Michelle Pfeiffer Turned Down The Role In $272M Horror Movie Because It Was Too Evil
Being too picky ended up being the biggest regret of Pfeiffer's career.
Michelle Pfeiffer has always been considered one of the top actresses in Hollywood, but there are not as many truly memorable roles in the actress' filmography as there could be.
She has dozens of unplayed roles, including those she turned down for various reasons. The actress' agent nicknamed her Dr. No because of her constant rejection of roles.
Pfeiffer cannot even logically explain her refusals, saying only that she always chooses movies which she feels to be comfortable for her and refuses anything that is outside her acting comfort zone.
On the other hand, she regrets some of her rejections, admitting that she never had an acting instinct that could told her which movie would be a hit.
The director of one of the world's greatest thrillers, The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme, initially did not want to cast Jodie Foster, considering her unsuitable for the role.
The first actress he offered the role of Clarice Starling was Michelle Pfeiffer, whom he clearly saw in the picture.
Pfeiffer would have been perfect for the movie because, like Foster, she has a certain coldness and austerity.
Unfortunately, the actress refused because she was concerned about the general darkness of the film, which she did not want to be a part of.
But Jodie Foster agreed and received an Oscar for this role – already the second in her acting piggy bank.
"I was trepidatious. There was such evil in that film. It was that evil won in the end, that at the end of that film evil ruled out. I was uncomfortable with that ending. I didn't want to put that out into the world," Michelle said in her interview with The New Yorker.
The actress never worked again with Jonathan Demme, who died in 2017, and now admits that turning down the role in his movie is one of her biggest professional regrets.
In the early 90s, Michelle Pfeiffer turned down many iconic roles in cult movies.
For example, she refused to play in Pretty Woman and Basic Instinct, which made Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone worldwide movie stars.