Michelle Pfeiffer landed "Scarface" role after cutting Al Pacino during audition: 'There's blood everywhere' Jordan HoffmanOctober 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM 16 Universal Pictures Michelle Pfeiffer in 'Scarface' Brian De Palma's 1983 crime classic Scarface has plenty of blood on the screen, but Michelle Pfe...
- - Michelle Pfeiffer landed "Scarface" role after cutting Al Pacino during audition: 'There's blood everywhere'
Jordan HoffmanOctober 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM
16
Universal Pictures
Michelle Pfeiffer in 'Scarface'
Brian De Palma's 1983 crime classic Scarface has plenty of blood on the screen, but Michelle Pfeiffer says there was no shortage of violent mayhem before production even started.
The Batman Returns and Age of Innocence actress was a guest on the SmartLess podcast, and chatted up cohosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes about her lengthy career which, naturally, included one of her earliest big roles, the part of Elvira in Scarface.
Pfeiffer explained that though De Palma was keen on hiring her early on, Al Pacino was not exactly sold.
Everett Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino in 'Scarface'
"Al will admit this," she explained, "[but] he didn't really want me for the part."
Pfeiffer then detailed the lengthy auditioning process that happened before she finally landed the role.
She said that in her first meeting with just De Palma and the casting director, she killed it, but "over the course of two months, I just [got] worse and worse and worse, because I'm just afraid. And by the end, I'm bad."
She went on, "[So] I don't blame him. He just was like, '[She's] bad.' And Brian finally comes to me and says, 'You know, doll, it's just not gonna work out. I'm like, 'I know, man. I'm sorry.' Because Brian really wanted me."
But fate wasn't through with her. "As disappointed as I was," she said, "I was so happy to be done with it. So, like, at least a month goes by and I get a call, they want to bring me in to screen test. So I show up and I don't even give a sh--, 'cause I know I'm not getting this part."
Pfeiffer then explained that "it was my best work of the film."
Theo Wargo/Getty
Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino at a 'Scarface' cast reunion in 2018
She shared that it was "that restaurant scene where I explode at the end." (We're assuming you've seen Scarface by now.)
She continued, "I swipe the table of the dishes and glasses break, the dishes break, cut. There's blood everywhere. They all run over to me, to see where I've cut myself. Well, didn't cut me. I cut Al."
Whoopsie!
Pfeiffer said, "I thought, 'Well, there goes that part.' [But] actually I think that was the day [Pacino] was like, 'Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, she's not bad.'"
Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Michelle Pfeiffer at a 'Scarface' reunion in 2018
In conclusion, the best way to gain employment in Hollywood is to injure whoever is top of the call sheet. If it worked for Michelle Pfeiffer, it'll probably work for you, too.
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If that story hasn't motivated you enough, here's the "everything is going our way/nothing will ever come back and bite us in the rear" montage from Scarface, set to a Giorgio Moroder tune.
To check out more of Michelle Pfeiffer on SmartLess, you can click the link below.
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