The veteran actress is opening about her longstanding insecurities.
Although Michelle Pfeiffer is an acclaimed actress with decades of work under her belt, she still has a petrifying fear of getting the boot.
ET's Nischelle Turner sat down with Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie at a press day for their upcoming Disney film, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, where Pfeiffer shared her insecurities about her acting skills to this day.
"I think it comes from not having a background of formal training, you know, in the beginning," Pfeiffer explained. "And I think when I started out, a lot of actors were coming out of Juilliard and I was just this young person from Orange County, kind of just getting by on my instincts purely and I think, for the longest time, I felt like it wasn't really enough and maybe didn't give me the credibility and maybe because I had to find my technique as I went along. That I didn't sort of start from a real secure place."
However, when asked if she felt the same way about her role in the new Maleficent sequel, the 61-year-old actress offered insight on how she approached her part.
"I had a blast on this, though," she offered. "I'm pretty confident with the villains now. I know where to go for that."
The new film rejoins Maleficent (Jolie) and Princess Aurora (Fanning) after the events of the 2014 film. Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) proposes to the princess, and his mother, Queen Ingrith (Pfeiffer), intends to use their matrimony to drive a wedge between humans and fairies forever. This leaves the titular anti-hero at odds with Aurora.
During the interview, Jolie discussed how much 21-year-old Fanning has changed over the course of this role, which she took at age 14.
"When we met at 14, you were young but you were always impressive," Jolie told Fanning. "I'm very proud. She always held herself so well and she always had such grace and she's such a strong actor that you never seemed like a child."
"You've also maintained -- which I think is almost unheard of in this business -- such sweetness and gratitude for the job and for every minute and for everybody," Jolie added with a smile.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil arrives in theaters on Oct. 18.
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