CULTURE

Michelle Pfeiffer Is in Full Comeback Mode in Where Is Kyra? Trailer

"I don’t know, time just went on . . . I disappeared, yeah.”


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Michelle Pfeiffer‘s renaissance is in full swing. After making her comeback last year as the house guest from hell in Darren Aronofsky’s wildly divisive Mother!, the actress is stepping into yet another gut-wrenching role. This time, Pfeiffer is less in command as her life spirals out of control in Where Is Kyra?, an upcoming drama from Nigerian filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu, best known for 2013’s Mother of George and 2011’s Restless City. In the first look at the film, Pfeiffer delivers a heart-stopping performance as the enigmatic lead, struggling to make ends meet through any means necessary.

“Hi, I’m Kyra Johnson. I was just wondering if the part-time filing position is still open?,” she asks as the trailer begins, before being told it’s been filled. “Okay,” she exhales. What follows is a look at her day-to-day life that includes caring for her elderly mother. “You know what it’s like when nothing you’ve worked for is working?,” she asks Kiefer Sutherland. “Thank god for my mom, she saved my ass.”

The film, which hits theaters April 6, is in part about not having a safety net to fall back on and “the invisibility of the elderly and the disenfranchised and how we try to avoid them,” Dosunmu told Variety, per Vanity Fair. “A lot of people end up being there not because of their own fault but because of circumstances,” he said. “Most people live one paycheck to another. What happens when you lose your job? You lose everything. That’s what happens to this character. She’s lost her husband. She’s lost her job. She’s lost her mom. And she’s just trying to survive.”

It also marks Pfeiffer’s full-fledged return to acting after a hiatus she took to spend more time with her children. “I’ve never lost my love for acting,” she told Vanity Fair last year. “I’m a more balanced person, honestly, when I’m working. But I was pretty careful about where I shot, how long I was away, whether or not it worked out with the kids’ schedule. And I got so picky that I was unhireable. And then . . . I don’t know, time just went on . . . I disappeared, yeah.” Thankfully, she’s now back.