Allen does create great roles for women of all ages–look at Hannah and her Sisters & Bullets Over Broadway (both of which Dianne Weist won an Oscar for), among others. And Woody’s women do tend to win a lot of Oscars. Might be just the thing for her career.
That’s a shame. She is really talented and gorgeous.
http://tvdonewright.com/
I like Michelle too. The last movie I have seen of hers in the big screen was ‘Hairspray’ where she vamped up the role of a conniving mother/show producer to such a hilarious degree. She should have been nominated in that role — plus her singing is not only on-key but character-ful. A role in a Woody Allen would bring her back in the prestige-film radar. Or maybe from a role from films by Scorsese or P.T. Anderson or Tarantino would give her a higher profile.
I’ll have to disagree on the George Clooney part. That formidable-foe title goes to Jennifer Lopez in “Out of Sight.” However, “One Fine Day” is one of my favorite rainy-day movies. It’s always on Encore.
Anywho, I totally agree that Michelle Pfieffer needs a career reboot. I loved her in “Hairspray.”
I have already posted a comment but I just wanted to know if anybody has got any info on what Michelle might have coming up after Cheri. Really dont think I could handle another straight to DVD movie. She needs another movie with a big name leading man.
She is great in the extremely underrated ‘Stardust’. And ‘I Could Never Be Your Woman’ is much better (and funnier) than most people probably expect it to be. It’s a shame that one went straight to video.
Oh yeah…forgot about Dianne Wiest. But yeah some award buzzworthy roles can definitely put her back in play. I hope she doesn’t end up with just her inevitable Lifetime Achievement awards and gets something for a specific role.
While I like Pfeiffer and Rudd…I could never be your woman was a terrible terrible movie. With random scenes all taped together, 2-D characters, and just overall horrible!
Michelle Pfeiffer was not cast as a ‘replacement’ Charlie’s Angels circa 1979 (Shelly Hack beat her in the audition), because apparently Aaron Spelling and the Gang didn’t think she had the acting chops or star quality for this show?
She’s proven them wrong since then, but now it seems her ‘Stardust’ or quality is wearing off, again?
I loved her in ‘White Oleander’, ‘HairSpray’, and others. However, I heard she’s ‘difficult’ to work with and even Barbra Walters mentioned that the most difficult person she’s ever interviewed was Michelle P.
This might be her ‘real’ problem.
I think she should pull a Glenn Close, and get a really good role on a cable tv series!
Acording to my mother, people seem to be more shallow today than they were back then. They still cherish good actors/actresses back then no matter their age.
I think Michelle should do a TV show it shouldn’t be beneath her and her nusband creates and produces them for goodness sakes, how about a role in “Legally Mad” the new pilot for NBC. “Cheri” is getting some Oscar Buzz so there’s hope Michelle!
The last movies I saw in theaters with Michelle Pfeiffer were “Stardust” & “Hairspray,” but before that it was a “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I have to say I enjoyed “I Could Never Be Your Woman,” which I bought in the $5 bargain bin at Wal-Mart. It wasn’t her fault that movie went straight-to-DVD, though. Weren’t there all sorts of studio problems? Still, I would like to see her do another romantic comedy. She was excellent in “One Fine Day.”
TEQUILA SUNRISE PART 2!!!! I would love to see a slicked up Kurt Russell/Mel Gibson and Pheifer in a sequel. She is the most underrated actress ever. Seriously, Julia Roberts has an Oscar and Michelle doesn’t! Also One Fine Day was Clooney’s best movie because of Michelle. She needs to get in a Woody Allen movie. Something like Melinda/Melinda or Vicky Cristina. Or she could star in a all star female movie (sans Jennifer Aniston) or get in a Alptow movie like that chick Catherine Keener did.
Michelle Pfeiffer is certainly not the only movie star with films that have went straight-to-dvd. Also, Pfeiffer has NEVER been the one to sell out by doing a BIG DUD like a film like “NEXT” year after year (ahem, Nicolas Cage), just to have her name on the marquee still. You’d be surprised, big movie stars have had their films not go to theaters. It’s very common.
Meryl Streep (Dark Matter)
Gwyneth Paltrow (Love and other Disasters, The Good Night)
Ben Affleck (Man About Town, The Third Wheel)
Penelope Cruz (Bandidas, The Good Night, Manolete)
Uma Thurman (Life Before Her Eyes, The Accidental Husband)
Meg Ryan (My Mom’s New Boyfriend, The Deal)
Naomi Watts (Ned Kelly, Stay)
Julianne Moore (Marie & Bruce)
Winston, both: Ned Kelly and Stay played at movie theaters, it was jut a limited release. I saw both movies at the local regal.
Poor Ashton Kutcher. He’s getting it from some of the oldest cougars in Hollywood. Poor kid hasn’t had a chance to be with a girl his own age.
“However, I heard she’s ‘difficult’ to work with and even Barbra Walters mentioned that the most difficult person she’s ever interviewed was Michelle P.
This might be her ‘real’ problem.”
I think you might have been misinformed. Most people say she was good to work with except one, during The Witches of Eastwick, and that was mostly bc she was promised one part but was given another. She seems to be nice on movies from what I’ve read from the extras and other insiders (An extra I knew had an encounter with her on the set of I Could Never Be Your Woman, and said she was nice, Neil Gaiman’s journal talked about Michelle Pfeiffer a bit during the filming of Stardust, and said she was nice but very shy). Also, George Clooney said that she is beautiful and also a pleasure to work with, unlike Jennifer Lopez.
As for Barbara Walters, she said Michelle Pfeiffer was the SHYEST person she interviewed. You can watch it on youtube, Babs liked her.