Almost There: Michelle Pfeiffer in "White Oleander"

by Cláudio Alves

This past weekend, actressexuals and Pfeiffer pfans were scandalized when Lucas Hedges revealed he had never seen a movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer before working with her on French Exit. I kid, while also admitting I was surprised. Being only two years older than Hedges, I've seen plenty of Pfeiffer movies as have many of my friends, ranging from work by renowned auteurs to blockbuster fare. Hers is a varied filmography. She may have only been nominated thrice for the Oscars, but Michelle Pfeiffer has delivered a fair share of awards-worthy star turns and her range is quite expansive. Equally brilliant in big leading parts and small supporting roles, broad comedy and thrilling drama, Pfeiffer is one of my favorite actresses and I'd love nothing more than to share my adoration with you, dear readers.

With that in mind, let's delve into one of the best performances in her resume. Maybe more than any other of her other films, White Oleander got Michelle Pfeiffer very close to that elusive fourth Oscar nod…

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Pfandom: Scarface

P F A N D O M  
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 9
by Nathaniel R 

Michelle Pfeiffer was not an overnight success, nor was Elvira Hancock in Scarface (1983), a true star-making role. That's hard to fathom now that the movie is so embedded in pop culture but the early fame attached to the movie was Pacino Ham and de Palma Excess specific. Pfeiffer's Movie Star Ascendance was four or five years away but with Scarface, The Actress inside her arrived...

So the natural place to focus is Elvira Hancock's own entrance. We first spot that gangster's moll when Tony (Al Pacino) does, turned away from us in a backless gown in the home of local crime boss Frank (Robert Loggia). She descends into the scene by elevator, like a trophy encased in glass. Her body language is all impatience though not in the practical sense or she might have glided down the stairs with more speed. The sleek teal gown is cut down to there in front, saving all its fabric for Pfeiffer's lower half.  It flows with her every shift in movement, dancing around her legs as if it's already at the club Elvira's so eager to get to...

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Get Caught Up on "Pfandom"

P  F  A  N  D  O  M 
P F E I F F E R    R E T R O S P E C T I V E
Series Resumes March 31st. Saturdays at TFE

Coming Soon... Watch Along With the Series!
March 31st: Scarface (1983)
April 7th: Into the Night (1985) 
April 14th: Ladyhawke (1985)
April 21st: Sweet Liberty (1986)

Until then get caught up with...
Episode 1 Miss Orange County Beauty Queen
Episode 2 Early Bit Parts on TV
Episode 3 TV Recurring Roles Delta House and more
Episode 4 The Hollywood Knights (1980), her film debut
Episode 5 TV Movie Callie & Son (1981)
Episode 6 TV Movies Splendor in the Grass and The Children Nobody Wanted (1981)
Episode 7 Falling in Love Again (1980) and Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)
Episode 8 First Starring Role: Grease 2 (1982)
 

Pfandom: Cool Rider and a Pink (Leading) Lady

on the set of Grease 2, her first lead roleP F A N D O M  
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 8 
by Nathaniel R 

We've mostly focused on Michelle Pfeiffer's acting in our Pfandom retrospective. We're sure the star who has described herself as "extremely private" would like it that way, but this would be the appropriate time for a brief bit of personal context.

Though the young actress had been working nonstop since the late 70s in television roles and a few features, she'd been struggling offscreen. She was impatient with the way her career was developing. She'd also become involved with a cult, an experience she's always been cagey about in interviews. She had given them too much of her money and was eating strangely at their insistence. In 1981, she took back control of her life.

At the Grease 2 premiere in NYC with her new husband Peter Horton and producer Allan Carr

Two marriages and two divorces (of sorts): in her personal life she fell in love with fellow up-and-coming actor Peter Horton (who would later become a TV star on thirtysomething), and broke free from the cult; in her professional life she dumped her first agent to sign with the much more powerful William Morris Agency. The shakeup had an immediate effect on her career...

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Pfandom: "Falling in Love Again" and "...Dragon Queen"

Pfeiffer instantly sentimentalized, with a halo no less, in her first scene in "Falling in Love Again"P F A N D O M  
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 7 
by Nathaniel R 

There are an infinite number of worse people to grow up to look like than British star Susannah York but somehow it's hard to buy that that's who Michelle Pfeiffer would become. Pfeiffer was still a pre-teen when Susannah York hit her career peak, most notably in a string of erotically charged and sometimes controversial 1960s movies like Tom Jones, The Killing of Sister George, X Y and Zee, and They Shoot Horses Don't They (the latter brought her her only, but well deserved, Oscar nomination). By the time Pfeiffer was hitting the movies and cast to play York as a young girl, York's star was fading. York had recently been reduced to a merely decorative alien maternal presence in Superman (1978) and now a young actress was playing the idealized version of her. Hollywood can be cruel that way.

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