''Someone was cast before me'': Michelle Pfeiffer reveals Annette Bening was originally cast as Catwoman

Michelle Pfeiffer is gearing up for her first film in three years, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, releasing on February 17, 2023. The Marvel film will mark the studio’s first offering of 2023.

In the superhero flick, Pfeiffer will be reprising her Ant-Man and the Wasp role of Janet Van Dyne or Wasp.

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Pfeiffer spoke of The First Lady (for which she received a Critics' Choice Award nomination) and her exemplary DC character Catwoman.

Pfeiffer played Catwoman in the 1992 superhero film Batman Returns, a sequel to the 1989 release Batman. Headlined by Michael Keaton, Batman Returns, directed by Tim Burton, featured Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken as antagonists Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin and Max Shreck, respectively.

An interesting fact about the film is that Pfeiffer wasn’t the first choice for that role. The actress revealed this information to Fallon and also talked about why she was approached.

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Michelle Pfeiffer bagged the role of Catwoman after Annette Bening got pregnant

Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal of Catwoman has received high acclaim from critics over the years, and her look “remains the character's most iconic.”

A still from Batman Returns. (image via IMDb)

In a retrospective piece, the French magazine Premiere stated that the actress delivers a “growling, fierce performance,” and that her “deadly kitten with a whip brought s*x to the normally neutered franchise.”

Hence, it was rather shocking for fans to learn that Annette Bening was in fact the first choice for the role over Michelle Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer revealed:

“Someone was cast before me. Annette Bening, who’s wonderful…and then she got pregnant. Awesome! And then I got the part…I got the part!”

A still from Batman Returns. (image via IMDb)

The veteran star also shared with Fallon that she suffers from “performance anxiety” before any shoot, but didn’t feel it for her role as Catwoman.

She stated:

“I didn’t because I was obsessed with Catwoman since I was a little girl.”

Speaking of Catwoman’s costume, it looked splendid on celluloid, but Michelle Pfeiffer told The Hollywood Reporter a few years ago that slipping into the latex costume was extremely "uncomfortable."

She mentioned:

“They had to powder me down, help me inside and then vacuum-pack the suit. They’d paint it with a silicon-based finish to give it its trademark shine. I had those claws, and I was always catching them in things.”

A still from Batman Returns. (image via IMDb)

Even the face mask was choking her and the costume “didn’t leave me a way to use the restroom in the suit, so that also had to be remedied as well,” the actress hilariously added.

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About Michelle Pfeiffer’s The First Lady and her next, Quantumania

As mentioned above, Michelle Pfeiffer will next be seen in Quantumania, where the main villain with be Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). She informed Fallon that Marvel, following their strict no-spoiler reveal policy, gave her a list mentioning all the potential spoilers and asked her not to spill them.

So, the multi-award nominee refrained from disclosing anything but added that she and Majors “have a lot” of scenes together.

A still from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. (image via Marvel)

Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Michael Douglas, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, and Randall Park.

The synopsis reads:

"Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne, along with Hope's parents Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne and Lang's daughter Cassie, go on a new adventure exploring the Quantum Realm that pushes their limits and pits them against Kang the Conqueror."

Pfeiffer was last seen in Showtime’s The First Lady, where she appeared in 10 episodes as former first lady, Betty Ford.

A still from The First Lady. (Photo via HBO Max)

Apart from Critics' Choice, the 64-year-old also got a Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards nomination for her performance as Ford.