Michelle Pfeiffer Reveals She ‘Cried Herself to Sleep’ on Set of This Movie

Michelle Pfeiffer has opened up about her experience on the set of Scarface, revealing that the shoot was emotionally challenging for her.

According to Darren Aronofsky in Interview Magazine, Pfeiffer said she sometimes struggled with being one of the few women on set.

“I can tell you that I was terrified. And it was a six-month shoot, I think. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and I were really the only females. It was a boys’ club. And it was also the nature of the relationship for Tony Montana to be very dismissive of my character. So I would go to sleep some nights crying,” she explained.

Before landing the role of Elvira, Pfeiffer almost didn’t get the part. Producer Martin Bregman insisted she audition, even though the role was nearly given to Glenn Close. Bregman recalled, “He [Al Pacino] was concerned that she didn’t look right. She didn’t fit the image of Elvira he had in his mind. But he was dead wrong.”

Pfeiffer’s performance proved him wrong and cemented her as a rising star in Hollywood.

Playing Elvira, a character heavily objectified by the men around her, allowed Pfeiffer to explore the theme of women’s objectification in film. In the book Scarface Nation, she reflected, “Sometimes, though, by playing an object you can actually say more about objectifying women than if you play somebody of strength. She was a hood ornament, like another Rolls-Royce or something, for both of the men that she was with. I felt that by playing something that mirrors someone’s life in that way, I could make a kind of feminist statement.”

Despite the difficulties, Pfeiffer said she was able to find strength in her character. “I’m very willful, you know. I’m a survivor. It’s in my nature. I don’t look so tough, but I am. And I think I was able to hide behind the tough exterior of that character, who was just sort of tuned out and tuned off, drugged,” she told Aronofsky.

Her role in Scarface remains one of her most iconic performances, showing her ability to bring depth to a character who, on the surface, could have been seen as merely decorative. Pfeiffer’s reflections reveal the challenges of working in a male-dominated environment while still making a memorable and meaningful performance.

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