The actress starred as Elvira Hancock in the 1983 cult classic
Michelle Pfeiffer has shared what it was like filming Scarface at the age of 25.
It’s hard to imagine a time when Pfeiffer was new on the Hollywood scene, but the actor’s big breakout role was in Grease 2 in 1982.
The following year she landed a role in Scarface starring alongside the likes of Al Pacino, Mark Margolis, Steven Bauer and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
Pfeiffer was just 25 years old when she was cast as the character of Elvira Hancock, compared to Pacino who was 42.
Pacino had been in the industry for a decade by this point, while Pfeiffer was still relatively new. With this in mind, the actor admitted that she wasn’t terribly confident at the time – so much so she’d cry herself to sleep some nights.
Speaking on The Skinny Confidential podcast last year, she was asked if she ever has imposter syndrome and if she always goes into her roles with confidence.
“I cried myself to sleep almost every night on Scarface,” Pfeiffer replied. “That’s how confident I was.”
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Going on to note how ‘intense’ the film was, she continued: “The auditioning process was really intense and gruelling and I think I auditioned for- it was like two months maybe, but it felt like a year.”
“It was obviously a huge deal for me” Pfeiffer further elaborated. “Al wanted someone else, understandably so, you know? I’m the girl from Grease 2.“
Despite this, the 66-year-old star did a great audition for the casting director and she went on to do another, this time alongside Pacino in New York.
Pfeiffer recalled: “I was so nervous. He’s the most lovely, kind, generous person but I was surrounded by all of these seasoned actors and I just didn’t have a lot of experience under my feet.
“It was a series of coming back and coming back and coming back, and each time I got worse and worse.”
As to why, the actor said ‘something that will undermine an actor quicker than anything is fear’.
While Pfeiffer didn’t think she’d get the part, a month after her supposedly bad auditions she got a callback to do a screener for the movie – and the rest was history.
Following Scarface, Pfeiffer went on to feature in a host of other Hollywood blockbusters such as Batman Returns, Dangerous Minds, Hairspray and, more recently, Ant-Man and the Wasp.