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« Doc Corner: Democracy, Nostalgia and Deadly Protest at Slamdance | Main | Your Neighbor, Tom Hanks »
Tuesday
Jan302018

Pfeiffer in New Zealand. But why?

by Nathaniel R

Jane Campion and Michelle Pfeiffer embracing in New Zealand

Thanks to the twitter pfan account LaPfeiffer for alerting us to this but Michelle Pfeiffer was recently spotted in New Zealand hiking with her husband David E Kelley and... (gulp) Jane Campion, only one of the greatest living filmmakers. But why was she there...?

Naturally we went straight to ultimate pfantasy: Michelle starring in a Jane Campion picture! Campion's feature films have all featured exceptionally complicated female lead roles and seeing Pfeiffer dig into one of those would be bliss.

The truth is surely less exciting. 

The Daily Mail, which I hear is not exactly a bastion of fact-checking journalism, says the jaunt was merely a vacation but how do Campion and Pfeiffer even know each other?

If it was business related perhaps it was business on Kelley's end. (He and Pfeiffer do not generally work together). He works almost exclusively in television and Campion herself has been spending more time on TV (see Top of the Lake) than in film (her last picture was the exquisite Bright Star, 2009). But if this does lead to a pfuture Pfeiffer/Campion collaboration we would like to purchase tickets today very much thank you. 

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Reader Comments (17)

You know she would have turned down The Piano because of nudity and bla bla bla. She always had the biggest talent and the worst taste.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAda

I'm just happy to see her.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered Commentermarkgordonuk

Still think she would've been amazing in Silence of the Lambs. Beat it Jodie Foster!

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterDAVID

She also said no to LA Confidential. Oh, dear... Well, why not ? I lost Gone With The Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and Who' s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? ! Think about it !

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterBette Davis

I think Michelle is willing to be more daring now that her children are grownups. Daring in the Annette Bening without the nudity.


Can we live in a world where all three Witches of Eastwick are Best Actress winners?


Still think she would've been amazing in Silence of the Lambs. Beat it Jodie Foster!

Lambs would not be the cultural touchstone without the combination of cast and crew it had under the circumstances in which it was made.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered Commenter/3rtful

LOVE Pfeiffer but she would have been totally miscast in Silence, Foster is the major factor in that movie being successful as it was.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPeter

We may not know for a long time or may never know. She is often spotted with Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, but she never works with Spielberg. I sometimes wonder if Michelle Pfeiffer could have gotten the role in The Post that Meryl Streep got. Pfeiffer is a few years younger than Kay Graham was during the Pentagon Papers case, but Streep is a few years older than Graham was. Pfeiffer could have easily gotten the role if Spielberg wanted to cast her.

Does anyone know why Pfeiffer's role in Ant Man and the Wasp is not in the trailer and is hardly mentioned in other preview materials?

It's just criminal how much Hollywood underrates Pfeiffer.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterClaire Haegl

Michelle Pfeiffer in a Jane Campion film? SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY!!!!! I want to fucking see that.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterthevoid99

Dude, this is beyond creepy. Don't encourage paparazzi posting this type of photos.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterMe34

We can only wish and hope for such a collaboration because Pfeiffer + Campion = SUBLIME.
A while ago it was reported that Campion was developing "Runaway," an amazing collection of stories written by the brilliant Alice Munro. I always thought Pfeiffer would have been the perfect choice for the lead role in the title story of an older woman with a recently deceased husband who tries to help out a young neighbor in a bad relationship. Alas, the project seems to have disappeared.
As a sidebar, Pedro Almodovar adapted three interconnected stories from the same collection for his movie "Julieta."

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterkirstopher24

I have to ask peopke who has seen The Silence of the Lambs when it was released: did you feel any lesbian tension coming from Foster?

I only saw the movie in the late 90's, and from that moment to now, the queer vibe of the movie is defeaning. Am I seeing the movie based on Foster's personal life or did she try to sell one more nuance of the part in her performance?

The performance is already sublime without the queerness of Clarice being a conscious decision by Foster, of course. No matter how good Pfeiffer is as an actress, I don't think she'd able to sell this aspect of the part.

I think Pfeiffer is the most constant actress, with very good performances in a lot of movies, and Foster is the greater actress if you count her peaks (Silence, Nell, Contact), but, in general, her career has many more lazy performances than Pfeiffer's.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

Foster’s Oscar-winning role that Pfeiffer could’ve aced is in The Accused, not in Silence of the Lambs.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterMareko

I have to agree that Michelle would have been miscast in Silence of the Lambs. Usually, the actor is right to pass on a particular project. I also can't imagine Michelle as Kay Graham, but I think Spielberg wanted only Hanks and Streep for those roles in The Post and he got them. I do hope Michelle gets a lead role worthy of her talents.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterJono

Jane Campion is one of Nicole Kidman’s best friends. Michelle and Nicole have recently been sitting together at various awards shows celebrating Big Little Lies. Michelle tells Nicole: “David and I are going to New Zealand in Jan.” Nicole says; “Oh I’ll hook you up with Jane. She can show you around.”

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterRich

I’m pretty sure (that like many NZers) Jane Campion lives in Australia, so this was unlikely a chance meeting.

January 30, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterDrG

I initially thought that was Vanessa Redgrave she was embracing and I got even more excited...

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAaron

I was going to say the same thing as Rich! Nicole gave them the hot tip.

January 31, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterGlenn Dunks
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