Cuttings from the press 2011

Full Throttle

Full throttle

For two decades, Dedee Pfeiffer has weathered the private storms. Now with a new blockbuster film in pre-production, Dedee Pfeiffer talks candidly about her sister, her pedal-to-the-metal lifestyle and her grapple with Grace Jones...

"A desire that's unquenchable." That's how horror regular Dedee Pfeiffer describes her spirit during our interview, and how apt that is. Look at the photos from our shoot; this is a woman who proudly declares her age as 46 with a wild swish of her newly brunette hair and a sunny, sexy laugh. She's promoting her latest film, Based on True Events, in which she co-stars with Clockwork Orange legend, Malcolm McDowell. It is in post-production now and the actress is giving GZ an exclusive, discussing how she is shifting her focus to move from fame to forensics - although it is hard to think of how this feisty lady could be allowed leave from our screens.

We begin by talking about Based on True Events."It's twisted," she says, with a wicked gleam in her eye, and this is why she, McDowell and the other stars all signed up. No information has yet been made public, but Pfeiffer gives GZ some tantalising titbits. According to the actress, the teller is in the film's working title, I Hate LA. Even without the presence of McDowell (who Pfeiffer dubs "a total gentleman and a professional skilled at finding new ways to work a scene") the title reads like a true-crime story. She says, "The idea is that people think that because Los Angeles is all about fame and fortune it is a mysterious and glamorous place, but the film shows its underbelly."

The story is formed from a series of intersecting sections that all tie together at the climax. Pfeiffer plays The Casting Director, whom she describes (with winning relish) as "a complete bitch" who is "playing the power" but is also having to deal with her difficult producer. She is all sexy black suit, slicked-back hair and a permanently attached earpiece - the latter Pfeiffer's own contribution, to the delight of director Yvan Gauthier. She based the character on every rude casting director she has had the misfortune of meeting with, "those who give bad readings, interrupt you in meetings and answer their phones when they are supposed to be talking to their talent." It sounds as if the character is a satirical sizzler who sums up the concept of the film perfectly.

Shocking as it is, this friendly, vivacious lady says she had "such fun" playing the vicious role. It's certainly playing against type. After all, she was Amaretto, the beautiful but naive waitress in cult horror classic Vamp, alongside the legend that is Grace Jones. Described by BestHorrorMovies.com as a 'fright night feature, heavy enough in strip-o-rama and slime-ball fun to make even the most jaded movie-viewer happy' the storyline sees a group of college students visit a strip club only to discover that the senior showgirl - Jones -is really a vicious vampire who seduces her clients before baring her fangs. It's up to Amaretto to help vanquish the vixen and escape into the sunlight.

Playing Amaretto allowed Pfeiffer to develop her acting skills to bring the character to life. From the slipping dress strap that she hopes she made "innocently sexy" to the grapple with Jones, she gave Amaretto a 'heart of gold', according to the Chicago Sunday Times.

Pleiffer improved the role through her own integrity and sheer showbiz savvy. For example, the staging of the scene where Amaretto performs her sultry tease routine in the club was her idea. A young actress, she already had a very firm grasp of her own principles; she was simply not comfortable with stripping, so she found a way to avoid it. She tells us, "Amaretto's dance was meant to be a very sexy dance. I was only willing to strip to a certain point, but I was able to manipulate the situation by staying in character. I thought of what Amaretto was thinking, that she was new on the scene, may not know how to strip well, and was naive and nervous and required backup." The result is a scene that is true to the character; Amaretto strips only partially and is shown with a whole bevy of beauties on which the guys can feast their eyes. The cherry on the cake for the audience is that director Richard Wenk surrounded the cast with real strippers who were the stars of their trade!

Grace Jones also taught her a lot, says Pfeiffer. Amaretto was her first starring role and, while establishing herself in smaller parts taught her the process of moviemaking, she had never yet seen a bona-fide cultural icon at work at close quarters. Jones, after all, was a Bond Girl, having played May Day in A View to a Kill, and has swished a spear with Schwarzenegger in Conan the Destroyer. No ordinary actress, Jones altered the role of the vampire Queen Katrina to suit her own style.

