Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the powerhouse actresses who made her breakthrough in the 80s. She achieved great success early in her career with films such as Grease 2, Scarface, The Witches of Eastwick, Tequila Sunrise, Married to the Mob, Batman Returns, and The Age of Innocence among others. After a hiatus in the early 2010s, she returned to acting with films such as Mother!, Where is Kyra, The Wizard of Lies, and French Exit.
Despite having such an illustrious career, Pfeiffer has had many roles that she passed on that she later regretted. One of them is the highly acclaimed 1991 film, Thelma and Louise. Although not able to star in the film, she requested maverick director Ridley Scott to helm the film and the rest is history.
Michelle Pfeiffer Told Ridley Scott To Helm Thelma and Louise
Michelle Pfeiffer was considered for one of the two female roles in the film Thelma and Louise which was also Brad Pitt‘s breakout film. Pfeiffer had to drop out of the film since she was shooting for Love Field, a film that earned her an Oscar nomination (according to Today). However, she is responsible for bringing director Ridley Scott to direct the film, who was selected from over 40 other directors. Scott told Entertainment Weekly,
“I was gonna be the producer, so I offered it to four people. They all turned it down. And while I was doing that, I was interviewing actors and actresses and one of them said to me, ‘Listen, I can’t do this, I’m not gonna be available… So why don’t you come to your senses and you direct it’. So that was Michelle Pfeiffer, and from that moment on I decided to direct it.”
Despite not being able to star in the film, Pfeiffer provided the film with a great director who gave it his own style to the already lively film about two friends who become fugitives during a road trip. The film is already an iconic and influential film of the 90s and people still sing praises of the film today.
Michelle Pfeiffer Regrets Turning Down Thelma and Louise
Michelle Pfeiffer turned down 1991’s Thelma and Louise due to a scheduling conflict with another film Love Field. She regretted not being able to star in the film. In an interview, she expressed that she still can’t even watch the film and it was a hard decision at the time to give it up. She told Variety,
“I still can’t watch Thelma & Louise. It was a direct conflict, so it was one film or the other. It still kills me. You can’t always do everything. You’ve got to give something up.”
In 2023, Pfeiffer reprised her role as Janet Van Dyne in the MCU with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The film received lackluster reviews and underperformed at the box office. It remains to be seen whether she will pop up in future MCU films.
