By Bonnie Siegler

 
At 49 years of age, Michelle Pfeiffer looks every inch as fetching as she did slithering atop the piano in her red va-voom dress as the sexy chanteuse Suzie Diamond in “The Fabulous Baker Boys”.  And who could forget Pfeiffer in her form-fitting “Batman Returns” black catsuit.  But perhaps audiences’ fascination with this beautiful A-list Hollywood actress can be found in her singing roots in “Grease 2”.  Along the way, this three time Academy Award nominated actress – “Love Field”, “The Fabulous Baker Boys”, “Dangerous Liaisons” – has turned in powerful performances alongside powerful leading men.  Twice she took on Al Pacino - “Frankie and Johnny” and “Scarface”, “What Lies Beneath” with Harrison Ford, “The Russia House” opposite Sean Connery and “I Am Sam” with Sean Penn.  And each time, Michelle made a strong impression with her stunning looks, haunting style and undiluted talent.  She has since become one of the motion picture industry’s most respected actresses and ranks as a top-grossing box office star.  Confident in her Hollywood position, or some would say lackadaisical attitude towards her solid star status, Pfeiffer moved to Northern California with writer/director husband David E. Kelly and their two children, taking a five year hiatus from the bright lights and big screen. 

            Today, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Pfeiffer comes into the room dressed in a black sheer V-neck blouse with black cami, dark jeans, stiletto heels and gold hoop earrings answering any questions one might have of her ever-lasting beauty and star status.  Michelle now stars in the musical re-adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 cult classic “Hairspray” portraying racist and not-so-merry widow Velma Von Tussle who acts as the television station manager.  In this role, the actress returns to her singing roots, handling the physical, comedic and singing challenges of the villainous role.  With an unmatched style, energy and commitment, Pfeiffer shows us, once again, why she is one of Hollywood’s favorite leading ladies. 

Co-star Amanda Bynes calls you a perfect evil character.  And your on-screen nemesis Queen Latifah says you played a pretty good villain.  How difficult was it to get into such a racist, evil kind of mindset?

It was hard.  That was the hardest thing.  I’ve played some evil characters before.  I’ve played some killers.  I signed on to do this and then I sort of inched my way towards this character which was hard and then one day, of course I knew it, but it registered, oh my God!… I’m playing a racist.  That was really hard.  I started to second guess doing it.  I talked to the family because certainly I understood that the message of the piece was really important and certainly the message of the movie is anti-racism and anti-bigotry.  I spoke with my kids because I wanted to make sure they understood that look, this is what the movie’s about, it’s a really important movie and in order to do a movie about racism, somebody has got to be the racist and it’s me. (laughs).  They were okay, they got it and I’m so glad I did it because I had a lot of fun playing the part even though there were some lines I honestly could not remember because they were so hateful.  Literally I’d be doing the scene and I’m come up blank.  I’d be looking at Dana (Queen Latifah’s real first name) and it was interesting what my brain did. 

It wasn’t just racism that was tucked away in the film – there were so many narrow views about so many things and how closed society was to it in the 60s.  And you had to think it was in your lifetime that we were that society.

Well, even more frightening to me was the only reason the movie got made or another version of the story got made again, is because it’s still relevant.  I am hoping that the next time somebody decides to do their version of “Hairspray”, someone will say “you know what, it’s really kind of an outdated idea and not really relevant today”.  Wouldn’t that be nice??!!.  The bigger picture of the movie is really about that we need to stop being so threatened by anything that is different.  And out of our comfort zone and when we find something that is outside of our comfort zone that is basically unknown or not like me, I don’t understand it, I better squash it.   It’s that sort of accepting of people’s differences.  Anyway, I think it does such a good job without being heavy-handed.  It’s just sort of you being entertained, having such a good time and this really important message is just being wafted over you without you even realizing it. 

Can you talk a little bit also about self image for young women out there and how important that is?

Well, young women have such a big challenge ahead of them now and the trend doesn’t seem to be going away nor does it seem to be getting better.  And I know the fashion industry is sort of trying to make efforts but it sort of feels half-hearted.  The truth is, it’s women doing it to each other.  I don’t think men really want women to be doing all of this stuff to themselves and to be undernourished and bony and sort of grotesque plastic surgery.  So it’s like why are we doing this to each other and for each other? 

I was actually watching the movie and thinking how much I loved the 60s styles and fashion much more than today and of course, you’re still very fashionable…

Fashion is so confused today.  I don’t even know what to say about it.  You can see it’s just like leftovers or something.  It’s yeah…I’m not loving it right now.

They’re trying to take some inspiration from the older fashions – are you able to do that too – being able to bring of the 60s class back?

You know, honestly, that era is not my favorite for women.  I do think that the clothes are beautiful but when I look at women from that era, all I can think of is how uncomfortable they look.  It’s just like everything is so fitted, so pressed, and the makeup is so heavy and the hair is all sprayed and the clip-on earrings…the shoes.  It just looks like it all hurts – and it did.  Your feet were killing you and your ears were on fire. 

