Cuttings from the press 1996

Cybill-ing Revelry

Cybill-ing Revelry

Alicia Witt (she's the sullen one) and Dedee Pfeiffer (she's the spunky one) play the scene-stealing sisters you love to love on Cybill.

When cast members of a TV show get together for the first time, the same things usually go through their minds. You know, stuff like, I wonder how much money he's getting... Is her trailer bigger than mine... I can't believe I have to kiss that mouth... Doesn't she know she could poke someone's eye out with those implants?

Fortunately for Alicia Witt and Dedee Pfeiffer, the two sisters on CBS's Cybill, it was a first encounter of a different kind.

"The first time I remember seeing her was at the table reading, where we went over the script together for the first time," says Witt. "I was red-cheeked. Nervous. And excited. Everybody was checking everybody else out. I noticed Dedee, she noticed me, and we smiled at each other. Within three days, we were best friends."

Such good friends, in fact, that the two began exchanging touching personal notes. "We'd call each other Lizard Lips," says Witt. "I don't remember who started it. But we'd slip a note under the other's door that said, 'Hey, Lizard Lips. What's going on?'"

"We just hit it off," says Pfeiffer. "We became, like, sisters."

Since that day two years ago, the two TV sisters have had no rivalries, no cat fights, no jealous tiffs. And both have managed to take relatively minor characters and turn them into delicious winners - rather remarkable considering that the show's two stars, Cybill Shepherd and Christine Baranski, are professional scene-stealers in their own right.

"I love my character," says Pfeiffer of Rachel Blanders, the ultra-conservative, totally confident older sister. "She likes to come off as more mature and smarter than everyone else, but really she's more dysfunctional than all of them. I'm really nothing like her."

Except for one thing, that is. "I like to nest. I'm engaged to be married [to computer consultant Greg Fein] and I could not be more happy. I'm so in love with my fiance. I love to cook for him. I make him steak and cheesy broccoli. We'll be engaged for a while. We'll be married for a while. And then we'll have children... after a long while."

You can't blame her for waiting on the kid thing. Pfeiffer bussed tables, drove a truck, even danced at Disneyland while waiting for her big break in show business. After 14 years of trying, she's finally managed to convince people that she has more in common with her big sister Michelle than just a last name. Dedee can act. She's also enjoying her current real-life role as everybody's favorite aunt. "My brother Rick has three kids. My sister Lori has two. And Michelle has two. I'm the token aunt. The kids want me to do everything. Change the diapers. Feed them. Play with them. It's like my name is 'Let Aunt Dedee Do It.'"

Witt, on the other hand, has just one 17 year old brother and no nieces or nephews. But she did have an extraordinary childhood. At the age of 1 month, she says, she was talking. At 6 months, she was reading. At the age of 4, she performed a scene from "Romeo and Juliet" on the Today show and wrote short stories based on the "Peanuts" characters. "In my fantasy I was always the savior. I would come to 'Peanuts' land and save everybody. Charley Brown would fall madly in love with me. Peppermint Patty was so jealous." Witt is also an accomplished concert pianist who recently played for President Clinton at the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy center. She made her first movie, David Lynch's "Dune," when she was 7. Her parents, two schoolteachers, educated her at home.

"My life was so different to Zoey's," says Witt of the sullen character she plays on Cybill. "I didn't have a typical teenage experience. It was bizarre, but bizarre in a good way." Indeed, she never sat in a school classroom until she made last year's "Mr. Holland's Opus" with Richard Dreyfuss, and she never made it to the prom until and episode of Cybill last season. "It's interesting to get all these experiences in retrospect," Witt says. "I suppose someday I'll get married on a TV show."

The two actresses spent the summer making TV-movies - Pfeiffer, NBC's A Degree in deception; Witt, CBS's The Reef. Now, they are eager to get back to the set and start a new season.

"I haven't a clue what's going on," says Pfeiffer. "I would imagine my character's going to go through a lot more marital things with her husband. And the baby will probably be older."