The infamous strip scene , in which Jones peels off her red robe to reveal a body painted with tribal designs and three strategically placed wire spirals ( before engaging in a dance routine with a headless-man-shaped chair), may be the strangest sexy sequence committed to film. According to Pfeiffer, it was Jones' idea, and she arrived on set with her entourage and took over. "The production was delayed by her posse, they were artists," says Pfeiffer. While she didn't take a leaf from Jones' punctuality book, she noticed the collective effort that went into the icon's work, from the routine itself to the body paint by Jean-Paul Goude, but also noticed how Jones made her character a force that seemed genuinely unworldly and realistically unnerving.

A fearsome female, was this simply a side of Jones' infamous temperament? After all, she subjected Amaretto to a few sticky situations during the film. "Not at all," says Pfeiffer, who was understandably nervous at meeting the icon. She needn't have worried - she says Jones gave her "the softest handshake I ever had in my life and diffused my fears". Jones is a strange and stunning lady; that's why we love her performances, but she's also a sensitive soul.

Jones', erm, grace, touched Pfeiffer, and she sought to incorporate it into her own work. This included developing her skills as an actress, beginning with Vamp. She says, "At that point in my career I was very intimidated by my own sexuality. I was very sexual as a person but very inhibited about being able to let that loose on screen." Pfeiffer puts this in the context of what was considered acceptable behavior at the time: "In the 1980s there was pressure put on the actor to be able to cry and show other extreme emotions. There was no Oprah and the public display of emotion was looked at differently. It was one thing to be able to cry in your personal life, but to cross that bridge to put it on the screen... that was huge." And what was it like with Amaretto, we ask? Pfeiffer laughs, "Stripteasing was like... how am I going to do this? It wasn't like today where we now embrace the ability to portray our sexuality." So how did the lady get liberated and show her sexuality? She learned her craft and worked with legendary acting coaches, Roy London and Ivana Chubbuck, and the results are on screen for all to see.

More film and television roles soon followed. Fright fans will remember Pfeiffer in The Horror Show (also known as House 3). Here she shone in spite of a so-so story as Bonnie McCarthy, the daughter living in a house haunted by a killer rather deliciously known as Meat Cleaver Max. She also sharpened her screams for TV movie, The Midnight Hour, in which her character helps to cause havoc by holding a Halloween party that leads to a long-dead townsperson being raised as a zombie witch. Easily done, we suppose...

Adventurous Pfeiffer didn't stick with these more straightforward roles, however. Her work ethic and inquisitiveness led to her playing a succession of fascinating and sometimes iconic characters. She is the panicked Whammy Burger server who deals with Michael Douglas in Falling Down and she has starred in AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, a sci-fi horror mockbuster of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. This is in addition to the major role of Sarah, a woman accused of murder in Brad Keller's film A Killer Within. After considering for a moment, Pfeiffer comments, "The most pivotal roles I've played were really complicated... deep. Someone goes out and does a murder and then they go out and have a somewhat normal life." This begs the question of how such a ray of sunshine can play these sometimes conflicted characters. "You have to love your character so that you can bring so many levels to that role," she states, seriously. "You cannot have any judgment of your character whatsoever."

Pfeiffer is obviously serious about researching her roles, but what she says next comes something of a surprise. "I go either from personal experience or I do research on the person." Researching real people is not a new concept - most serious actors have done it, from Anthony Hopkins and Frank Langella playing Richard Nixon, to Charlize Theron playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. Going from personal experience to understand and portray some of her characters is an entirely different prospect, however. We have spent most of the interview laughing. What could be so dark in the life of the thoughtful but fun Pfeiffer? "My mother pre, during and post shock treatment," she states, simply. This was the title of one of her university essays, but it also speaks of experiences that have informed her whole life and enabled her to become the actress, and person, she is.

Demons have dogged Pfeiffer, and credit to her that she is happy to face them. Born the middle child, between sisters Michelle (of Batman Returns fame) and Lori, Pfeiffer says, "I was stuck in the middle and destined to be an overachiever." This made her work much harder, and she states, "You have to establish an identity in the family as a way to exist . I was very much a people pleaser. I am very shy. I didn't always get the better end of the stick..." This is what maybe made her film roles effective . There is definitely recognition of darkness in her work, but of the complicated kind where it comes from situations all film fans can recognise.

Charity work holds her focus and she supports Unity For Peace events. She has spoken out in support of people with mental health issues, important in an industry with more than its fair share of casualties. She says: "Artists are very misunderstood... as the crazy ones. We think differently... so often we're kind of misunderstood, kinda shoved to the side - unless you have a family or a support team around you who understands that you're going to fall through the cracks." This recognition of difference, particularly coming from a personal perspective, could act as a safety valve to many young stars. Indeed the paths of Hollywood are sadly littered with the lives of people who have been lost, from Corey Haim (The Lost Boys) and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) through to Frank Geiring( Peter in the original Funny Games), all of whom died recently.