You always had a sense of humor of being Miss Orange County – did twirling the baton in “Hairspray” sort of make you a bit nostalgic?  It looked like you were having fun doing it. 

Well, (laughs) it actually was a lot of hard work.  I had to adapt to a new way of singing and the kind of discipline that I didn’t have.  I had to train my voice because my voice had just gone to seed (laughs).   Then I had to lip sync and learn the dance in those shoes that were killing my feet; then we’d go into the thing and now I have to do the baton so it was a lot to be thinking about at one time.

The Fabulous Baker Boys fan clubs say you were one of the best lip syncers ever, so were you completely out of touch with it all before doing the movie? 

This one is harder and I think I know why.  I think because I was playing a lounge singer in Baker Boys, so when I sang those songs it was my rhythm, my interpretation, I fell into sort of a natural performance and interpretation of those lyrics whereas with this, I was sort of confined to a certain melody, a certain tempo, it was unchangeable.  The character was way different.  Suzie Diamond was probably closer to me than Velma so, it was harder because I think I sang in a less instinctual way. 

Can you talk about your scenes with Dana?

The hardest thing working with Dana is we would just crack up.  There was one scene I was particularly hateful to her; I was being so stupid and I was really having a hard time not laughing.  I am just so grateful that she is so mensche-y and has such a great sense of humor.  She really is such an awesome person, because I couldn’t do those scenes with anyone who wasn’t.  She enabled me to really, really go for it and really commit because I knew she was not absorbing it.  I knew she was feeling how hard it was for me.

Do you have any conscious memory of Negro Day like the local TV dance show portrays?  A lot of local shows like that did have such a day.  

I don’t remember it at all.  And it’s interesting - somebody made a comment that these kids who, you know, younger kids who really don’t have any memory of the sixties, to have that segregation.  So I think that the opportunity for dialog is really huge with his movie. 

“Stardust” looks amazing and it seems like you might be playing another villain character.  Did you find another way into that like you said in this one about racism and there has to be a racist…did you find a way into the “Stardust” character similarly?   

Even though my character is sort of being talked about as the villain of Stardust, everyone is a villain in Stardust.  I’m probably the ugliest villain in Stardust, for sure (laughs) and the oldest because I age…I’m 5,000 years old or something ridiculous like that, but I think as fun as these characters I play in the beginning, you don’t want to fall into the trap of just going out and being mean.  Mean people don’t think they’re being mean; mean people think they’re completely justified in their outbursts or their comments and the truth underneath it all is they’re fighting and angry, they feel like the victim, as twisted as they might be, so that’s also why it’s so interesting to play those because you kind of get to figure that all out.

Both “Hairspray” and “Stardust” are ensemble pieces where the whole pressure of the movie isn’t hanging on you.  Is that by design or just something that happened?

It’s probably subconsciously by design because when I look at doing something and have to be away and travel away from the kids, if it’s at a time when they can’t come with me like during the school year, then I need to be able to come back and forth.  Because I need to not be away from them more than a week or two – that’s sort of my limit.  But it probably has had a lot of influence over my choices too.

You also talked about sitting down and talking to the family when making the decision of doing Hairspray.  Is that something that happens a lot?

I don’t normally, no.  Unless there’s something that I feel might affect them in some way.  And something that might cause them embarrassment and might cause them to be uncomfortable in any way, then I would discuss it with them.

One of the things we learned is the way we’re taught as children defines us for the rest of our lives.  As you have become a mother and you’re raising your children, what is the single most important message that you try and impart to them that you want them to carry the rest of their lives?

(long pause)  That’s tough.  (pause).  Well, I think it’s actually not one single thing.  It would have to be two because I think they’re equally important.  It’s to be resilient and to be empathetic.  I think if you can raise kids to embody those two qualities, then they will have a rich and successful life.

How much do you think living outside of Hollywood helps them?

I think it helps a little bit, but then again, it’s not just living outside of Hollywood.  It sort of well, you can pick a worse place than Hollywood (laughs).  I think it’s helped us as a family to be less distracted and David and I to be less distractive as parents, even though I think we were pretty good when we lived there, too.  But I think we wanted to have more land and we wanted to have animals on our property and you couldn’t do that there.  Honestly, no.  So I think it’s just a different kind of lifestyle we were looking for – to try something different.

You talk about your work schedule.  David is always writing shows – is he able to do that from home or do you have similar discussions `can I launch this show while’…

Well, he’s a writer/producer and he has a lot of people who are handling a lot of the producing part of it; he primarily writes a lot and he can write really anywhere.  But he does commute to Los Angeles a lot – once a week he’ll come down or every few weeks.  So it works out pretty well.  And people come up there and it’s not that far. 

What was your fashion decade that you liked?

I didn’t like early 60s, late 50s.  Even though it’s 60s, the look is really 50s in the movie.  I think probably the 40s – it was just glamorous…everything was good.