Michelle Pfeiffer talks about role in ‘Hairspray' Michelle Pfeiffer talks about role in ‘Hairspray'
By Matthew Price
Published: July 1, 2007
Modified: June 30, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Michelle Pfeiffer returns to movie screens for the first time in five years, in "Hairspray.” Pfeiffer is the villain of the piece, Velma Von Tussle, who manages a Baltimore TV station in the 1950s and doesn't want her teen dance show integrated.
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"Hairspray” is based on the 1988 John Waters film and the 2004 Broadway musical. One of Pfeiffer's co-stars in "Hairspray” is John Travolta — playing across genders as Edna Turnblad, mother to Tracy Turnblad, the film's main character, played by newcomer Nikki Blonsky. The film is scheduled to open July 20.
Q: Was it as much fun to make as it was to watch?
A:It was. And the story goes, many times, that the worse time you have making the movie, the better the movie usually is, and vice-versa. And we were having so much fun, I got nervous. I thought, "The movie's going to be really bad because we're having too much fun.”
Q:Do you have a favorite moment in the film?
A:There are so many; it's hard to pick. One of my favorite moments, certainly, watching it when it was being filmed, Edna at the end when she cuts loose. That was just brilliant. That was fun.
Q:You and John Travolta were both in "Grease” films — Had you ever met him before?
A:I met John years ago, when I auditioned for "Urban Cowboy.” I flew to Texas, I think, and I got to dance with him a little bit. I didn't get the part, obviously, but he was so lovely and gracious, and I never forgot that.
Q:Were you nervous to go back to the musical genre?
A:I don't really feel like I was revisiting. I felt like I was visiting for the first time. "Grease 2” was so long ago, I can't even remember it, hardly, and "Baker Boys,” that was just a character who sang, so this was the first time I felt like I was in a real, legitimate musical. ... I think in "Grease 2” I always had the feeling that there were the actors, and there were the dancers. And this was the first time where I was actually partaking in all of it and actually singing songs that propelled the story, where you actually had plot in the lyrics and I had to be responsible for that, and you had to understand me. I was limited by a certain tempo, a certain melody. It was really challenging to find room for interpretation, and I wasn't used to that. I didn't have any discipline.
Q:What was it like working with Christopher Walken?
A:I think it was such creative casting. I don't think he's necessarily the obvious choice to play Wilbur. And yet he's so genius, because he's so outside the box. He brings just a whole other element to it that nobody else can. Just a wackiness that was so great for me, because all I had to do was just watch what he was doing and respond.
Q:Were you familiar with the source material?
A:I was familiar with the Broadway show. I hadn't seen — I still haven't seen — the John Waters movie. I'm dying to see it. And I purposely, when I signed on, stayed away from seeing it, because I hadn't. And you don't want to catch yourself copying someone else.
Q:Did you keep anything from the show?
A:I don't even know yet, because a lot of the dresses were really vintage, so they kind of have to go back. They rent them from different places.
Q:Did you keep a Catwoman costume from "Batman Returns”?
A:I regret that more than anything. I hated wearing that catsuit so much. By the end, we had a bonfire, and I was just so happy. There were a zillion of them, because they'd break, and you'd have to throw one on. I never wanted to see it again, and of course, now, I wish I had one. But I kept my whip.
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