Michelle Pfeiffer has notoriously kept her family out of the publiceye, but she now proudly talks to Good Housekeeping in its July issue abouther and husband David E. Kelley‘s children, Claudia Rose, 14, and JohnHenry, 12, who cannot wait for their mom to receive a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame this summer. The Hairspray star, 49, talks aboutraising teens, who the "bad cop" is in the household and adoptingClaudia just as she was starting to date David.
At one point, theinterviewer recalls a "great lesson" Michelle taught her years ago whenthe actress corrected her for calling Claudia her "adopted daughter"when she is just her daughter. Michelle acknowledges that she never didit again and applauds her for that.
Here are the highlights:
On raising teens: I know, can you believe it? To tell you the truth, I feel likeit’s more difficult to be working now that they’re older, even though Ihad actually thought it would be the other way around. When they’re babies, you just sort of throwthem in the car seat and they go where you go. I mean, I literally usedto bring Claudia everywhere. In restaurants, I used to just plop herdown on the table in her car seat — she was like a centerpiece! But nowthat they’re older, they have their routines and their schedules, andtheir interests and their friends. And I don’t really want to disruptthat, because I want them to have a sense of continuity and normalcy.
How they feel about her returning to work: They’re very encouraging, because they know it makes mehappy. And also, since I haven’t been working so much, it’s not as ifthey’ve spent the past years saying to me, ‘You’re always gone.’ Andnow that they really understand more about what I do, I think they’remore curious than ever. Because frankly, in the past, they could nothave been less interested. Most people in the world have seen more ofme on-screen than my kids have.
On Claudia: Boy, there’s nothing typical about my girl. She’s a force to bereckoned with, and an amazing human being. I wanted her to be a reallyindependent, outspoken young woman, and I sure got that! She’s alsovery creative and inquisitive. And what’s exciting about this age isthat she’s really coming into her own. She’s everything I’d hoped shewould be.
On becoming a mom: Well, one thing that’s great about having kids, especially given mycareer, is that it forces you out of your narcissism. I mean, I’m in acareer where my product is me. So it was nice to have something,someone, come along and take the focus off me. I really needed to givemyself some distractions from myself.
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Most parents get on their kids’ cases about getting jobs and going towork, but for Michelle Pfeiffer, it was the opposite. The Hairspraystar took a self-imposed five-year break to focus on her family -husband David E. Kelley and children Claudia Rose, 14, and John Henry,12 – and pretty soon found herself being asked to go back to work, shesaid on The Late Show with David Letterman.
