Michelle Pfeiffer Recalls ‘Freezing My Ass Off’ in Cutoff Shorts for First Acting Gig in Car Commercial

Michelle Pfeiffer certainly had the drive to make it all happen.

The Golden Globe winner, 66, celebrated her career as she had her hands and footprints cemented at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles during the TCM Classic Film Festival on Friday, April 25.

To celebrate, during a reflective speech at the ceremony, she looked back at her earliest acting gig: a Ford truck commercial.

Pfeiffer, who was "so excited" at the time after taking an acting class, was living in Midway City when her boss gave her "the day off from checking groceries at Vons supermarket," she recalled. So she set out to the commercial's set in a red Volkswagen Beetle and "terrycloth jumpsuit."

"And I arrive at the designated meeting spot, which is the production office," Pfeiffer said. "It's the middle of the night. And, because it's out in Malibu somewhere, I don't even know where that is, and there's no one there. So an hour goes by and I get propositioned, more than once."

Michelle Pfeiffer is seen as TCM honors actress Michelle Pfeiffer with Hand and Footprint Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on April 25, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

After two hours, she recalled the sun coming up and still not seeing anyone. "I'm freaking out because this is my big break and the sun is up, and I know they're shooting without me, but I think, 'OK, well this is a place of employment. Someone's got to show up.' "

"So 9 a.m. someone shows up. The next thing you know, I'm in Malibu on the beach in a tank top and cutoff shorts, freezing my ass off," Pfeiffer said. "And I don't know how many trucks I sold that day, but all of a sudden I am a working actor."

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After over four decades in the industry, Pfeiffer joked that she's "still showing up in the middle of the night, freezing my ass off." And she still loves her job, too.

"Maybe I love it now more, honestly, than I ever have. I love actors, I love directors, I love writers. I love, love, love crews. And yes, and over time, ultimately, I grew to love Los Angeles," she said. "This is my home. I look out at so many of my friends and my family and my colleagues, and this is home. And it's not such a scary place. It's actually a place where I and so many others feel safe to be who they were meant to become."

Inside Michelle Pfeiffer's Life Now as She's Celebrated with Iconic Handprint Ceremony

While receiving her latest honor, Pfeiffer was joined by Dakota and Elle Fanning, Ben Mankiewicz and longtime love David E. Kelley.

And she's certainly come a long way since her days waiting to film car commercials — having found early success in 1982’s Grease 2 and 1983's Scarface before securing her first Academy Award nod years later for 1989's Dangerous Liaisons. She was later nominated twice more — for The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1990 and Love Field in 1993 — before also finding herself decades later in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and on the small screen, in projects such as Showtime’s The First Lady.

Pfeiffer’s next big gig finds her reuniting on screen with Elle, as she'll star in Margo's Got Money Troubles, based on the 2024 Rufi Thorpe novel.

"Michelle has a certain quality about her and her light shines on you when you're with her," Elle, 27, said during the ceremony. "And when the encounter ends, you find yourself yearning for that light again. Michelle makes you feel held as a person and supported as an actor. She's present, thoughtful and utterly dedicated to excellence effortlessly. She just brings up everyone around her."