by Gill Pringle in LA
If Michelle Pfeiffer and Elle Fanning are both successful actors, then the process of making Margo’s Got Money Troubles prompted them both to take stock of their own financial lives.
A bold, heartwarming family dramedy, the Apple TV series follows Fanning’s recent college dropout and aspiring writer, Margo – the daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer’s ex-Hooters waitress and Nick Offerman’s ex-pro wrestler – as she’s forced to make her way with a new baby, a mounting pile of bills and few options to pay them.
“I came from a family where we really lived paycheck to paycheck,” Pfeiffer, 68, tells us.
One of four siblings raised by an air-conditioning contractor dad and homemaker mum in Santa Ana, California, she would go on to become one of the most bankable stars of the ‘80s and ‘90s with movies like Scarface, The Fabulous Baker Boys and The Age of Innocence.
But that wasn’t always the case.
“I know that there were some times with my parents where they weren’t necessarily sure where the money was going to come from, and so I learned at an early age, the value of a dollar,” recalls the actress who famously played Catwoman in Batman Returns.
“And I started in the workforce at age 13. I did a lot of jobs. I worked in a printing press. I worked at a grocery store. I worked selling clothes. I worked selling Fuller Brushes – it’s an American brush company – going door to door selling household cleaning brushes. It was crazy. Those brushes were a huge thing here.
“I did a lot of jobs, and both my parents really instilled in me saving for a rainy day, and so I was responsible in that way. I wasn’t making a ton of money, but I was working. And, back then, you could work at a supermarket and you could support yourself. You could wait tables and you could support yourself. You’re not going to have an extravagant life, mind you, but you could have a decent apartment. It’s harder these days, but way back then, you could do that,” says the former beauty pageant queen.
While Fanning’s Margo is forced to support herself and her new baby by starting an OnlyFans account, the actress offers her characteristic sunny smile when she confesses that she’s never had any other job outside of acting.
“I have not had any other job than this. But my parents certainly they worked hard, and they instilled that into my sister and I of being independent and financially independent and working for that,” says Fanning, 28, who was just three years old when she followed her big sister Dakota, 32, into showbusiness playing the younger version of Dakota’s character in I Am Sam in 2001 – also marking the first time she worked with Michelle Pfeiffer.
“Margo is struggling. The cost of living is high. She’s a single mother, and I think that’s why she turns to OnlyFans. Yes, OnlyFans is in the zeitgeist, and we only think of one thing when we hear that. But for Margo, it’s an outlet and a place that is going to save her. And the cost of living now is so high, and I feel like a lot of people can relate,” says the former child actress whose films include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, Maleficent and, more recently, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.
“It’s hard for me to answer questions about other jobs I’ve had because it’s the only one I’ve had! I didn’t even go to college to do anything else, so I don’t know how to do anything else,” she says.
Nonetheless, the Fanning sisters have been incredibly savvy with their careers, launching their own production company, Lewellen Pictures – named for their family dog – in 2021.
Together, they have developed feature films, TV shows, and podcasts with a focus on complex character-driven stories about women – including Elle’s TV series The Girl from Plainville and The Great, which saw her play the title character of Catherine the Great.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is also another Lewellen co-production, the sisters chasing down Rufi Thorpe’s novel of the same name.
“We’ve produced a bunch of things now. But this one particularly was a true labour of love, and I feel really proud of it. I feel like I had a say in a lot of things, and putting the team together and working with my sister.
“Whenever we get to work together or do anything together, I feel like it just makes it all that much more special.” says the actress who next stars as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
“We got to option the book before it came out. Rufi had sent it to us, and she was like, ‘I want to make it a TV show.’ And she was interviewing with people, and she sent it to David E Kelley. And she had sent it to Nicole (Kidman), and we’re like, ‘Wait a second! We all know each other. We should group in on this and try to get this book.’ So Rufi went with us and A24, and then we pitched to Apple, and they were the perfect home, and we’re like, ‘Whoa, we have a major team. Now we got to get Michelle!’ I was like, David, get Michelle to play Shyanne!
“From the very beginning, we wanted Michelle to play Shyanne, so that was David’s job,” she says of Pfeiffer’s husband David E Kelley, whose hit TV shows include Ally McBeal, Picket Fences, The Practice and Big Little Lies.
“Interesting… what does that say about me?” teases Pfeiffer who – having never worked with her husband once during their 33 year marriage – was in no hurry to upset the apple cart.
“I wasn’t super eager to work with David. It’s like we’ve lasted all these years, you know, and it’s very sacred to me, but I just fell in love. I just fell in love with Shyanne. I loved her fire. I loved how raw and flawed she was, and what a survivor she was. I thought there was so much to sink my teeth into. It had a huge impact on me, so it worked out and I said yes,” says Pfeiffer who is also currently on the small screen with Tyler Sheridan’s drama series The Madison.
Kelley had teased her with the book for a while before she took the bait: “The book had been lying on our kitchen counter for a couple of weeks, and the cover is kind of intriguing. So finally, I said, ‘So what’s this book?’ And he said, ‘Well, we’ve optioned it. It’s with Elle Fanning, And I think you would like it. And actually, there’s a part in it that everyone is saying only you can play.’ I was very flattered,” recalls Pfeiffer.
Margo herself is not the typical television heroine. She’s young, inexperienced and frequently makes questionable decisions. But that’s part of what makes her interesting. Rather than presenting her as someone who always knows what she’s doing, the series allows her to stumble through adulthood while trying to figure out what kind of mother, daughter and woman she wants to become.
And then there’s Shyanne who – under Pfeiffer’s command – is never the stereotypical difficult mother. There is a toughness and bluntness to the character, but underneath, she’s a woman who clearly loves her daughter and wants to protect her.
In fact, in classic David E Kelley style, the characters in Margo’s Got Money Troubles are never who you think they are: “I think the beauty of his writing is that he sets you up to maybe be a bigot and to agree somehow with it, and then he just shows you what a pig you are.
“Actually, it’s usually in a way that is not shaming. You know, it’s a way that you can digest it and you can really look at yourself,” says Pfeiffer.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is streaming now on Apple TV
