Michelle Pfeiffer passed on Silence of the Lambs because it was too 'evil'

The lambs never even started screaming for Michelle Pfeiffer.

According to the three-time Oscar-nominated performer in a New Yorker Q&A, she's turned down several major roles throughout her career, including parts in two films that competed for Best Picture at the 1992 Academy Awards: Barry Levinson's Bugsy and Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs, which ultimately claimed the top prize.

Pfeiffer hinted to the publication that schedules overlapped, and said she declined Bugsy because she "really wanted" to shoot Frankie and Johnny — a role that earned her a Golden Globe nod — with Al Pacino instead.

But, Pfeiffer's reasoning for passing on Silence of the Lambs — the tale of young federal agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) hunting a serial killer with the help of infamous cannibal Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) isn't, in fact, a case for the FBI: The actress says she didn't like the story's ending, which sees Lecter closing in on another victim after violently escaping imprisonment.

"I was trepidatious. There was such evil in that film. The thing I most regret is missing the opportunity to do another film with Jonathan [Demme]," she said, referencing the late filmmaker who previously directed her in 1988's Married to the Mob. "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."

The role of Starling would go on to win Foster her second Oscar at the 1992 ceremony. The character's story is set to continue in the new CBS television series Clarice, which debuts Feb. 11.

Though they didn't share the screen in Silence of the Lambs, both Pfeiffer and Hopkins have found themselves back in the Oscar conversation on the current awards circuit, with the former's performance in French Exit receiving light buzz heading into tomorrow's Golden Globe nominations, while Hopkins gives what many critics have hailed as career-best work for his role in Florian Zeller's The Father opposite Olivia Colman.

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