As a Michelle Pfeiffer fan, I was so happy to see that she was back this year with not one movie, but three. What’s next for her?
—Christina Strayer, Salt Lake City, Utah
Pfeiffer, 54, is rumored to be in talks to play Robert De Niro’s wife in an upcoming mob comedy, but when asked about it, she would not confirm it. “I’m looking at something, but it’s not definite, so I can’t say,” she says coyly.
The Santa Ana, Calif.-born actress has taken several acting hiatuses to devote time to her husband, writer/producer David E. Kelley, and two children. But her daughter’s leaving for college was part of the impetus for Pfeiffer to do get back in the game with the films “New Year’s Eve,” “Dark Shadows” and “People Like Us.”
“It’s a big deal, for me, not for her,” says the actress of her newly graduated daughter. “I adjusted, and I worked a lot. I think that was part of my coping by avoiding the whole thing. And now I have one more year with my son, and I am looking ahead. I am sort of good at looking ahead for disaster.”
The disaster that lies ahead, according to Pfeiffer, is empty-nest syndrome. “I am sort of preparing myself. I think I am slowly easing my way back into being in the workforce. Which, by the way, I am happy to do, because I love working, and I am so lucky that I have that in my life, because if I didn’t, I think the transition of the kids leaving, it’d be hard.”
But family wasn’t the only reason for Pfeiffer’s absence from the screen. The other reason she hasn’t worked as much in the past decade as previously is that she has very strict criteria for selecting projects: They have to be well-written, territory she hasn’t covered before, and the people involved in the films also have to be interesting to work with.
“It’s kind of a tall order, all of these things, right? That’s why I don’t work so much,” she says.