Working with the baby (actually twins), she says, is "extremely nerve-wracking for me because I love children. When someone hands you their 5-month-old baby and you're trying to hit your marks, remember your lines, and do your scene, it's scary. This is someone else's pride and joy. I usually end up tripping up. I look down and see the baby's smiling face and forget everything else. They're great to work with. I love them. But it's scary. I say this because I'm not a mother. Mothers instinctively hold them like they're a sack of potatoes."

As for Witt, "I'm dying to know what's going to happen. My character is not with a boyfriend anymore, so she'll start dating other people. She's 18 on the show now, so she can date anybody she wants. She's going to have to take a job or two. Maybe even move out. We'll see."

But best of all, Witt gets to see Pfeiffer again. "It's always fun to run back to one of our dressing rooms and huddle and talk about everything that's going on. You know, little things. Like, did you see what they're serving for lunch today? Or, oh, my God, that purple shirt so-and-so is wearing is just awful. It's fun to have someone to conspire with. I'm close to the others, but Dedee's just, well, she's my sister."

[Also - try a Spicy Caesar Salad ]

Copyright TVGuide 19960727 -- Mark Schwed (Photo by Reisig & Taylor))

Dedee Pfeiffer

Dedee Pfeiffer

Who could blame Dedee Pfeiffer if she suffered from a bad case of Jan Brady syndrome? The 32-year-old L.A-based actress has a superstar older sibling, Michelle; she even played a cameo as her sister's sister in Up Close & Personal. But Dedee, who has worked steadily in film and TV for more than a decade, has no complaints; with a plum role as the sassy elder daughter on Cybill, she's made sisterly comparisons a thing of the past.

I've interviewed Michelle, and she said she felt she looked like a duck. You don't look like a duck, however.

Oh, the duck face! [Laughs] She used to scare me with that face when I was little. But I didn't think she looked like a duck. I called her Alien Face. In my family [Pfeiffer was raised in Orange County, Calif.; her father is in the heating and air conditioning business, and her mother is a homemaker] we actually have this joke, and I'm called Pan Face.

Pan Face?

Because the bottom of the pan has no contours, no real description. I've always seen my face like that - it can look like anything.

Has being Michelle's sister helped or hurt your career? How many times have you been asked that question?

[Laughs] Oh, a lot. But I expect it. I think it's been a little of both. It hurts me in that I used to walk into auditions, and I knew they wanted to see me to answer the question "Is she a younger Michelle Pfeiffer?" Well, I'm not. We don't look that much alike, and I have completely different mannerisms. I'm more quirky, a little more outgoing. What helped me is that Michelle has always been so incredibly supportive. She knows the business, and that's helped a lot.

Have there been any roles that your sister nabbed that you thought, I could have done that?

Not really. But there was one character that she played - in The Fabulous Baker Boys - that was me. When I watched her in that movie I was like, You're imitating me! My energy, my mannerisms. I thought, Aw, man! Now people are going to think I'm imitating you when it's really the other way around!

What's the biggest lie that was printed about you?

Hmm. I guess in some tabloid where they wrote that I was this young troubled girl, and big sister Michelle came in and saved the day. And also something about my being anorexic and bulimic. Not true.

There was an incident that happened about a year ago in your life that was very upsetting.

[Long pause] Well, I haven't discussed this with anyone in the press yet. It happened a year ago. Someone I was dating for a few months [Ronnie Marquette, a model/actor] killed himself in front of me. With a gun.

What did you do when it happened?

I guess I immediately went into shock. You just cannot fathom what... [long pause]... how they could do that. It was almost like, "I cannot believe what I just saw." If it had sunk in then, I don't think I could have handled it emotionally. It's just now that I'm beginning to handle it.

Do you remember the first thing you did?

I thought it was some really bad, sick joke. I just kept saying that over and over. I ran to the phone finally. I dialed zero, because when we are growing up, we're told that if something bad happens, call the operator. So I did. I didn't even think 911. I just dialed zero and started screaming, and they hung up. And then I called 911.

Wait a minute. The operator hung up on you?

