If Batman Returns is the only Michelle Pfeiffer performance you know, we look at the star’s 20 best movies, ranked from Pfun to Pfantastic.
Michelle Pfeiffer never phoned it in. Across five decades she built a career on precision, risk, and a fearlessness that allowed her to jump from musicals to horror to comedy to literary drama without losing her center. Even when the movies around her stumbled, the three-time Academy Award-nominated actress never did. That is part of why she stands as one of the few actors whose name can carry a project on reputation alone.
With her new holiday film, Oh. What. Fun. landing on Prime Video this December, it is the perfect moment to take stock of the performances that best shaped her legacy. Ranked from worst to best, this list celebrates the unforgettable work while shining a light on lesser-known titles that deserve another look. And yes, Grease 2 is here with pride.
Famously selective (her agent nicknamed her “Doctor No”), Pfeiffer passed on Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs, Casino, Sleepless in Seattle, Thelma & Louise, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Those choices never slowed her down. They just kept her path honest.
Here are the 20 best movies that prove why Michelle Pfeiffer remains one of Hollywood’s most compelling stars, counted down from barely remembered to greatest.
20. Into the Night (1985)
Director: John Landis
John Landis’s late-night thriller is one of those odd 80s hybrids that blends noir, comedy, and a sense of anything-goes chaos. Jeff Goldblum plays Ed Okin, an insomniac aerospace engineer whose life unravels just enough to make him the perfect accidental hero. Pfeiffer appears as Diana, a jewel smuggler being hunted by a pack of violent Iranian agents, and the plot sends them zigzagging across Los Angeles while the city’s neon glow closes in around them.
That same year, Pfeiffer also appeared in Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke, but Into the Night gave her one of her first roles where she held the camera through pure charisma. She plays Diana with a mix of street smarts and mystery that hints at the command she would later bring to films like White Oleander and Dangerous Minds. The movie also stacks its cast with cameos from directors like David Cronenberg and two filmmakers Pfeiffer would later work with, Amy Heckerling and Jonathan Demme. The film is uneven and became the first box office disappointment for Landis, but she is riveting. You can feel her rising through the material.
19. Personal Effects (2009)
Director: David Hollander
This quiet, grief-centered drama barely made a ripple when it was released (it premiered in Iowa City, of all places), but it contains one of Pfeiffer’s most introspective performances. She plays Linda, a woman whose husband was murdered and whose life has shrunk under the weight of trauma. Ashton Kutcher plays Walter, a young man reeling from his sister’s murder, and the film follows the fragile connection they form through shared sorrow. Pfeiffer approaches the role with restraint, showing a character who has built so many protective layers that even kindness feels dangerous.
The story explores how sorrow isolates people, but also how unexpected companionship can cut through that isolation. While the film dips into maudlin territory at times, there is no melodrama in her work. She builds a portrait of someone struggling to rejoin the world, one tentative step at a time. Kathy Bates and Topher Grace round out the supporting cast, giving the movie a respectably sturdy foundation. Personal Effects was never positioned as a major Pfeiffer vehicle, but it is worth rediscovering for the subtle precision she brings to it. It shows how much she can do with minimal dialogue and how her screen presence alone can make a small film feel bigger.
18. Dark Shadows (2012)
Director: Tim Burton
Twenty years after their electric collaboration in Batman Returns, Pfeiffer reunited with Tim Burton for this gothic comedy based on the cult 1960s television soap opera that had a brief revival in the early 90s. She plays Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the formidable matriarch of the dysfunctional Collins family, who must contend with the return of their vampire ancestor Barnabas (Johnny Depp) after 200 years of imprisonment.
While Dark Shadows received mixed reviews, Pfeiffer commands every scene she’s in with icy authority and bone-dry wit. Her Elizabeth is the only Collins with enough steel to stand up to both a centuries-old vampire and a vengeful witch (Eva Green), delivering arch one-liners with the impeccable timing of a seasoned comedienne. The colorfully designed film also marked the first on-screen pairing of Pfeiffer and Chloë Grace Moretz as mother and daughter, a relationship they reprise in Oh. What. Fun. Burton’s affection for Pfeiffer is evident in how he shoots her: still glamorous, still formidable, and still capable of stealing scenes from an ensemble of dangerous scene-stealers.
17. Frankie and Johnny (1991)
Director: Garry Marshall
Garry Marshall’s gentle, working-class romance reunites Pfeiffer with Al Pacino eight years after Scarface, and the contrast could not be more striking. Based on Terrence McNally’s play “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune”, the story follows Frankie, a guarded New York diner waitress who keeps her world small to avoid disappointment, and Johnny, an earnest ex-con trying to rebuild his life one shift at a time. The chemistry between them gives the film its warmth, but the casting proved controversial. Kathy Bates had originated the role on Broadway and publicly expressed disappointment that producers chose Pfeiffer, whom many considered too glamorous for an “ordinary” waitress.
But Pfeiffer took the role precisely because “it wasn’t what people would expect of me.” Her performance proved the doubters wrong. She plays Frankie as someone who has learned to expect little yet secretly craves connection, her fear of being hurt shaping every instinct. Pacino’s wide-open optimism creates a tender push-and-pull as he tries to convince her she deserves something good. Marshall stalwart Hector Elizondo and a cast-against-type Kate Nelligan add rhythm and heart to the diner’s greasy spoon world. Pfeiffer earned a Golden Globe nomination, and the role remains one of her most tenderly human performances.
16. A Thousand Acres (1997)
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
This adaptation of Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel reimagines King Lear on an Iowa farm, blending family trauma, buried secrets, and the heavy weight of generational pain. Pfeiffer plays Rose, one of three daughters of Larry Cook, a domineering patriarch played by Jason Robards. Jessica Lange plays Ginny, the eldest sister, and Jennifer Jason Leigh completes the trio as Caroline. Pfeiffer’s Rose is a cancer-stricken woman forged in bitterness and brutal honesty. She carries herself like someone who has learned to survive the cards she’s been dealt rather than hope for a better hand.
The story digs into the toxic history of the Cook family, exploring themes of abuse and emotional inheritance. In a sterling ensemble of heavy hitters (Elisabeth Moss and Michelle Williams have tiny roles as Cook’s grandchildren), Pfeiffer stands out for how she balances Rose’s anger with a deep need for dignity. Her scenes with Lange in particular are blisteringly good. The film never found the audience or acclaim its cast suggested, partly due to extreme reverence for the book, but time has given it room to assert itself as a fine adaptation. Pfeiffer’s work is one of its strongest assets. She gives Rose a sense of hard-earned clarity and captures the bruised resilience of a woman determined to confront the truth, no matter how painful.
15. The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Based on Jacquelyn Mitchard’s bestselling novel (the very first book selected for Oprah’s Book Club in 1996), The Deep End of the Ocean centers on a mother’s worst nightmare and the lasting effects that span a decade. Pfeiffer plays Beth Cappadora, a photographer juggling family life when her young son Ben is kidnapped during her high school reunion. Years later, after Beth has struggled with the slow reconstruction of her identity, a boy who looks like Ben appears in their new neighborhood, and the story shifts into a layered exploration of grief, guilt, and the fragile nature of healing. The late Treat Williams plays Beth’s husband Pat, whose own coping mechanisms clash with hers, while Whoopi Goldberg has a memorable turn as Detective Candy Bliss (Oprah herself was initially considered for the role).
Pfeiffer’s performance avoids sappiness and instead focuses on the raw, bewildering aftermath of unresolved trauma. Her scenes capturing Beth’s dissociation are particularly strong, and she brings striking realism to a character trying to stitch together a third version of a life with a son she no longer recognizes. Interestingly, Pfeiffer preferred the book’s grimmer original ending, which was filmed but poorly received by test audiences, prompting the studio to go with a more conventional finish.
14. Up Close & Personal (1996)
Director: Jon Avnet
Here is a movie with a wild backstory. The screenplay started as an adaptation of Alanna Nash’s biography of troubled news anchor Jessica Savitch, but after eight years in development with writers John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, the darker elements were stripped away. Gone were the alleged drug problems, the suicide of Savitch’s second husband, and her fatal car accident at 36. Now-disgraced producer Scott Rudin reportedly summed it up best: “It’s about two movie stars.” And honestly? That is exactly what works.
Pfeiffer plays Tally Atwater, an ambitious, unpolished aspiring reporter who finds both opportunity and mentorship in Warren Justice, a seasoned news director played by Robert Redford. The chemistry between them gives the film major pedigree, helping it rise above its sudsy script. Pfeiffer tracks Tally’s evolution from nervous local novice to confident national anchor with precision, and her early scenes capture the gawkiness of someone hungry to break through. Stockard Channing, Kate Nelligan, and Joe Mantegna support a story that blends newsroom politics, romance, and the cost of ambition. The famous soundtrack, powered by Celine Dion’s Oscar-nominated “Because You Loved Me,” boosted the movie’s cultural staying power. There was never any debate about Pfeiffer’s performance. She gives Tally a spirit that feels genuine and warm.
13. Wolf (1994)
Director: Mike Nichols
A rare studio hybrid that mixes horror, corporate satire, and adult romance, Wolf pairs Pfeiffer again with Jack Nicholson seven years after The Witches of Eastwick. Nicholson plays Will Randall, a fading book editor infected by a wolf bite who slowly regains his confidence while losing control in more dangerous ways. The transformation sequences lean into genuine horror territory, with the film unafraid to get gruesome as Will’s primal instincts take over. Pfeiffer plays Laura Alden, the wryly rebellious daughter of Will’s ruthless corporate rival (Christopher Plummer), a woman who sees the world clearly and trusts very little of it.
Pfeiffer gives her a layered stillness that makes her immediately compelling, and the chemistry between the leads is charged and sharpened by her intelligence. Kate Nelligan plays Nicholson’s wife (her third film with Pfeiffer), while James Spader delivers one of his best villainous turns as Will’s ambitious protégé. Sharon Stone turned down the Laura role. The script went through several hands, with Wesley Strick and Jim Harrison sharing credit and Elaine May doing uncredited touch-ups after Harrison departed. The ending tested poorly, prompting reshoots that delayed the release by six months. The tonal shifts puzzled critics at the time, but the film has developed a cult following, and Pfeiffer remains one of its most enduring strengths. It has a terrific final shot, too.
12. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded Agatha Christie adaptation gave Pfeiffer one of her most memorable later-career showcases, and she nearly didn’t get it. Angelina Jolie was initially in talks for the role, followed by Charlize Theron, before Pfeiffer landed the part of Caroline Hubbard. And thank goodness she did. As the chatty, flirtatious American widow, she initially appears to be comic relief in a cast that includes Judi Dench, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Odom Jr., and Daisy Ridley. But Pfeiffer uses those early beats as a setup.
As the investigation deepens aboard the snowbound train, she transforms Hubbard into a figure of fierce conviction and surprising depth, and her final monologue delivers the film’s most arresting moment, revealing the truth beneath the character’s practiced charm. While purists debated some of Branagh’s choices, his lavish production design and sweeping camerawork give the film grandeur, but Pfeiffer gives it tension. Trivia fans will note that she recorded the end credits song, “Never Forget,” marking a rare return to singing after lending her voice to three movies previously as well as the animated The Prince of Egypt. Pfeiffer can walk into an ensemble packed with heavyweights and still be the person the audience watches most closely.
11. Love Field (1992)
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Set against the backdrop of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Love Field is a road trip drama that explores race, class, and human connection during a turbulent moment in American history. Pfeiffer stars as Lurene Hallett, a Dallas housewife obsessed with Jackie Kennedy and desperate to witness the First Lady return home after the tragedy. When her trip derails, she crosses paths with Paul (Dennis Haysbert), a reserved man traveling with his young daughter, and the three embark on an uneasy journey that challenges Lurene’s sheltered worldview.
The movie had a bumpy casting history. Denzel Washington was originally attached to play Paul, and Eriq La Salle filmed for multiple days before nervous producers decided he looked too young opposite Pfeiffer. Haysbert stepped in, and the chemistry proved essential. Pfeiffer plays Lurene with warmth, naïveté, and a growing awareness of the world beyond her suburban bubble. The film itself became a casualty of Orion Pictures’ 1991 bankruptcy, one of ten completed features left in limbo while the studio reorganized. Orion rushed it into a handful of New York and Los Angeles theaters in December 1992 purely to qualify Pfeiffer for awards consideration. It worked. She landed a Best Actress nomination, even as the $18 million film grossed barely over a million dollars.
10. What Lies Beneath (2000)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Pfeiffer rarely ventured into horror, which makes this Hitchcock-flavored thriller all the more satisfying. She plays Claire Spencer, a former cellist rattling around a Vermont lakeside home after sending her only child off to college. Her scientist husband Norman (Harrison Ford) is consumed by work, and into that empty space comes something uninvited. Claire begins sensing a ghostly presence, and the film delights in misdirection, planting red herrings that keep you guessing about what’s haunting her and why.
Zemeckis was drawn to the material (the screenplay is by actor Clark Gregg) for its elegance and its undercurrent of creepiness, and he got exactly that from Pfeiffer. She carries the film’s long, frightening stretches through expression and body language alone, her uncertainty deepening into dread. The water scenes were brutal for her because Pfeiffer has a genuine fear of it. She spent weeks in a confined bathtub setup, sometimes for five hours at a stretch, forcing herself through take after take.
The whole production exists because Tom Hanks needed time to lose weight for Cast Away. Rather than pay a crew to sit idle, Zemeckis rolled them onto this project and made an entire movie in the gap. Ford and Pfeiffer were his first and only choices, and the gamble paid off. The film is packed with old-fashioned scares and became an unexpected hit, proving that adult-oriented thrillers could still draw a crowd.
9. Stardust (2007)
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel is filled with magic, whimsy, and a sprawling ensemble, yet Pfeiffer cuts through the spectacle with one of her most gleeful performances. She plays Lamia, a powerful witch obsessed with restoring her youth by capturing the heart of a fallen star (the witches were unnamed in the book, simply called the Lilim, but Vaughn and co-writer Jane Goldman gave them names from classical sources). The role lets Pfeiffer embrace full fantasy villain mode. She shifts from regal elegance to grotesque decay with relish, creating a character who is both menacing and darkly funny.
Claire Danes plays Yvaine, the star in human form, and Charlie Cox plays Tristan, the young man who finds her. Robert De Niro, Ricky Gervais, and Mark Strong add comedic and dramatic flair, but Pfeiffer stands out for her fearless commitment to Lamia’s vanity and ferocity. This was a major return to the screen after a five-year absence, and she looked positively smashing doing it. Stardust arrived the same year as Hairspray (shot after but released three weeks before), giving audiences two wildly different Pfeiffer performances months apart. The movie has since become a cult favorite, and much of its enduring charm comes from her work.
8. The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Director: George Miller
By 1987, Pfeiffer had proven she could hold her own opposite Al Pacino in Scarface. Now she had to do it against Jack Nicholson at his most devilishly unhinged. George Miller’s supernatural comedy, adapted from John Updike’s novel with enough liberties taken to make it more commercially palatable, casts Pfeiffer as Sukie Ridgemont, a single mother and newspaper columnist in a small New England town. Alongside Cher and Susan Sarandon, she plays one of three lonely women who unknowingly summon a charming devil in the form of Nicholson’s Daryl Van Horne.
As Daryl seduces each of them, the women discover powers they never knew they had, and the film becomes a story about desire, transformation, and the dangers of giving yourself over to someone who promises too much. Pfeiffer brings a soft-spoken warmth to Sukie that makes her awakening feel both thrilling and unsettling. She plays the character as someone genuinely surprised by her own wants, and her discomfort with Daryl’s influence gives the comedy its uneasy edge. Nicholson came aboard after Bill Murray dropped out, and the production landed in Cohasset, Massachusetts, after a Rhode Island town rejected the shoot over concerns about its church being used in a film about witches.
Veronica Cartwright nearly steals the movie with a gloriously unhinged supporting turn. But Pfeiffer more than holds the screen against outsize personalities, proving she belonged in the company she was keeping. Eastwick was a major hit and an early U.S. showcase for the Australian Miller, who would later give us everything from Babe to Mad Max: Fury Road.
7. Married to the Mob (1988)
Director: Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme’s vibrant comedy gives Pfeiffer one of her most refreshing and career-defining roles, and it earned her the first of six consecutive Golden Globe nominations. She plays Angela de Marco, a mob widow determined to escape the criminal world after the death of her husband, played with cartoonish charm by Alec Baldwin. The plot follows her as she relocates to a new city, tries to rebuild her life, and inadvertently catches the attention of an undercover FBI agent played by Matthew Modine.
