[IMG:L]Michelle Pfeiffer may have taken a short break from movies, but this summer she is back with a vengeance. After tackling the role of malicious manager Velma von Tussle in Hairspray, she is now frightening audiences as Lamia, the evil witch looking for eternal youth in Stardust.
We sat down with Pfeiffer, who couldn’t be less frightening in real life, and talked about why she makes such a convincing witch, how she keeps up with her kids and the kind of star that is about to enter her life this summer.
HW: You’re on a mean streak this summer, between this film and Hairspray.
MP: I know. I think I’ve gotten it out of my system now. Yeah. Who knows, though? Maybe not. Maybe there’s more meanness to come.
HW: Was it the material that appealed to you?
MP: Yeah. It definitely was not a part of some big plan. In both [Hairspray and Stardust], I loved the cast that they had assembled and the directors were really, really impressive. I just felt like they were projects I was going to regret not having been a part of, if I didn’t do them.
HW: Was it frightening to look in the mirror and see Lamia?
MP: It was a little disturbing in the beginning, I have to admit. What was interesting was that I would forget that I looked how I looked. I’d be walking around the set and I’d be talking to people and all of a sudden I’d notice that people are kind of stepping back and giving me this distant look. Then I would remember. Ultimately, the most disturbing [thing] for me was seeing the image of a half-aged, half-somewhat aged face. That was really, really unsettling.
HW: Do you wonder why people think you’d be perfect for the witch? And when you do it so perfectly, does that make you wonder too?
MP: It does make you stop and think how people view you. I would like to think – this is what I tell myself anyway – that it’s because I’m so unlike the character that I will bring a sort of softer human side [to it]. Anyway, that’s what I tell myself. I know that with both Matthew [Vaughn, director of Stardust] and Adam [Shankman, director of Hairspray], we had those conversations about trying to find the human elements, the humanity, if you will in this character, and the tragedy of it. Matthew wanted to poke fun at searching for eternal youth and the lengths to which women will go to get it and the desperate need to hold onto it. Looking for the comedy in it, that was all a big selling point for me.
HW: Is working with the special effects elements something that you enjoy doing?
MP: The special effects are not really the fun part. All the special effects mean for you is that you’re acting to a vacuum. You’re just trying to make believe something is there that isn’t. It just makes your job that much harder. Yeah. Not so much fun.
[IMG:R]HW: The scenery is absolutely amazing. I was fairly certain it was CGI, but then I found out it’s the UK.
MP: We were in Scotland for a lot of that exterior and then they shot in Iceland too. The set, our witches’ lire, which is one of the most extraordinary sets I’ve ever been on, that was on a soundstage in London. They built that. It was just beautiful.
HW: You have a long history in fantasy film, going back to Ladyhawke. You must have a way to buy into it, an acceptance of the fact that fantastical things will happen in the world.
MP: If I’m around.
HW: Yeah. Exactly. You seem comfortable with this.
MP: Oddly enough, I’m not. I’m a Taurus. I’m very logical. I’m actually very unlike that, at least in my mind. Maybe that’s one of the reasons directors like to cast me in those kinds of roles, because they feel like maybe I’ll ground them in some sort of reality, and not let them spiral into total fantasy. You have to root your character in a reality. I don’t care how evil, or how magical – as an actor, you’ve got find the human being there.
HW: But having that fantasy element gives you a freedom to go a little bigger?
MP: That’s true. And that’s the danger. Because you do have the freedom. But in the case of Lamia, it’s sort of like, “Okay, but who’s going to be there to tell you when you have to reign it in a little bit?” There are a lot of pitfalls too, that you can fall into. That’s my big danger. I’ve never been really comfortable with being broad or with slapstick humor. That’s not where my comfort zone is. I have to really be encouraged to go there.
HW: What do you like about Matthew‘s films as a moviegoer?
MP: I was impressed with Layer Cake. He took a pretty straightforward story and he found a style for it and it was a very stylized piece. I was really, really impressed with how he put his stamp on it. For me, that’s what you’re looking for in any director and certainly in a director for this genre of movie. You want somebody who’s going to have a very strong visual sense. I got that from watching Layer Cake.
HW: What did you think of Robert De Niro as a cross-dressing pirate?
MP: It’s hysterical. Who would have thought, Robert De Niro in a tutu? That was, I think, what made me want to do the movie. I read the script and I read that scene and I knew De Niro was playing that part. I thought, ‘I have to do this movie.’
[IMG:L]HW: Is this a movie that you think is going to be good for kids?
MP: As a parent, I think it’s challenging to find things, because kids are so much more sophisticated, at such a younger age. I think it’s challenging as a parent to satisfy their tastes and their curiosity. At the same time, how do you protect them? I think this movie does both of those things, because I think it is darker than your typical fantasy movie but I don’t think it really crosses a line where I would have any reservations about my kids [seeing it]. Would you want maybe a 5-year-old to see it? No. Harry Potter’s gotten pretty dark, and that’s our audience.
