Audience boos interviewer for asking Michelle Pfeiffer about her weight
A male journalist was booed Thursday by audience members at a Tribeca Film Festival panel celebrating the 35th anniversary of Scarface for asking star Michelle Pfeiffer about her weight.
The actress’s character in the film, Elvira Hancock, has remained something of a style icon. Panel moderator Jesse Kornbluth — who also interviewed Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, and director Brian De Palma on stage — turned the conversation to Hancock’s appearance, bluntly asking Pfeiffer how much she weighed during filming.
The New York City audience immediately erupted into a chorus of boos, to judge from video footage of the event. One woman can be heard shouting “You don’t have to answer that” at the Oscar-nominated star, who looked slightly aghast.
Kornbluth jumped in to defend himself by insisting that “this is not the question you think this is.” According to those in attendance, he later explained that he asked the impertinent question as a “concerned parent of a girl.”
Though seemingly shaken, Pfeiffer responded by discussing the filming process and how her plan was to “get thinner and thinner” as the shoot extended from a few months to eight.
“Well, OK,” she said in referring to her weight. “I don’t know. … I was playing a cocaine addict, so that was part of the physicality of the part, which you have to consider.
“I was starving by the end of it,” she admitted, noting that a particular scene “where I needed to be my thinnest” kept getting delayed. “I literally had members of the crew bringing me bagels because they were all worried about me and how thin I was getting. I think I was living on tomato soup and Marlboros.”
Many attendants later took to social media to slam Kornbluth’s “atrocious” questioning.
Oh hey just plugged in my camera and look: Michelle Pfeiffer reacting to the bad question, in three photos pic.twitter.com/BVHO9Pvqym
— Jason Bailey (@jasondashbailey) April 20, 2018
Michelle Pfeiffer has been asked two questions so far: What did she tell her kids about all the swear words and how much did she weigh during production #Tribeca2018 pic.twitter.com/3Uo7rlKuFX
— hunter harris (@hunteryharris) April 20, 2018
The moderator at the SCARFACE reunion just asked Michelle Pfeiffer what she weighed during the making of it because he’s a “concerned parent of a girl.” The audience booed. #Tribeca2018
— Nigel M. Smith (@nigelmfs) April 20, 2018
I was there. It was fucking atrocious. I am still angry on behalf of Michelle Pfeiffer, who, btw, handled it amazingly. https://t.co/SMwEcYL4ZY
— dasha tolstikova (@heytheredasha) April 20, 2018
Bless every single audience member who booed at the moderator asking Michelle Pfeiffer what she weighed when filming SCARFACE, and hooray for Jason's pictures, especially the last one, where she looks like she's about to laugh that moderator off the stage. #Tribeca2018 https://t.co/CWoWA9wIRZ
— Tasha Robinson (@TashaRobinson) April 20, 2018
The infamous moment at tonight’s #Scarface reunion panel where #MichellePfeiffer was asked by the moderator (who apparently is “the father of a daughter”) how much she weighed during filming, which was followed by a mixture of confusion and disdain from the audience. #Tribeca2018 pic.twitter.com/xQUQ6FJqtC
— Mark Espinosa (@SportsGuy515) April 20, 2018
Imagine watching SCARFACE and thinking Michelle Pfeiffer’s weight is the most concerning part of the movie. https://t.co/xQG5PrbhtN
— Scott Rising (@rising) April 20, 2018
Do you agree that the question was out of line and sexist?
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