Yes. I guess they thought it was a prank. When I called 911, I was in shock, just screaming, and dropped the phone. I don't remember what happened after that until somebody came to the house. I don't know how long it took, but it felt like days.

Have you gone through therapy to deal with it?

Yes. I went through therapy and grief and survival counseling. That was the most difficult thing. All the people in my group went through the pain of having someone in their life die violently. But none of them, I think, went through the experience of seeing it happen right before them, you know?

Let's end on a happier note. Describe a recent good day.

Woke up. Made a big pot of decaf coffee. Threw on my overalls. Cleaned up my house. Played the music that I love - disco! Spent the day with my two dogs and a guy I care a lot about that I've been dating. You don't think when you're going through hard times that things will someday be better. But they are. That's something I hope people who are going through rough times somehow realize. You can get through it. And now I'm a little wiser. A lot wiser.

Copyright US Magazine 19960600 -- Ryan Murphy (Photo by Dewey Nicks)

Dedee

Dedee

Don't tell Dedee Pfeiffer she's an overnight success. She's never seen an alarm clock with a setting marked "13 years in the future." Since she's become a weekly fixture as Cybill Shepherd's ultra-conservative, Laura Ashley-draped daughter Rachel on Cybill, Pfeiffer's return on her acting investment seems close at hand - and 13 is her new lucky number. Couple that with a costarring role in sis Michelle's latest flick, Up Close and Personal, and it would seem the long awaited overnight sensation has finally arrived. "What do you think the percentage unemployment is in acting?" she asks, answering her own question with a laugh, "OK, yeah, so people out there may not have known who I was. But somebody out there was seeing my work, because I was getting hired. I supported myself as an actress that whole time. I've always felt like a success."

It takes a mere glance in her direction to demonstrate once again an abundance of superior chromosomes handed down from mom and pop Pfeiffer's gene pool. Not to be overshadowed by her obvious physical attributes, she injects genuine intelligence, witty quips, reflectiveness, and a calming spirituality into her conversations, putting anyone at ease - and exudes enough positive energy to bump toothy motivational speaker Tony Robbins from the late-night infomercial line-up. Making frequent references to symbols intertwined with her life - including her ever-present "linebacker guardian angels" - her choice of the day's interview location, Hollywood's El Coyote restaurant, pays reverence to where she's been and where, after so many years, she finds herself headed.

"When you look back at specifics in your life, you have to think about your surroundings," she says. "That's why I wanted to come here. I lived around this part of Hollywood forever. I wanted to go back to where it all started. I'd come here and get a huge tostada, a double margarita, and lots and lots of chips and salsa, because they were free. I could get totally filled up for five or six bucks while I waited to start my next job. This old damn restaurant kind of represents me up to a certain point in my life."

Admittedly, Pfeiffer has spent the bulk of her career as something less than a household name. But there is a difference between actress and movie star. Her first speaking role on film was in 1985 with the poignant questions, "Wanna date? .... Wanna party?" in John Landis's Into the Night. So if it wasn't "Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn," it got her a SAG card, and she was on her way. She landed her first starring role a year later in the flippant vampire tale Vamp, costarring Grace Jones. In the years to follow, she chalked up about a dozen more film roles: Tune in Tomorrow with an emerging Keanu Reeves, The Allnighter with a soon-to-be Oscar-nominated Joan Cusack, and Red Surf with a budding actor named George Clooney.

Most of the movies were far from big-budget, the shoot schedules went into the wee hours of the morning, and the pint-sized towns that served as locations seemed to shut down at dusk. More than once, the vegetarian Pfeiffer found herself calling Motel 6 her home, spending her per-diem at their vending machines on a steady fare of Diet Pepsi and Funyuns. What she lacked in creature comforts of home was made up for by a glowing resume that was once, shall we say, slightly embellished. On top of that was a wealth of television credits, including a nod from the critics in the movie-of-the-week Tough Love, and an endless slew of television guest spots from Seinfeld to Murder She Wrote. All the while, Pfeiffer continued honing her craft with acting coaches and a mounting list of stage credits. Still, that big break seemed all too at rest in the wings.

