Michelle Pfeiffer Was Mysteriously Missing From Her 'Scarface' Reunion With Al Pacino at the Oscars
On Sunday night, the Best Picture category was supposed to deliver a long-awaited reunion with two cast members from Scarface at the 2024 Oscars. Instead, only Al Pacino appeared at the Dolby Theatre to give out the final award of the night. Where in the world was Michelle Pfeiffer?
According to Deadline, the 65-year-old actress had “personal family reasons” that unexpectedly kept her on the East Coast. The Academy quickly turned the moment around by pretending Pacino’s appearance was in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Godfather when, technically, the movie was released 52 years ago. They did what they had to do because of the last-minute cancellation, but it looks like Pacino could have used a co-presenter because he was a bit chaotic up there by himself.
The 83-year-old Oscar winner jumped all over the place and decided that announcing the 10 Best Picture nominees wasn’t worth his time. He cut right to the chase, even skipping the traditional tagline, “And the Oscar goes to.” He noted, “My eyes see Oppenheimer.” It was an oddly anti-climactic end to a pretty energetic show. Let’s just say that Pfeiffer’s presence was missed by everyone.
It would have been a fun 40th reunion for the stars who played Tony Montana and Elvira Hancock in the 1983 crime film. Pfeiffer was coming off Grease 2 during that era and Pacino wasn’t exactly thrilled that she was auditioning for the part. “I was terrified, and I was really young, and I knew he didn’t want me, and as it went on, the worse I got because I just got so afraid,” she told Jimmy Fallon during a Tonight Show appearance in 2017.
The first round of auditions didn’t go well for her, but director Brian de Palma really wanted her to nab the role. He brought Pfeiffer in for a final screen test that took a rather bloody turn. “We do the restaurant scene at the end where I, kind of, freak out at the end. I threw dishes, and everything went flying, and I broke things, I was in it,” she explained. “There was blood everywhere. Everyone comes running over to me, checking me out for blood, where am I cut, they’re not finding anything, there are no cuts on me. “I look over and Al is bleeding.”
And here’s where the punchline comes in because Pfeiffer couldn’t write a better ending. She concluded, “I cut Al Pacino! … And that’s how I got the part.” And that’s also how a Hollywood star was born.
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