Looking back at the time before she took a five-year break from the industry, the 'Scarface' actress admits she went through a period when she struggled to find work due to her family schedule.
- Feb 18, 2021
AceShowbiz - Michelle Pfeiffer struggled to find work after she became a mum because movie bosses found it "too complicated" to hire her.
The "Scarface" star, who is mum to Claudia, 28, and John, 26, admits she found herself being offered less roles after her children were born, because Hollywood found it too "challenging" to work around her family schedule.
"Before the kids were born, my work was my life - and it was in a good way," she tells Town & Country magazine. "When they were small, I could just pack them up and bring them with me. But then it became, 'OK, how long will this separate the family unit?'
"When they got into school it became even more complicated, because I didn't want to just take them out of their routine, so I would shoot in the summer and tried to not be away for more than two or three weeks at a time. It became challenging for people to hire me because it was too complicated. It was easier to get somebody else to do the part."
Michelle eventually took a five-year break from Hollywood between 2012 and 2017, and only returned to the spotlight when the parts she was being offered were "getting more interesting again".
"I realised my daughter was looking at colleges, and I saw the writing on the wall," she explains. "I thought, 'This is going to hit me really hard. It's time for me to get back into moviemaking'. Your seat is never saved in this industry. It's very competitive. There's that transition time when you're not the ingenue and you're not really old enough to be the grandmother."
"I'm at an age when the parts are getting more interesting again for me. I guess the timing of it really worked out, because I don't feel I missed out on much."
Her return has included the Ant-Man sequel and acclaimed new movie French Exit, in which she plays a bitter socialite widow with dwindling funds, but she won't be watching her work any time soon - because even the best films make her "cringe".
"Some of the performances I have felt the best about are ones for which I've gotten panned," she explains. "The ones that make me cringe are typically when I got the best reviews. I saw Scarface and I went, 'Eh, I'm OK'. I rarely like my work."
