The one movie Michelle Pfeiffer wishes she could delete from history: “I hated that film with a vengeance”
Long before Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars namechecked her in a certain 2014 hit, Michelle Pfeiffer was established as a cultural heavyweight.
Breaking through in the 1980s, Pfeiffer starred in a host of classic movies such as Scarface, The Witches of Eastwick and Dangerous Liaisons. By the end of the decade, she was one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, with studios and directors acutely aware of her name’s power to make a title a hit. It’s no small feat to become a household name like that, and it is an even tougher mountain to climb when you have to contend with starting out in perhaps one of the worst sequels in history.
Pfeiffer built on the stellar reputation she had cultivated during the ’80s by continuing to find success into the 1990s. The decade would prove to be a confirmation of Pfeiffer’s growing acclaim, perhaps typified by her standout role in the era-defining movie Dangerous Minds, which is as revered today as it was upon release.
Her most memorable role, however, came as Catwoman in Tim Burton’s 1992 outing Batman Returns, a turn in the leather-clad feline woman that has yet to be topped. Even 30 years later, it beats Anne Hathaway and Zoë Kravitz’s subsequent iterations by a country mile. It stays true to the subject material while Pfeiffer instils the character with something she does with all her characters – an ice-cool authenticity that is both impossibly alluring and yet somehow deadly.
1992 was a fruitful year for the American actor. That year, she earned her third Academy Award nomination for the JFK assassination drama Love Field, where she starred opposite Dennis Haysbert. The following year, she gained plaudits for her role in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence before starring in Wolf and Dangerous Minds in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Both titles only served to crystallise her standing.
Although she might not be as busy as she once was, Pfeiffer’s name still commands respect, and she has maintained quality throughout her career. 2007 saw her have a resurgence of sorts as the primary antagonist in the musical Hairspray and Neil Gaiman adaptation, Stardust, with both productions being immensely successful at the box office. Since then, she’s worked on a range of other successes, including Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! and 2020’s French Exit. For the latter, she received a Golden Globe nomination.
It’s the kind of career that can, on the face of it, seem like a visage without blemishes. But to reach the top of the mountain, Pfeiffer had to start out in a valley, and that valley was perhaps the lowest ebb of her entire career.
Despite experiencing much success, this has not stopped Pfeiffer from harbouring regrets about specific moments in her career. Like any actor worth their salt, Pfeiffer has made a few missteps in her career, and while she would likely acknowledge their ability to harden the skin, there’s a good chance she would rather one movie was simply deleted from her filmography, even if it would upset thousands of cult fans.
The film she regrets the most is 1982’s Grease 2. It was Pfeiffer’s first lead role and acted as the sequel to 1978’s Grease, the film was a complete disaster commercially and critically and is considered one of the worst follow-ups of all time.
Pfeiffer made her contempt for the film clear when speaking to Hollywood.com, telling them that she “hated that film with a vengeance and could not believe how bad it was”. She then explained that her decision to star in it was down to one thing, youthful naivety: “I was young and didn’t know any better.”
For those who loved the original movie, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the picture felt too far removed from the original glory. Sure, the first iteration of Rydell High was cheesy as a parmesan warehouse, but the second instalment took things up a couple of stinking notches. It was riddled with unwelcome chintz, and it was quickly lambasted upon release.
However, in recent years, the picture has started to regain popularity. Operating as a tangy counterpart to the sickly sweet original, complete with post-modern self-reference and an understanding of itself as a chintzy musical, Grease 2 likely has more fans now than ever before. But that doesn’t mean Pfeiffer’s view has softened on it. For her, Grease 2, is a movie best left forgotten.
