“I have such fond memories”: the only Michelle Pfeiffer performance that doesn’t make her cringe
Considering she got her big break in the much-maligned Grease 2 (which actually isn’t as bad as most people say), Michelle Pfeiffer has done incredibly well for herself.
From her early success in the 1980s to her modern status as a bona fide icon, she has found that highly-coveted balance between mainstream acceptance, critical triumph, and longevity, which isn’t bad for someone who once sang a song called ‘Cool Rider’ while climbing up and down a ladder.
One of the many wonderful characters she has played over her career is Susie Diamond, a lounge singer who teams up with the titular characters in the 1989 film The Fabulous Baker Boys. The story follows Jack and Frank Baker, two struggling pianists who revive their fortunes with Susie’s help, and Jeff Bridges once labelled it the best movie ever made about the music industry, although given that he and his brother Beau play Jack and Frank respectively, he might have been a little biased.
In a 2021 interview with Deadline, Pfeiffer was asked if she would ever get back on top of a piano and recreate that iconic shot from the film; she said no, quite categorically, but did admit that she was happy to look back at the original.
“It is one of the performances that doesn’t make me cringe,” she declared, “I was terrified to do that singing, and it was a lot of hard work, and I have such fond memories working with those Bridges boys and with [director] Steve Kloves. I had read that script five years prior, but nobody wanted to make it with me, and somehow it came back to me. And so it meant a lot to me for so many reasons.”
Pfeiffer had spoken previously about how much she loved playing Diamond and how she wished she were more like her in real life, and despite the hardships she has experienced, the young songstress is brimming with confidence, as demonstrated by her very memorable performance of the song ‘Makin’ Whoopee’.
The character is widely regarded as one of the sexiest in film history, and Pfeiffer’s performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’, while also helping establish her as a bankable leading lady.
The blonde bombshell also dropped a fascinating tidbit during this interview that would have sent fans of The Fabulous Baker Boys into a tizzy. “Jeff and I have been torturing Steve about doing a sequel,” she said, which goes against a claim Beau made shortly after the film’s release that the story was definitively over.
Kloves hasn’t directed a feature film since 1993’s Flesh and Bone, instead focusing on writing and producing. There hasn’t been much movement on this subject since Pfeiffer spoke to Deadline, but in Hollywood, the one thing you can never rule out is a legacy sequel.
Even if we never get to see Susie Diamond ever again, she made more than enough of an impression the first time around, on both the general public and the woman who brought her to life.
