Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer says she still fears being fired from acting jobs in the first week of shooting

The actress opened up about her career on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop podcast
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Isobel Frodsham2 September 2019
The Weekender

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Oscar-nominated star Michelle Pfeiffer said she still fears being fired from acting jobs in the first week.

The actress, 61, told of how she still fears being fired despite the fact her succesful Hollywood career has so far spanned nearly 40 years.

Pfeiffer added that she became known as “Dr No” after taking a career break to focus on raising her two children with writer and producer David E. Kelley.

Speaking to Gwyneth Paltrow, 46, on her Goop podcast, Pfeiffer said: “I always feel like I’m going to be fired in my first week of work, always still. I used to literally shake [at] my first day of work.”

Fearful: Pfeiffer opened up about how she felt about acting on Gwyneth Paltrow's podcast
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The Dangerous Liaisons actress, who has moved away from Los Angeles to San Francisco with Kelley, said her hiatus was not a “conscious decision”.

“I wanted to see if it would be different, if it would be better," she said, "I felt like I was living in a fishbowl here.

"Having the kids there was really influencing me just not saying yes. My nickname became 'Dr No', and it's not that I didn’t work at all, I did, but it was always, ‘Ok what time of year, how many weeks, where is it shooting, what is going on with them.’

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“So when they left [home], I was free to do whatever I wanted.”

Earlier this year, Pfeiffer announced plans to launch a new perfume company, called Henry Rose, which specialises in using “nontoxic” ingredients.

When Paltrow asked if she felt a “pull” back to movies now, Pfeiffer said: “Starting this company… I just set out to start this business and formulate these fragrances.

"Everything was new, everything was a learning curve, and making decisions not knowing what I was basing those decisions on. Just going by gut, because I had nothing else to go on.

“I went back and did a day of reshoots for Maleficent and it was so fun because it was just acting, all I had to do was remember my lines.”

Pfeiffer has been nominated for three Oscars, for her star turns in Love Field, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Dangerous Liaisons.

She won a Best Actress Golden Globe for The Fabulous Baker Boys and a Best Supporting Actress Bafta for Dangerous Liaisons.

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