“They were very controlling”: the cult Michelle Pfeiffer got caught up in
Most people of sound and reasonable mind probably believe they’re too switched-on to fall prey to being indoctrinated into a cult, but Michelle Pfeiffer ended up falling in with a very unusual group without even realising until long afterwards that their belief system fit them neatly into the category.
It wasn’t until years later that she grasped what was going on, even if the organisation’s unique approach to wellness was hardly perpetuated among all facets of society. Not only that, but the lightbulb didn’t even go off in her head until she was researching a role, and it wasn’t one of hers, either.
By this point, Pfeiffer had already started off her acting career with a number of guest spots on television and several bit-parts in movies, with Grease 2 intended to ignite her ascent to stardom. By her own admission, things did not go according to plan in that regard, but she was off to the races by 1983 after she secured her genuine breakthrough in Brian De Palma’s gangster classic Scarface.
As the star explained to The Telegraph, the born and raised California native initially fell in with the wrong crowd when she first started out in Hollywood. “They were very controlling,” she said. “I wasn’t living with them, but I was there a lot, and they were always telling me I needed to come more.”
The unnamed troupe hardly saw her as anything other than a means to earn money, with Pfeiffer admitting she “had to pay for all the time I was there, so it was financially very draining”. For her expenditure, the future Academy Award nominee was bestowed with the learnings of the breatharian lifestyle, where practitioners believe human beings don’t need food to survive when all of the necessary nutrients can be derived directly from the sun.
It goes without saying that it is not based on any semblance of scientific fact, but Pfeiffer nonetheless remained oblivious to the cult-like tendencies of her breatharian brethren. It was only when her first husband, Peter Horton, was cast in a film about cults – 1982’s Split Image – and began digging deep into his character that things clicked.
The storyline follows a high school student with Olympic dreams who gets lured into a cult with a charismatic frontman. It was only then that it dawned on Pfeiffer she’d accidentally ended up in one during her younger years, although she was at least wise enough to put plenty of distance between herself and the breatharians before she began making serious headway in the industry.
Celebrities and superstars often have opinions and beliefs that can come across as strange to those not part of their exclusive circles. It’s difficult to imagine that Pfeiffer would have gotten anywhere as far as she did had she carried on down her previous path and told the world eating food is for suckers when the sun is right there.