"I made a decision that it was time for me to try something else. I was ready to quit and go back to college," she recalls. "Then the script for Cybill came along. I was always very leery in general about TV series. They ask you to commit for five to seven years. I wasn't sure I wanted to play the same person for so long. I read the pilot for Cybill and thought it was hilarious. So I went to read for it, not really thinking I had a shot in hell of landing it. I told myself, 'OK, if you don't get it, you're going to quit acting.' That was my way out. I stacked all the cards against me, and waited for the fall. On the slimmest of chances I did get it, it would surely be a sign from above that I had been doing all of this for a reason.

"I had this image in my mind of what Cybill Shepherd's daughter would be like - a funny, beautiful, miniature version of herself. I didn't think that was me, but I was flattered enough to go through with it. Off I go to read, just knowing I was going to quit acting after the audition. They kept calling me back, and calling me back, and I was laughing to myself that I had gotten so far. When Cybill and I finally met face to face, we instantly clicked, and I was cast in the pilot. Then we had to wait to see if the show was going to be picked up, and if we, individually, would get picked up as well. Did I sweat that period? You have no idea. When they finally called to say everything was go, I was euphoric. I cried. Fate decided what I was supposed to do."

With Cybill's popularity, Pfeiffer found herself at the steps of a long-awaited wide-open door, and for the first time, she didn't have to knock to get in. The phone began to ring with offers of film roles of the A variety. "My agent called to tell me I had an audition for a film called Up Close and Personal. I said, 'Cool, what time?' that sort of thing. Then they said they couldn't send a script at the moment because it was going through a few rewrites. So I ask, 'OK, who is in it?' and my agent laughs and says, 'Michelle's in it. You're going up for the part of her sister.' I had to pretend I knew all about it. Then I ask, 'Who else is in it? Robert Redford? Oh, cool.' Michelle and I talk, but not about the things people think we do. I don't always know what she's working on. I knew she was doing a movie with Robert Redford, but that was about it. So I went and auditioned to play the role of fast-talking, outgoing sister to Michelle's character. Now here I am talking to you about playing a fast-talking, outgoing sister."

In Up Close and Personal, Dedee plays Luanne, a "blackjack-dealing, trailer-park trash of a woman, with a daughter named Star. She's the kind of woman who looks at the pictures in Vogue, then tries to pull off her version of what she sees, missing by a long shot. She has boobs out to here, the hair is huge-sexy, but quite tacky. Michelle's character goes away and becomes this successful television reporter, and I'm the dark secret she left back home at the trailer park."

So now that her career has shifted into fourth gear, is Pfeiffer entertaining any thoughts about leaving the acting trade? Don't count on it. "I think back to some of the jobs I had outside of acting. I was the worst waitress ever in a Mexican restaurant, I was a radiator delivery girl, I saw great humor working as a cocktail waitress in a female-mud-wrestling club called the Tropicana. The scariest of all was when I thought I was going to die working at Disneyland. I was a dancing monkey in the 25 ^th -anniversary parade on the Tahitian float. It was in the middle of the summer, and my costume was as thick as carpet. I'd climb into the costume, then someone would attach these gigantic foam rubber monkey paws to the suit over my hands - they were impossible to put on by yourself. To keep the sweat from dripping into my eyes, I'd tie a bandanna around the top of my forehead. I was dancing in 105 degree heat, and the bandanna slipped down over my face, and blocked all three holes in the suit - two to see out of, the other to breathe through. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe, and because of my paws, I couldn't get my suit off. I blindly swung my arms around trying to get the attention of another character on the float. At first, they just thought I was really getting into my character - at Disneyland, you don't break character. Then someone saw that my bandanna was covering the holes in my suit. Thankfully, the float then rounded a bend, and someone pulled my costume's head off. I was maroon-colored from lack of oxygen. Talk about overcoming all sorts of things in the quest for a career." After all of that, who wouldn't feel like a success? Good thing those linebacker guardian angels weren't stuck in the line at the spinning-teacup ride.

Copyright Detour Magazine 19960300