If there is one actress who has been able to sustain an extremely bankable and consistent career while also reinventing herself with every role, it’s Michelle Pfeiffer. Since the 1980s, Pfeiffer has been a constant in American cinema, whether playing a blonde bombshell, a troubled innocent, or a devious mother. As she enters a new phase of her career, she shows no signs of stopping.
Recently, she has received critical acclaim for her role as Betty Ford in the miniseries The First Lady, got cast in La La Land writer Peter Craig’s directorial debut as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and is reprising her role as Janet Van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. For those who need a reminder as to why she is deserving of such good fortune, check out this list of her greatest performances!
Scarface (1983)
It would be hard to see how, after making the critically maligned and financially unsuccessful film Grease 2, she would be able to land the role of the female lead in the Brian De Palma film Scarface. For the very few who are unfamiliar with the plot of this classic, Scarface follows the rise and fall of Cuban immigrant and drug kingpin, Tony Montana (Al Pacino). Pfeiffer plays the wife of drug lord Frank Lopez who later marries Tony. This was the first role that showed critics that Pfeiffer was much more than a flash in the pan. In this male-heavy mobster movie, Pfeiffer proved she could dish it out as well as she took it and held her own opposite Pacino.
Batman Returns (1992)
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Since its creation, many women have put on the catsuit and tried to entertain us with their version of Catwoman. Recently Zoë Kravitz and Anne Hathaway impressed the critics with their interpretations, but no one has come close to Michelle Pfeiffer's zany and sexy Selina Kyle. Tim Burton’s Batman Returns follows Batman after he has defeated the Joker and now faces the Penguin, the crooked businessman Max Schreck, and Catwoman. Pfeiffer, who is usually the queen of subtlety, leans into the absurdity of the role and delivers a sexy camp performance. Even those who don’t like superhero movies are sure to find something to enjoy in her performance.
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
With one of the best scripts of the decade, Pfeiffer made magic with a charming and sympathetic portrait of the now-iconic character, Suzy Diamond. The plot of The Fabulous Baker Boys centers around two brothers who are trying to salvage their career as a pianist duo by hiring a female singer. As Suzy Diamond, the former escort and aspiring singer, Pfeiffer brings a biting wit as well as a deeply hidden but ever-present sensitivity that makes Suzy not only easy to watch but easy to relate to. And let’s not forget Pfeiffer's legendary and seductive performance of “Making Whoopee”.
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
In her first Oscar-nominated role, Pfeiffer stands toe to toe with acting legends John Malkovich and Glenn Close. Based on the French novel of the same name, Dangerous Liaisons centers on the sexual games of the Vicomte de Valmont (Malkovich) and the Marquise de Mertreuil (Close) in the years before the French Revolution. Having become bored with his luxurious and mundane life, the Marquise challenges the Vicomte to make the famously chaste and religious Madame de Tourvel (Pfeiffer) fall in love with him. Though Pfeiffer’s earlier on-screen persona was that of a woman that oozed sensuality, with this part she was able to break away from that image and show a softer, more tortured, and naive side of herself.
The Age of Innocence (1993)
In what is possibly a career-best performance, Pfeiffer gives depth, drama, and desire to this Gilded Age movie. The story of The Age of Innocence begins in turn of the century New York when respected lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) becomes engaged to May Welland (Winona Ryder) but soon falls deeply in love with her cousin Countess Olenska, played by Pfeiffer. Countess Olenska has recently separated from her uncaring husband and as such creates a scandal wherever she goes. Still, Pfeiffer is able to peel back those superficial layers and shows us a woman who isn’t a harlot but a smart, self-sacrificing, and vulnerable woman.
French Exit (2020)
In a performance that some critics thought warranted an Oscar nomination, Pfeiffer shows she could deliver deadpan comedy as well as the next girl. French Exit begins when Frances Price (Pfeiffer) finds out that the vast inheritance her husband left her and her son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) has run out, and they are forced to sell their possessions, leave New York, and resolve to live the rest of their years in a small apartment in Paris owned by a friend of hers. Pfeiffer seems to take great delight in this deliciously dark character and it shows through in her performance, From the moment she tells her incredulous accountant, “My plan was to die before the money ran out, but I kept and keep not dying and…here I am”, she had us in the palm of her hands.
Hairspray (2007)
For nearly five years, Hollywood was without one of its most bankable and consistent actresses. Between 2002 and 2007, Pfeiffer didn’t star in any movies, opting to take care of her family instead. When she was finally ready to come back, she showed the world why we could never forget or replace her. As Velma Von Tussle, the evil mother to Amber and manager of the local Baltimore TV station in Hairspray, she wowed us with her musical and comedy chops. The movie may focus on Tracy Turnblad, the chubby outcast teenager who strives to get on Baltimore’s most popular dance show The Corny Collins Show, as well as her and her friends' determination to stamp out segregation, but it’s Pfeiffer who remains the standout. Her elegance, nasty attitude, and great comic timing steal the show.
Love Field (1992)
In her (so far) last Oscar-nominated performance, Pfeiffer shines in Love Field as Lurene, a Dallas area housewife, who idolizes Jackie Kennedy. When JFK suddenly dies, Lurene decides she has to go to the funeral and along the way, she meets and befriends Paul and Jonell Couter, a black father and daughter. In this Sirkian melodrama, Pfeiffer gives Lurene a sensitivity that is endearing while also recognizing her severe and disastrous shortcomings when it comes to her understanding of race. While many films about American race relations from this time period can be squarely categorized as white savior films, Love Field, although imperfect, addresses how white people’s good intentions are not always helpful.
Married to the Mob (1988)
For much of the 1980s, Pfeiffer was mainly in dramas looking strung out or forlorn, but in Married to the Mob, she showed the world a fun and sassy new side to her acting persona. This Jonathan Demme film follows Angela de Marco (Pfeiffer), a dissatisfied wife of a low-level mob worker. When her husband gets whacked, she decides to leave that life behind, but the persistent and lustful mob boss Tony Russo (Dean Stockwell) and the charming undercover FBI agent Mike (Matthew Modine) conspire to keep her back in that world. If her performance was enough to trick her future collaborator Martin Scorsese into thinking she was a brunette girl from New Jersey, then it must be worthwhile.
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Of all the movies on this list, The Witches of Eastwick has to be the most fun popcorn movie. It follows three women played by Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Pfeiffer, whose husbands have either died, divorced, or abandoned them. On one rainy night in their New England town, they dream up their ideal man who appears in the shape of Jack Nicholson, and they soon realize they have strong supernatural powers and their perfect man isn’t so perfect. As the abandoned mother of six, Pfeiffer brings a sweetness to the role but also holds a razor in her back pocket. It’s a pleasure to watch these three actresses, whose chemistry is off the charts in this fun supernatural flick!