In an interview with the SmartLess podcast, Michelle Pfeiffer told the hosts that Pacino didn’t want her for the role of Elvira, even though director Brian De Palma had wanted to hire her from the start.
+ Drew Barrymore opens up about the most difficult period of her life alongside Matthew McConaughey
“Al would admit that. [But] he really didn’t want me for the role,” revealed the “Mother!” actress. She explained that she went through a long testing process to get the part.
The “Frankie & Johnny” star said her first meeting with De Palma and the casting director went well at first, but “it just got worse and worse because I was scared. And in the end, I was terrible.”
“And Brian finally came up to me and said, ‘You know, sweetheart, this just isn’t going to work.’ And I said, ‘I know, man. I’m sorry.’ Because Brian really wanted me for the role,” Michelle Pfeiffer recalled.
+Watch Michelle Pfeiffer’s best moments as Elvira in “Scarface”
Even though she had lost hope, she was eventually called in for a screen test. “It was the restaurant scene at the end where I explode,” the actress said. For Michelle Pfeiffer, that was her best work in the entire film.
“I sweep my hand across the table, the plates and glasses break, cut. There was blood everywhere. Everyone ran over to see where I’d cut myself. But I hadn’t cut myself. I’d cut Al,” she revealed.
She said on the podcast that she thought she had lost the role because of the incident. “[But] actually, I think that was the day [Pacino] thought: ‘Yeah, yeah… I think she’s not bad,’” she reflected.
Photos: YouTube Universal Pictures. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
