From: Chicago-Sun Times
January 20, 2002
BY CINDY PEARLMAN
LOS ANGELES--Michelle Pfeiffer says she's worried about her looks.
Really. No kidding.
''Some days, I feel fabulous and other days, I feel like I just want to crawl under a rock. I look in the mirror and see all the flaws,'' she says.
Flaws?
''I see all the fine lines.''
Pfeiffer, 43, reed-thin, cheekbones like ski slopes, glistening blond hair, perfectly crinkled, black Armani suit jacket, lots of cleavage and crisp black pants--says, ''You've seen the pictures of me in the supermarket rags where I shouldn't have been outside my house. I can hear the American public thinking, 'What was she thinking going out in public looking like that?' ''
She admits that being a beautiful woman in Hollywood isn't always a day at the beach. ''I think people do objectify beautiful women,'' she says. ''They sort of cease to see them as human beings.''
Pfeiffer's new film, the critically acclaimed ''I Am Sam,'' opens Friday. In the film, Sean Penn plays a mentally disabled man raising his 6-year-old daughter. When the courts take the child away, Penn finds Rita (Pfeiffer), a tough-as-nails, fit-throwing, compulsive lawyer and embarrasses her into taking his case.
She relished the idea of playing a hot-headed, career-driven lawyer who can barely remember the names of her husband and child. ''I will never admit to seeing anything of myself in this character!'' Pfeiffer says. As for her Rita character's hissy fits while driving, complete with verbal tantrums, the calm Pfeiffer admits, ''I don't scream at people in the car. But I did once throw a television remote and smashed it to smithereens.''
Of her role, she says, ''At first, I didn't want to really push the envelope. I tried to soften her edges a bit. I'd say to Sean, 'Well, maybe I should be a little bit nicer here' and he'd say, 'No, I think you should be more of a bitch. I know women who act this way.' Then I got to into it that the director was like, 'Hey Michelle, maybe you should pull it back a few notches.' But by that time I was just enjoying myself a little too much.
''It's very liberating to be so awful! It's fun to have permission to let it rip.''
Pfeiffer, who grew up in Southern California, was never even a wild child. ''I knew that I wanted to be an actress at 4, but my mother didn't do anything about it,'' she says. ''Of course, I also went through my period of wanting to be a therapist and a shrink, but that was only when I was really mad at my parents and I was like, 'Fine, I'm going to help other children deal with their horrible parents so no one will have it as hard as I have it!' ''
The truth is, Pfeiffer didn't have it that rough. ''My mother used to let me stay up way too late at night to watch old movies with her, which is honestly where the acting bug comes from. I remember watching these black and white images and thinking, 'I can do that if someone just lets me climb into the TV.' ''
After a stint as a supermarket bagger, Pfeiffer was discovered and hired as the hot pants-wearing lead in the dismal ''Grease 2'' and such classics as ''Delta House,'' ''B.A.D. Catts'' and ''Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen.'' Afterward, Pfeiffer made it her business to resist playing arm candy to her leading men. ''I consciously didn't accept too many roles that just relied on me standing there being beautiful,'' she says. ''The end result is that early in my career I spent a lot of time unemployed.
''Then I got really lucky and Jonathan Demme cast me in 'Married to the Mob.' That really changed the way that people saw me and it sort of made them take notice and say, 'Oh, I guess that she can do a lot of other things like act.' So that was pivotal in terms of being thought of the way I want to be thought of, which is as a character actress.''
Wait, Michelle Pfeiffer sees herself as a character actress? The star of ''Scarface," ''The Witches of Eastwick'' and ''The Fabulous Baker Boys'' laughs, sips her tea and nods. ''Yes, there have been times when I longed for that type of interesting character face that can be so expressive. When you have my face, they don't want you to stretch. You run up against so many limitations.''
Pfeiffer won't let age limit her. ''The other day I was asked for my beauty secrets and I was like, 'Oh God!' I must admit that being an actress who is my age, the maintenance regime gets a little more complex than it used to be. Just getting out the door takes me a bit longer.
''When I was younger, I lived off Coca-Cola and I smoked cigarettes and drank gallons of coffee. I didn't exercise and I could get away with it. Now I can't do any of the above. I've also found that the older you get the more you feel everything. I feel every workout at the gym. I feel bad when I don't sleep well. The lines show. So, you have to take care of yourself.'' She shrugs and says, ''I guess it's all about balance.''
She also finds enough time to spend with her two children, daughter Claudia Rose, 9, and son Jack, 7. ''I experience a lot of mom guilt. It's tough because I can't bring the kids to all the sets anymore, which they find boring although they love all the junk food that's on a movie set. To them, that's the best part because I don't keep this crud at home.''
As for her husband, the prolific writer and producer David E. Kelly of ''Ally McBeal,'' ''The Practice'' and ''Boston Public'' fame, Pfeiffer laughs when the journalist asks if she ever sees him. ''Yeah, he's probably home more than I am,'' she says. ''He writes at home after he takes the kids to school in the morning.''
As for their life, it's not what you might expect. Forget the gala parties and closets full of expensive ballgowns and tuxes. ''We would rather stay home on a Saturday night,'' she admits. ''I remember once we were at this premiere and David whispered to me, ''Honey, can we just go home?'' And I remember thinking, 'Oh God, I love this man because I'm thinking the exact same thing and I'm so lucky that he likes to just sit on the couch and watch TV.' ''