Michelle Pfeiffer: No Small Actor

"I am a firm believer in the saying: 'There are no small parts, only small actors,'" says the striking and composed Michelle Pfeiffer, who stars with Sean Penn in I Am Sam, opening nationwide January 25. In the independent-spirited film about the challenges faced by a mentally disabled parent (Penn) to retain custody of his daughter, Pfeiffer plays Rita, a coldhearted, career-obsessed lawyer who agrees to represent Sam on a dare from her colleagues.

While the movie is largely a vehicle for the mercurial Penn, critics are already hailing Pfeiffer's performance, and betting on it for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Of course, Pfeiffer is no small actor -- she already has three Oscar nominations and five Golden Globe nods (she won the award for The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1990), plus a pile of other admirable accolades too numerous to list here. She has worked with Hollywood's principal leading men -- Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino, to name a few -- and some of the industry's most respected directors, including Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis.