After making several minor appearances on TV shows, Hollywood star Michelle Pfeiffer landed her first role on the big screen as Stephanie in Grease 2. Unfortunately, her first big-screen project turned out to be a critical and commercial failure. It was certainly not a headstart for her Hollywood career, and it would also later become the reason why she was out-listed to audition for his 1983 film Scarface.
Despite that, she was called in for a screentest with the film’s lead star, Al Pacino. However, things did not go as planned, as she hurt the legendary actor while auditioning for the 1983 film.
Michelle Pfeiffer Hurt Al Pacino During Her Audition
Followed by the massive failure of the 1982 romantic comedy Grease 2, Michelle Pfeiffer landed her big break alongside Al Pacino in the 1983 crime drama Scarface. Pfeiffer was praised for her performance in the film, which is still considered one of her best performances of all time. However, getting the role in Brian De Palma’s movie was not easy.
During her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Marvel star shared that the audition for Scarface went on for “about two or three months.” And she was not very confident about landing the part as many actresses were trying out for the same role.
She ended up failing her audition and was later called back for a screentest with The Godfather actor. The Love Field actress shared, “I show up, and we do the scene, the restaurant scene at the end, where I kind of freak out at the end, and I threw dishes, and everything went flying.”
However, soon, she realized that “there’s blood everywhere.” While everyone came running to her to check if she was cut, she looked over and saw that actually, Pacino was the one who was injured. “I cut Al Pacino,” she said. However, things worked out for her as she got Elvira’s part in the 1983 film.
Al Pacino Did Not Want Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface
While the incident where Michelle Pfeiffer cut Al Pacino happened later during the screentest, the Serpico actor did not want her in the movie beforehand. While talking to Jimmy Fallon on the late-night show, she shared that she believed that the Oscar-winning actor “didn’t particularly want [her] for the part.” However, Pfeiffer understood why he didn’t want her in the film.
“Look, my last credit before that was Grease 2. Can you blame him?” she shared. However, the director of the film continued to root for her until he had to say, “I’m sorry, but you’re just bad now. What’s going on?” Thankfully, she was able to star in the film, and although Al Pacino did not want her initially, the two had precise on-screen chemistry in the movie.
Scarface is available on Prime Video.
Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
