There’s an old video that resurfaces every now and then on social media and it’s causing quite a stir. In the viral clip, the 64-year-old today Michelle Pfeiffer wields a whip in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992) and, without the aid of special effects, uses only her dexterity to rip off the heads of four dolls in a single take.

Asked about the particular video, Pfeiffer says: “I saw it! It’s so crazy… It’s really like this character has nine lives. It keeps coming back.” He remembers that moment clearly and proudly. “It was fun, just because I love playing that character and I was really pleased with myself because it was something that my stuntwoman couldn’t do, but I could.”

While the actress is keeping the door open to reprising her role as Catwoman in the future, she is currently returning to the screen as another superhero, the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” alongside by Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily.

Director Peyton Reed dreamed of Pfeiffer’s participation in the Marvel film. In fact, his vision was so clear that Reed hired a look-alike to play the character (who appeared only briefly and in a mask) for the franchise’s first installment.

Pfeiffer’s hiring was not a foregone conclusion. She is as famous for the roles she has turned down as for her performances. He has rejected the films “Pretty Woman”, “Basic Instinct”, “Silence of the Lambs” etc.

The actress has been in and out of film by choice since 2000. Pfeiffer takes part in films that challenge her or allow her to work with people she likes. He doesn’t have much to prove. She has done drama, comedy, musicals, thrillers and period pieces and has played a Disney villain as well as a superheroine in Marvel and DC films. Her films have grossed over $7 billion at the box office and she has garnered eight Golden Globe nominations (with six consecutive) and three Academy Award nominations.

During the 1980s and 1990s, she was a true movie goddess. Meryl Streep may have won all the awards, but Pfeiffer graced all the magazine covers. Most have not forgotten her. Paul Rudd said that when all the stars of the various ‘Avengers’ films gathered for the finale, ‘Avengers: Endgame’, no one caused more excitement than her.

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Pfeiffer always knew she wanted to be an independent woman. At the age of 14, she lied about her age to get a job as a cashier in a supermarket. But as she sold melons, she wondered if this was really what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. One day, as she recalled on her Instagram account, she entered the Miss Orange County pageant. She won and went on to compete in the Miss California pageant, where she placed sixth. But she wasn’t interested in winning. She had higher goals for herself. Her hairdresser had told her that one of the pageant judges was an agent who was known to take contracts from female contestants. And he closed it. She left the pageants without a crown, but got an agent.

Her lack of experience didn’t stop her from being hired to star in ‘Grease 2’. The movie was, perhaps, one of the worst ideas of the 1980s, and that says a lot about the decade that produced movies. The film was such a failure that both director Brian de Palma and star Al Pacino refused to hire her for ‘Scarface’. They only gave in after the producer’s insistence.

As the actress began to experience success, she suffered from impostor syndrome. “I had no formal education. I didn’t come from Juilliard. I was getting by and learning in front of the world. So I’ve always had this feeling that one day they’re going to find out that I’m really a fraud, that I really don’t know what I’m doing,” she confessed.

Interacting with the media seemed like a punishment to her, perhaps because she was aware of the dangers of her environment. Shortly after settling in Hollywood, she is nearly kidnapped by the Breatharian sect, a sect that claims one can live on sunlight alone. She was saved by the fact that her first husband, Peter Horton (the actor who played literature professor Gary Shepherd in Thirtysomething), was preparing for a role in a film about cults. What he told her about his character made her see that she was experiencing exactly the same thing.

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One reason the press is hounding Pfeiffer is the public’s obsession with her beauty, which continues to leave her friends speechless. This reaction makes her feel uncomfortable. “Sometimes it’s hard to live up to everyone’s expectations. People call me beautiful and sexy and all that stuff, but what does that mean? You know, some days I look at myself in the mirror and I don’t understand him. I just don’t think I’m that beautiful or extraordinary, honestly… I’m conventionally beautiful. I’ve always felt that’s how I am. I really don’t believe I’m this incredibly beautiful creature that everyone seems to think I am.”

Michelle Pfeiffer

Her beauty led many to believe that she was just a pretty face. She does not have the reputation of being an easy actress for Hollywood. In recent years, her appearances on the big screen have become minor affairs, while aging is a recurring theme in almost all of the dreaded interviews she gives. “All I really care about is being able to grow old gracefully and never look like a wax figure of myself,” she confessed to People in 1999. Nearly a quarter of a century ago, she was already being asked whether she would get old

Since her comeback, Pfeiffer only does what excites her, which is why she stands out in the entertainment industry.