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"Stories about family and what defines a parent really resonate with me," says Pfeiffer about her initial reaction to the I Am Sam script. "I loved this part. And I was scared of this part. To be honest, there were people around me counseling me that I shouldn't do it because [the character] was so unlikable. But I felt she was more tragic than anything. And you have to approach a character like this in terms of her universal nature, her connection to all women."
Says director Jessie Nelson of pegging Pfeiffer for the part (the two had previously worked together on The Story of Us, which Nelson cowrote): "I love the idea of taking someone who the audience has certain expectations about and pushing it in a whole other direction." Pfeiffer was attracted to the change as well, and embraced the challenge. "In the beginning I was resistant to going all the way with [the character's] nastiness, but I knew that in order for it to work you really had to be courageous.
"Jessie was really instrumental in encouraging me in the beginning. And then toward the end she was saying, 'Do you think you could bring it back a couple of notches?' I was kind of having too much fun with it," jokes the actress.