Dean Stockwell delivers an Oscar-nominated turn as mob boss Tony “The Tiger” Russo, whose obsession with Angela provides both danger and comedy, while Mercedes Ruehl is hysterically unhinged as his jealous wife Connie. Demme surrounds Pfeiffer with the eclectic energy he was known for, and Pfeiffer shines in every frame. Her comedic timing is sharp, her line delivery effortless, and her physical presence full of life. Demme enjoyed working with her so much that he offered her the lead role in his next film, The Silence of the Lambs, which she famously declined. Married to the Mob proved she could lead a studio comedy with complete authority, marking another major turning point in her career.
6. The Age of Innocence (1993)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese’s lush adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is one of the director’s most restrained films, built on unspoken longing rather than violence or bravado. Set in 1870s New York high society, it tells the story of Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a wealthy attorney caught between two women: the conformist May Welland (Winona Ryder) and the unconventional Countess Ellen Olenska (Pfeiffer). Ellen has returned to her family after a scandalous marriage abroad, and her presence threatens to upend Newland’s carefully arranged life.
Pfeiffer’s Ellen is luminous without ever feeling ethereal. She plays her as a woman wounded by experience yet still capable of tenderness and truth. Her glances and pauses hold as much weight as full speeches, and she conveys the cost of living outside society’s lines with quiet authority. The chemistry between Pfeiffer and Day-Lewis is electric but never overstated, perfectly matching Wharton’s themes of restraint and sacrifice. The film won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and earned nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Art Direction. Ryder received a Best Supporting Actress nod, and Scorsese won the Golden Globe for Best Director. He dedicated the film to his father, who died the month before its release.
5. Grease 2 (1982)
Director: Patricia Birch
Let me say something that might get me in trouble: Grease 2 is better than Grease. The songs are catchier, the female lead has actual agency, and the whole thing operates with a knowing wink that the original never attempted. I am not alone in this opinion. What started as a dismissed sequel has grown into a genuine cult phenomenon, and Michelle Pfeiffer is the reason.
Originally titled More Grease, the film returns to Rydell High two years after the first movie’s graduation. Pfeiffer plays Stephanie Zinone, leader of the Pink Ladies, a woman who refuses to settle for the leather-jacket boys circling her and instead fantasizes about a mysterious rebel who can match her fire. Maxwell Caulfield plays the nerdy British exchange student who secretly transforms himself into that very fantasy.
The role almost went to Pat Benatar, but Pfeiffer won out, and cinema is better for it. Her performance of “Cool Rider” is seminal, a declaration of desire and independence that became a rallying cry for anyone who ever wanted more than what was offered to them. Critics savaged the film on release. It grossed a modest $15 million against an $11 million budget. Caulfield spent years lamenting how it stalled his career. But Pfeiffer walked away unscathed, star power fully intact, casting directors suddenly paying attention. The movie found its audience eventually, and that audience never let go.
4. Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Director: Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears’s elegant and ruthless period drama became a defining late-80s classic, and Pfeiffer’s role as Madame de Tourvel earned her first Academy Award nomination. Shot entirely on location in the Île-de-France region, the story follows the machinations of the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the seductive Valmont (John Malkovich), two aristocrats who weaponize desire and treat seduction as sport.
Tourvel is their target, a virtuous woman whose vulnerability becomes a pawn in a cruel game. Pfeiffer gives her a layered purity that never feels naive. Her slow unraveling as she falls for Valmont is played with understated precision, and the final act, when heartbreak shatters her composure, stands as some of Pfeiffer’s finest on-screen work. Christopher Hampton adapted the screenplay from his own Olivier Award-winning stage play for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the material proved so irresistible that Cruel Intentions would modernize it for the 90s teen crowd a decade later.
Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves round out the supporting cast (Drew Barrymore and Sarah Jessica Parker were considered for Thurman’s role). The sumptuous costumes, razor-sharp dialogue, and intricate power plays all contribute to the film’s reputation, but Pfeiffer’s devastating transformation gives it lasting impact. She portrays innocence not as weakness but as a strength that exposes the ugliness around her. Tourvel remains one of her most tragic creations.
