{"id":46895,"date":"2025-10-09T14:46:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T18:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=46895"},"modified":"2025-10-09T14:46:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T18:46:27","slug":"michelle-pfeiffer-says-becoming-a-grandmother-renewed-her-passion-for-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/10\/michelle-pfeiffer-says-becoming-a-grandmother-renewed-her-passion-for-acting.html","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Pfeiffer Says Becoming a Grandmother Renewed Her Passion For Acting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tinseltown \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michelle Pfeiffer has had an incredible career, starring in classics like Scarface<\/em> and Hairspray<\/em>, but at 67, she says something unexpected has given her a whole new outlook on acting\u2014becoming a grandmother.<\/p>\n

During a recent appearance on the SmartLess<\/em> podcast, the legendary actress opened up about how her new role in life has reshaped her work and even made her a better performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have time nor the desire to go that deep for that long and not be present,\u201d Pfeiffer told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. Then she dropped the big news: \u201cI realize I have a finite amount of time left and \u2013 I might announce on this show \u2013 that I became a grandmother last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer said she\u2019s been keeping the joyful news mostly private, but she couldn\u2019t help sharing how much it\u2019s impacted her. \u201cI\u2019ve been very quiet about it, and it is \u2013 it\u2019s heaven,\u201d she gushed. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous. And if I had known that I was going to be a grandmother, I wouldn\u2019t have taken on so much work, but I\u2019ve enjoyed everything, and I\u2019m really grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admitted that letting go of the anxiety that sometimes comes with the acting process has actually made her better. \u201cI\u2019ve loved \u2013 I love each of these projects. And so the weird thing is sort of giving up that angst about the process has freed me up, and I feel in some ways has made me better.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Pfeiffer\u2019s schedule is packed\u2014she\u2019s starring in Amazon\u2019s holiday movie Oh. What. Fun<\/em>, has a new series called Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles<\/em>, and is filming the Yellowstone<\/em> spinoff The Madison<\/em>\u2014she feels calmer than she did earlier in her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful. I\u2019m so grateful because I love acting. I\u2019ve never lost \u2013 in fact, I probably enjoy it more now than I ever have because I\u2019m sort of more relaxed with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her focus has shifted. \u201cI don\u2019t really have time to be thinking about anything but the task at hand,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean balancing work and life has been easy. \u201cBut when I had all these acting jobs coming up, I thought, \u2018OK, OK, how are you going to manage this and have a life?\u2019 Because that hasn\u2019t always been easy for me. I\u2019m an all or nothing kind of girl when I approach things. And I always like taking on challenges, and then I get into it, and it\u2019s sort of sink or swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer has long prioritized her family. She adopted her daughter, Claudia Rose, shortly before marrying TV producer David E. Kelley. Together, they also welcomed a son, John Henry Kelley II, in 1994.<\/p>\n

In the past, she even stepped away from Hollywood to focus on motherhood. \u201cI was also sort of in this in-between place. I sort of didn\u2019t feel like I was really a leading lady. I wasn\u2019t a grandma yet, but I wasn\u2019t also like an ingenue,\u201d she shared in a 2023 interview. Raising kids\u2014and relocating her family\u2014became her priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t set out to stop working, or it wasn\u2019t my plan, but I became so difficult in terms of my prerequisites, in terms of, \u2018Well, where does it shoot? How long does it shoot? What time of year does it shoot? Can I bring the kids? Is it during the school year?\u2019 And then it was just too difficult to hire me, honestly. And I was OK with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Pfeiffer seems to have found the sweet spot between a thriving career and a full family life. With her new title as \u201cgrandma,\u201d she\u2019s approaching acting with fresh joy\u2014and she says she\u2019s better for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Pfeiffer has had an incredible career, starring in classics like Scarface and Hairspray, but at 67, she says something unexpected has given her a whole new outlook on acting\u2014becoming a grandmother. During a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, the legendary actress opened up about how her new role in life has reshaped her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":46898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nMichelle Pfeiffer Says Becoming a Grandmother Renewed Her Passion For Acting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michelle Pfeiffer shares she\u2019s now a grandmother, calling it \u201cheaven,\u201d and explains how it has freed her up and renewed her love for acting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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