Drink and drugs are constant pitfalls, and Pfeiffer, supported by a clear head and loving family, recognises only too well the pressures the industry puts on its stars. Despite having a figure many younger girls would walk over hot coals for (which has seen her happily settled with a man 20 years her junior), at 46 she has no illusions of what is expected of her. "Shame on you for aging..." is the impression she is given. GZ's recent interview with Riley Steele discussed the early age at which women in the adult entertainment industry are considered old, but despite being a mainstream actress, Pfeiffer says that the roles begin to dry up for women at 30.

So Pfeiffer is diversifying. She is doing what she wants to do and trying other things. She has made two films recently, Based on True Events and Laredo, each a labour of love. Laredo is a thriller about a contract killer (played by Kevin J. Ryan, her now husband) who is trying to go straight, and it's Laredo that just might persuade her to stay in the business. Produced by Pfeiffer, the film has won awards at the famous Boston International Film Festival. One was for its gorgeous cinematography, and the other was personal to Pfeiffer: the Indie Soul Special Recognition Award. Pfeiffer evidently put her heart and soul into this film, saying, "We all came together and decided we were going to do this project. We learned about the characters and hung out to make this thing the best it could be."

Ever the dynamo, Pfeiffer is moving on. Such is her love of analysing the darker side of life, she is now retraining as a forensic psychologist. "I want to study these people and use thirty years of playing these people and take that a little deeper and make sense of my life," she says. You can hear the passion in her voice. "My focus will be on juvenile criminals. I want them to know I'm here because I actually give a damn. To have someone sit across that table and listen to you, that's huge." She attends a major college during the day and loves the student life and freedom her new direction brings, stating, "I hope to make the world a little safer." She is using the anguish she has known in her life , the shock treatment experience by her mother, the death of friends from AIDS and two divorces to stop other people falling through the cracks. "Darkness is there for a reason," she says, with a knowing look. "We cannot know pure happiness unless we have something to compare it to. Love and hate are the opposite sides of the same coin." You just know she will be great in her new vocation.

Until then, Pfeiffer is still taking the projects, but on a basis that suits her agenda. She has left her agent, but if she thinks she will enjoy a project, she'll do it. This was the case with the GZ shoot. She came in casual clothes, hair in a simple but sexy ponytail and face bare of make-up, cheerfully declaring that she wasn't camera ready and was self-conscious following the birth of her two young sons. However that Pfeiffer sense of fun came into play and, as you can see, we had a relaxed and sexy shoot. She had no qualms about recently dying her trademark blonde hair brown because she felt like having a change, and you can tell she's a woman at ease with her sexuality and her body. This really allows her to shine.

As we're wrapping up, we ask her what keeps her in high spirits in such sinister industries. We are rewarded with a radiant smile. " A sure will to live and a desire that's unquenchable, that's off the charts, to be happy."

Talking of charts, I ask her if she follows her stars. Like GZ editor Bryn Hammond, Pfeiffer is a New Year's Day born Capricorn, a sign that is associated with dynamism and determination. And just like Bryn, she is a rather private person, despite being able to handle being the centre of attention. The courageous Capricorn smiles a very knowing smile. For the fun of it, she visited a fortune teller recently and caused a near eruption in the shop when the impressed seer told her that not only is her Chinese rising sign a dragon, but her chart is "crazy, all kings and queens" and what she already knows herself: she's a powerful force.

Pfeiffer thinks we create our own fate. "For a lot of people horoscopes maybe open their senses up a little. I believe we can create our destiny. It's your history, your background, how you process these things." And she's right. Dedee Pfeiffer, hollywood actress and soon-to-be forensic psychologist is dyslexic, but despite this, using that analytical actress' mind of hers, her university papers get A grades.

No matter what Pfeiffer does next, whether it's further photo shoots, films or forensics, she'll do it with the determination that defines her. Or does it? "Empathy is a big thing for me," she says. "It's why I'm alive." This is a lady who connects. Feisty Pfeiffer is one heck of a fox.

Copyright GZ magazine 20101201 -- Interview Dr Karen Oughton, Photos by Ken Weingart