Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 14 sepTember 2017
After a hiatus, Michelle

Pfeiffer returns in ‘mother!’

By JAKE COYLE come. She also received an kind of allegory for an over-
AP Film Writer Emmy nomination for her run Mother Earth.
NEW YORK (AP) — When cocktail-drinking, chain- “I have these dreams
Michelle Pfeiffer first read smoking Ruth Madoff in sometimes,” says Pfeiffer.
Darren Aronofsky’s script Barry Levinson’s HBO movie “I’m in some house and I
for “mother!” she had an “The Wizard of Lies.” have to be somewhere or I
understandable initial re- It’s a flurry of activity for have to do something and
action. Pfeiffer, who says she I can’t get out. I can’t find
In this Sept. 5, 2017 file photo, actress Michelle Pfeiffer poses for “I thought: What the hell is pulled back partially to my way out. I know there’s
photographers at the premiere of the film “mother!” at the 74th this?” recalls Pfeiffer. focus on family. She and some disaster looming
edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Pfeiffer stars in
Darren Aronofsky’s allegorical thriller. Aronofsky’s film is not in any her husband, the TV pro- ahead and I know it’s com-
way typical, nor is the kind ducer David E. Kelley, who ing and no one will listen to
of project you’d expect live in northern California, me. This is like a really, really
a long-absent actress like have two children. Now an bad nightmare. It’s like your
Pfeiffer to join as her first empty-nester, Pfeiffer has worst nightmare and you
big-screen performance in eagerly returned to regular can’t wake up from it.”
five years. The film, inten- work. After her Oscar-nominated
tionally shrouded in mys- “She wasn’t on my mind be- breakthrough role in 1989’s
tery, is a wild and weird od- cause she hadn’t worked “The Fabulous Baker Boys,”
yssey by one of the movies’ for a while,” says Aronofsky. Pfeiffer became one of the
expert conjurers of dark, “My casting director men- top actresses in Hollywood,
surreal dream worlds that tioned that she was inter- stringing together a var-
suspend its viewers - and ested in working again. I ied filmography including
often its performers, too - in was immediately excited “Dangerous Minds,” ‘’Bat-
a vividly atmospheric state and interested by the idea man Returns,” ‘’The Age of
of paranoia. of it. It’s been a while so I Innocence” and “What Lies
“You don’t even know, re- wasn’t so sure where she Beneath.” That made her
ally, how to talk about it,” was at. But once we start- intimidating to her younger
says Pfeiffer, as if throwing ed to talk, it was amazing.” co-star.
up her hands, in a recent Aronofsky (“Black Swan,” “It took me two days to get
interview. ‘’Requiem for a Dream”), over her beauty, and to go
But one of the many myster- long a fan of Pfeiffer, was up to her and say hi,” Law-
ies worth pondering in Dar- impressed by her still sharp rence told reporters at the
ren Aronofsky’s allegorical skills. Toronto International Film
thriller is a simple one: Why “I just wanted to applaud Festival. “She’s very nor-
don’t we see Pfeiffer more her at different times dur- mal. She’s a mother. She’s
often? The good news is ing the movie because she a very smart woman.”
that “mother!” represents does things that are so hard She is also a still-adventur-
the start of what may be to do,” he says. “Like those ous actress who was will-
a kind of renaissance for things where someone says ing to go well out of her
the 59-year-old actress, something in the moment comfort zone for “mother!”
whose steely beauty and and you’re supposed to Pfeiffer considers the film “a
cool, piercing intelligence react in the moment with real leap of faith” since she
remains just as devastating. surprise or embarrassment went in with only a partial
“I’m really excited to be and she was doing it take understanding of it, along
back,” says Pfeiffer. “Espe- after take.” with a director whom she
cially having worked with Jennifer Lawrence stars in says would sometimes
these exciting actors and the film as the sweet and leave the cast in the dark
these directors who I so ad- sensitive wife to Javier Bar- on the finer points of the
mire. The most exciting for dem’s poet. They live in drama.
me is all of these really tal- beautifully natural, labyrin- “I went along with things
ented people that I’m able thine house in the country, I ordinarily would never
to do movies with.” but they are soon beset by have gone along with,
Along with “mother!” which visitors, beginning with a like having the rehearsal
Paramount Pictures will man who shows up at the process filmed,” says Pfei-
release Friday, Pfeiffer co- door (Ed Harris), who’s fol- ffer. “And honestly, it was
stars in Kenneth Branagh’s lowed by his wife (Pfeiffer) thrilling. It’s exciting to, af-
upcoming, more old-fash- and then others. The mov- ter as many films as I’ve
ioned mystery “Murder on ie grows in intensity with done over so many years,
the Orient Express.” She has the sensation of invasion; to have a really new and
joined the cast of the “Ant- Aronofsky conceived it as a unique experience.”q
Man” sequel and earlier this
year premiered the Sun-
dance Film Festival entry
“Where is Kyra?” in which
she plays a woman strug-
gling to survive in Brooklyn
on her ailing mother’s in-