Interview with Michelle & Dedee Pfeiffer
She was a bossy big sister, always scaring me and
pulling faces
Sunday Mirror, Dec 1, 1996 by Gill
Pringle
DEDEE ON MICHELLE
My sister is so beautiful, but I've seen
her other face and it's truly scary. She called it the duck face
and used to pull it all the time when we were little, scaring the
hell out of me and my sister Lori. I called her Alien Face and
it's a joke we still have. I'm Pan Face because the bottom of a
pan has no contours, no real description. I've always seen my
face like that. It can really look like anything.
We have always had a lot of affection for each other. I could
not ask for a better sister. We're best friends - and incredibly
supportive of one another.
The downside is we are constantly compared and there is an
implication that Michelle has engineered my success. But I've
rarely been out of work for the past 10 years, so I've always
felt a success, if not on the same scale as Michelle.
Working with my sister is something I've mostly avoided
because it wouldn't have felt right.
When my agent put me up for my role in Up Close And Personal,
I didn't even realise I'd be playing Michelle's sister. I
remember asking him, "Who's in it?" and him laughing
and saying, "Michelle." I had to pretend I knew all
about it. Michelle and I talk, but not about the things people
think we do. I don't always know what she's working on.
Some of my past auditions have been painful in that I've
walked in and all they've been looking for is the next Michelle
Pfeiffer. Well I'm not. We don't even look alike.
I've never had anything but admiration for my sister, but I
was angry when I saw her in The Fabulous Baker Boys, because that
was me she was playing. She was imitating my every move, my
energy, my mannerisms. I thought, "People are going to think
I'm imitating her when its the other way round".
Yet Michelle has always been there for me. She and her
husband, David, insisted I move in with them last year when my
boyfriend Ron shot himself dead in front of me.
The whole experience sent me into shock. I'm only just
beginning to handle what happened now, and that's only through
the support of my family and big sister.
When you're going through hard times you never think things
will get better, but they do. I'm now engaged to a businessman,
Greg Fein, and we share an apartment. I couldn't be more happy.
We plan on a long engagement, a long marriage but no children
for a long time.
MICHELLE ON DEDEE
I often had to look after Dedee and my other sister Lori when
Mom and Dad were working and used to pull all kinds of scary
faces to get them to go to bed. I thought I looked like a duck,
but my sisters called me the Alien. I was proud of the name.
You always end up doing all sorts of crazy things to amuse
kids, so it's served me well now I'm a mother. But I still worry
about my little sisters, even though they're all grown up now.
It's like I want to shield them from all the bad stuff out there.
As a teenager I was a real delinquent, always in trouble and
rarely at school. I was a bit of a bully and would persuade my
friends to cut class and sneak off with me.
I was a bit of a party girl, hanging out with the wrong crowd
and getting stoned. My dad would often spank me after he found
out I'd been high on the beach all day.
But my rebel period didn't last long. I worked from the age
of 14 at a variety of jobs selling clothes, working for a
printing press and as a checkout girl. Then I won a beauty
pageant and got an agent.
People tend to forget I paid my dues as an actress, just the
same way as Dedee has done. I certainly wasn't an overnight
success. I played bimbos and traded on my looks in cheap sitcoms
and non-speaking parts for years and years before winning any
half-way decent roles. I know exactly how Dedee feels and how
sweet it is to finally taste success.
I loved working with Dedee on Up Close And Personal. It was a
real family affair. She is very talented and it can't have been
easy for her constantly being compared to me. I'm happy she's
made it on her own terms.
Being the older sister, I can see how we fit into very
different personality types. Dedee is more self-assured and
relaxed than me. She takes things in her stride. I'm more
neurotic and intense.
I feel blessed to be so close to my sisters. Some families
barely speak to each other, but we usually talk every day. This
is such a superficial industry and it's good to know I have my
sisters to talk to whenever I need a reality check.
My marriage to David - he's a TV producer - and my children
Claudia Rose and John Henry are far more important to me than my
career. I longed for a family so much it wouldn't make any sense
to give them short measure now. Why bother being a mother if you
have to pay someone else to do the mothering?