Michelle Pfeiffer has a decorated and lengthy career as a Hollywood actress but there was a time when she decided to retreat from the spotlight and press pause on her profession.
Now, the 65-year-old is front and center again and is thriving with new roles both on the big screen and TV, alongside the honor of presenting an Academy Award on Sunday night. But what caused her to step back from Tinseltown when her career was still in bloom?
Michelle was a leading lady in the 80s and 90s in movies such as Scarface, Dangerous Minds and The Witches of Eastwick. She has racked up eight Golden Globe nominations and three Oscar nods but her family became her priority as she pulled back the reins on acting.
To begin with, Michelle and her longtime husband, David. E. Kelley, were able to juggle raising Claudia and John - who are now 31 and 29 - with working.
However, it soon became apparent to Michelle that she would have to sacrifice raising her children the way that she wanted if she continued on the path she was going. "Before the kids were born, my work was my life — and it was in a good way," she told Town & Country. "When they were small, I could just pack them up and bring them with me. But then it became, ‘Okay, how long will this separate the family unit?’
"When they got into school it became even more complicated, because I didn’t want to just take them out of their routine, so I would shoot in the summer and tried to not be away for more than two or three weeks at a time. It became challenging for people to hire me, because it was too complicated. It was easier to get somebody else to do the part."
Michelle also said she was in a complex area in her career, telling The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast: "I was also sort of in this in-between place. I sort of didn't feel like I was really. A leading lady. I wasn't a grandma yet, but I, I wasn't also like an ingenue."
It was when her daughter began making plans to leave home that Michelle really considered launching herself back into the workplace. "I realized my daughter was looking at colleges, and I saw the writing on the wall," Michelle added to Town & Country. "I thought, 'This is going to hit me really hard. It's time for me to get back into moviemaking.'"
Not that it was easy for her. "Your seat is never saved in this industry," the Ant-Man actress said. "It’s very competitive."
LOOK: Michelle Pfeiffer looks radiant as she cozies up to husband David E. Kelley in romantic new photo
However, Michelle has never shied away from hard work and now confesses: "I'm at an age when the parts are getting more interesting again for me. I guess the timing of it really worked out, because I don't feel I missed out on much."
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