Entertainment Movies Horror & Thriller Movies Michelle Pfeiffer Says She Turned Down 'The Silence of The Lambs' Because the Film's Script Was 'Evil' "I didn't want to put that out into the world," the actress said of turning down a role in the 1991 film By Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE Magazine. He began working with the brand as an Editorial Intern in early 2020, before later transitioning to a freelance role, and then staff positions soon after. Nicholas writes and edits anywhere between 7 to 9 stories per day on average for PEOPLE, spanning across each vertical the brand covers. People Editorial Guidelines Published on February 2, 2021 06:35PM EST Photo: George Pimentel/WireImage Michelle Pfeiffer is opening up about one film role that could have been. While speaking with The New Yorker for a recent interview about her wide-ranging and illustrious career, the 62-year-old actress detailed how she was originally tapped to star in The Silence of the Lambs but passed on the opportunity due to being uncomfortable with the film's "evil" storyline. "With Silence of the Lambs, I was trepidatious," she said. "There was such evil in that film." When asked what exactly it was about the project that made her not want to take part in it, Pfeiffer added: "It was that evil won in the end, that at the end of that film evil ruled out. I was uncomfortable with that ending. I didn't want to put that out into the world." Michelle Pfeiffer on Why She Doesn't Work with Husband and Big Little Lies Creator David E. Kelley Everett In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling, an FBI agent, seeks out the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), to help her catch a serial killer, "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine), who skins his female victims. The role, which went to Jodie Foster after Pfeiffer turned it down, would go on to win her a Best Actress Oscar at the 1992 Academy Awards. The Silence of the Lambs also won the Oscar for Best Picture, among other coveted categories. Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday? Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday. Get a taste of the podcast below. Back in 2019, Pfeiffer opened up about various films that she has turned down over the years — including Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct and Thelma and Louise — during an interview on the Today show. "The thing is, there are so many reasons that go into turning something down, and it's not necessarily because you don't want to do it," Pfeiffer said at the time. "There's a conflict, you're committed to something else. Typically, it was something like that." RELATED VIDEO: Michelle Pfeiffer Says She 'Loved' Playing a Superhero: It Tells Women 'We Are Still Kicking A—' For Pfeiffer, however, she does have one regret over not taking the role of Clarice, because it meant she would've been able to work with The Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme once more. Pfeiffer and Demme, who died due to complications from esophageal cancer in 2017, previously collaborated on the 1988 film Married to the Mob. "The thing I most regret is missing the opportunity to do another film with [director] Jonathan [Demme]," she said. "It's so sad to me that he's no longer with us," Pfeiffer then added of the late director. "First of all, he is the nicest person, he is funny, and not only is he really funny but he's the easiest person to make laugh, so we just laugh all the time."