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Roles They Regret: Part 1

© Jen Davis

Let's face it; we've all done things in our lives we've regretted later. It's human nature. Everyone's got some incriminating evidence of bad hair, bad clothes or a really bad choice of a significant other locked away in a drawer someplace where it'll never see the light of day and embarrass us again. Rather than shudder with fear at the thought of someone actually seeing that evidence, consider yourself lucky. Your errors in judgment aren't out there for the whole world to see.

That's not the case for Michelle Pfeiffer, Anthony Edwards and John Cusack. You'll recognize these names, I'm sure, as famous actors. Serious actors. Stars. But, before they were stars, they were just fledgling actors trying to get a break and make it to "the big time." On their way to that big break, they each chose some roles that maybe they regret choosing. They may not have been their first roles, and they may not have even been their worst roles, but now, looking back over their illustrious careers, audiences might say....

What were they thinking?!?

Now, I've got to come clean here and admit that I really like the movies we're going to discuss. But liking a movie and finding it a high caliber film are two entirely different things. I would be willing to bet that these three actors would erase these roles from their resumes if they could. But instead, they live on for the whole world to continue to see...and talk about.

Let's start in 1982 with Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie Zinoni in "Grease 2." Set during the height of the Kennedy era in the 1960s, "Grease 2" attempts to recapture the energy and spark of the original basically by telling the story in reverse. The focus of the movie is sex, but although the characters talk about it, and even sing about it, no one ever actually does it. Stephanie feels trapped by the Pink Ladies and T-Birds rules and codes, and she wants more from her life. She expresses this, in song, to Maxwell Caulfield's character Michael. The song, "Cool Rider," has a rock and roll edge, which makes sense since the role of Stephanie was originally intended for Pat Benatar. Ms. Pfeiffer sang her own songs in the movie, and while she certainly doesn't have the voice of Pat Benatar, she didn't do too bad a job. It's interesting to note, though, that while doing press for "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989), interviewers stated it was the first role Michelle Pfeiffer sang in, and they weren't corrected. This seems to indicate some desire to distance herself from the role on Pfeiffer's part. Despite it all, this movie is a campy classic, and I defy you to name anyone who hasn't sung a chorus or two of "Score Tonight" while bowling (even if it's only in their head).

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