3. Scarface (1983)
Director: Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma’s now-legendary crime saga was polarizing upon release, but Pfeiffer’s performance as Elvira Hancock (featuring one of the best entrances ever) became iconic almost overnight. As Tony Montana’s aloof, stylish, and emotionally unreachable love interest, she defined a certain 80s cool that still echoes through pop culture. With her style-setting haircut, Elvira is the embodiment of icy detachment, yet Pfeiffer imbues her with small flashes of vulnerability that hint at the cage she has built around herself.
She was an unknown actress at the time, fresh off Grease 2, and both Pacino and De Palma argued against her casting. Producer Martin Bregman fought for her inclusion, and her casting became the stuff of Hollywood lore. Glenn Close was the original choice, with Geena Davis, Carrie Fisher, Melanie Griffith, Kim Basinger, Brooke Shields, Sharon Stone, and Sigourney Weaver also considered. Opposite Pacino’s volcanic Tony, Pfeiffer plays restraint as power, making their scenes charged even when she barely speaks.
The film’s supporting cast, including Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Steven Bauer, and Robert Loggia, add depth to the violent rise-and-fall narrative. The MPAA initially slapped the film with an X rating for “excessive and cumulative violence and for language,” and De Palma had to appeal to get it down to an R. Though she and Pacino reunited years later for the gentle romance Frankie and Johnny, it is Scarface that sealed their most enduring screen connection.
2. The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)
Director: Steve Kloves
If there is a single performance that captures everything Michelle Pfeiffer can do, it is this one. Susie Diamond walks into the film like trouble in heels, a former escort turned lounge singer auditioning for two brothers whose piano act has gone stale. Frank (Beau Bridges) is the pragmatist who runs the business. Jack (Jeff Bridges) is the talented one who stopped caring years ago. Susie is the spark that reignites Jack and blows the whole arrangement apart.
Writer-director Steve Kloves built the story around a duo he remembered watching on The Ed Sullivan Show as a kid, and he spent a week at Pfeiffer’s house convincing her to take the role after she had planned to step away following Dangerous Liaisons. Thank God he did. Pfeiffer trained for months with vocal coach Sally Stevens, studying Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Helen Merrill to find Susie’s smoky, bruised delivery.
The preparation paid off in one of cinema’s most iconic scenes: Pfeiffer draped across a grand piano in a red dress, purring through “Makin’ Whoopee” while the camera circles her like it cannot believe what it is seeing. She almost backed out of it the day before, terrified it would look ridiculous. Instead, it became immortal. Pfeiffer earned a Best Actress nomination, though I have always believed she would have taken home the statue if she had campaigned in Supporting, where her competition was Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist. It doesn’t matter. Win or no win, Susie is the role that proved Pfeiffer wasn’t just a movie star but an actor of extraordinary range.
1. Batman Returns (1992)
Director: Tim Burton
Catwoman has been played by legends. Eartha Kitt brought feline mischief to the 1960s television series. Halle Berry gave it her best in a film that gave her nothing. Anne Hathaway played the role as sleek pragmatism in The Dark Knight Rises. Zoë Kravitz delivered a grounded, simmering take in The Batman. And yet, when anyone thinks of Catwoman, they think of Michelle Pfeiffer.
Tim Burton’s gothic sequel finds Selina Kyle as a mousy, overlooked secretary to corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). After she stumbles onto his crimes, he shoves her out a window. She survives, barely, and something inside her snaps. Pfeiffer transforms Selina into a creature of fury, dark humor, and stitched-together rage, sewing her own costume from a vinyl coat and strutting into Gotham like a nightmare in heels. Annette Bening had been cast originally but withdrew due to pregnancy. Sean Young lobbied hard for the part, even showing up on the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman suit. (Burton reportedly hid under his desk to avoid her.)
The role went to Pfeiffer, who trained for months in kickboxing and became so lethal with the whip that she performed most of her own stunts, including the shot where she snaps the heads off four mannequins in a single take. She even put a live bird in her mouth on camera, no effects, and later admitted she would never do it again. As good as Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito are in the film, Pfeiffer is the reason Batman Returns endures. Test audiences loved her so much that the studio demanded a last-minute scene confirming Catwoman survived, shot with a stand-in just weeks before release. They knew what they had. Three decades later, so do we.