What Lies Beneath

Interview with Michelle Pfeiffer (Claire Spencer)

She's played a modern-day Catwoman, an 18th-century French lady, and a sexy lounge singer who knows her way around (and on top of) a piano. Michelle Pfeiffer has established herself as one cinema's greatest leading ladies, an actress who combines the looks of an ingénue with the savvy instincts and intelligence of a consummate character actress. She's tackled every genre (from musicals to Shakespeare), shared the screen with some of Hollywood's finest and hunkiest actors (George Clooney and Mel Gibson, to name only two), and won herself three Academy Award nominations (Dangerous Liaisons, The Fabulous Baker Boys, and Love Field). Now after a string of family-based films (beginning with A Thousand Acres through The Story of Us), she takes a turn into thriller territory with the Hitchcockian suspense drama What Lies Beneath, in which she plays the wife of Harrison Ford. Together they make the perfect couple--except for the fact that there may be a ghost haunting their marriage. Amazon.com's Mark Englehart spoke with Pfeiffer by phone about ghosts, scary movies, and the water-based aspects of Robert Zemeckis's new film.

Amazon.com: How was it to work on a thriller after doing so many family-oriented dramas and comedies?

Michelle Pfeiffer: It was such a much-needed departure for me. And even though this movie was probably physically more exhausting than anything that I've ever done, I just had so much fun! It was new territory and I loved all of the technical aspects and watching Bob Zemeckis work.

Amazon.com: What kind of preparation did you have to do for the part of Claire? Did you have to prepare to be tense?

Pfeiffer: Oh no, I'm naturally tense anyway. [laughs] I don't have to work on that. You just sort of put yourself in that reality of terror. I mean obviously, luckily for me nothing compares to what this woman has been through. I had to do a lot of things to prepare; I took scuba-diving lessons because I'm terrified of water. But in actuality I just had to really get to the point where I was comfortable enough to actually get the shot. The terror actually worked for me, so I didn't have to do any preparation for that. And then I had to learn the cello enough to be able to play it in a convincing way.

Amazon.com: Do you play any instruments?

Pfeiffer: I used to play the guitar, and I had fooled myself into thinking that, well, I can play the guitar, how hard could the cello be? Well, it's a completely different instrument, and I would love to actually learn it.

Amazon.com: How long did you have to stay wet? I can imagine there must have been days on end when you were drenched.

Pfeiffer: I was wet for about a third of the movie. Completely wet every day. Hosed me down. There are two things I hate more than anything: one is being cold, and the other one is the water. So you can imagine what kind of mood I was in.

Amazon.com: In some ways, this movie is the anti-Psycho, in that you'll never want to take a bath again, as opposed to a shower. Do you have any bathroom fears now, like Janet Leigh did after making Psycho?

Pfeiffer: No, but I have to say that the whole bath experience will never be quite the same for me.

Amazon.com: How is it working with Bob Zemeckis? Do you have any particular favorites of his movies?

Pfeiffer: He was just completely present, completely prepared, so focused, so energetic and excited about the movie. And I love Death Becomes Her, with Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis; it's so funny! And I love Contact, and I like the Back to the Future films. And I loved Forrest Gump. I mean I'm just such a huge fan.

Amazon.com: Are there any thrillers that kind of inspired you when you were making this movie? It's definitely an old-fashioned thriller.

Pfeiffer: I loved Rosemary's Baby--so scary. There are movies that you love just because not only do they terrify you, but there's such amazing filmmaking, and Rosemary's Baby is definitely one of those. And then there are movies that just completely frightened and grossed you out, like The Exorcist, and like the first Alien. I thought was genius.

Amazon.com: Had you ever played with a Ouija board before this movie?

Pfeiffer: Well, when I was a kid, yes. You know, nothing really ever happened. I know that Diana Scarwid, who did the Ouija board scene with me, she had an unusual experience. And she was really wigged out doing that scene, and she did some sort of imaginary safety shield around us and everything.

Amazon.com: In that case I have to ask the requisite question: Do you believe in ghosts?

Pfeiffer: I don't know. I've never had an encounter; I've never had any proof one way or the other. But I'm open to the possibility that they do exist, and people that I know that I trust and I think are completely sane, do. And have had encounters and experiences, and I have no reason to believe that they would make it up.

Amazon.com: I heard recently that you're taking a break from filmmaking.

Pfeiffer: Just for a year. I'm already halfway through it. I know people act like I'm retiring or something. You know if I hadn't said anything, nobody would have even noticed that I was gone.

Amazon.com: Have you started making any plans yet for your quote/unquote return?

Pfeiffer: No. It's really nice, too, to not know. Because even if a movie is six months off, which seems like a long time, your head starts getting into it, you start thinking about it and this and that, and it sort of still drains your energy a bit. Distracts you from life. So right now I have no distraction.

Amazon.com: Do you have a particular performance of yours that's your favorite? Or ones that you remember very fondly?

Pfeiffer: Well, I like certain things about certain characters. There are some that I really miss more than others, like I really miss Angela de Marco [from Married to the Mob] and I miss Susie Diamond [of The Fabulous Baker Boys]. But I don't particularly miss Madame De Tourvel [from Dangerous Liaisons] at all, even though I loved that movie and I'm very proud of it. You don't really miss characters like that, you're kind of glad to see them go away because they kind of were torturous.