While I have neither the talent nor the temperament to be an actor, one thing that I have always thought was particularly cool about the profession is that it offers the opportunity to learn a wide variety of special skill sets. Going to play a cowboy? You get trained to ride a horse. Want to portray a magician? Experts will be hired to hone your sleight of hand skills. Obviously not every performer does this, but there are many great ones that do – and in that conversation, Michelle Pfeiffer's work behind the scenes of Batman Returns is legendary.
Comic book fans are well aware of the fact that Tim Burton took a whole lot of liberties with the source material in the making of his 1992 sequel to 1989's Batman, but one aspect of the film that oh-so-very legit are the spectacular whip skills put on display by Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman. The character's origin story in the blockbuster might be cut from whole cloth, but she maintains her signature weapon, and the Instagram page Historic Moments recently posted about how Michelle Pfeiffer was committed to doing stunts herself.
Those who have seen Batman Returns will recall a sequence in the second act of the movie where Selina Kyle, following her transformation and wearing her full leather catsuit, breaks into a department store and takes a moment to decapitate a collection of four mannequins with a set of skilled whipcracks. Three of the heads roll in a single take – and it's not a result of movie magic with engineers off camera pushing buttons. As you can see in the behind-the-scenes video posted to social media, the trick was pulled off by the actor herself:
If you turn on the sound for the video, you'll hear that it concludes with the sound of the crew erupting with applause celebrating the skillful display – and Michelle Pfeiffer recognizes the adulation with a delightful bow.
Comic book inaccuracy aside, it will forever be remembered as one of the greatest big screen versions of Catwoman, and while you may have recently missed a perfect opportunity to rewatch the film timed to the holiday season (because Batman Returns is most definitely a Christmas movie), there really is no bad time to watch the underrated superhero blockbuster. If you're now feeling the itch to give it a watch, the film is available to stream with a Max subscription – though if you want to learn even more amazing behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the film, you should consider picking up a physical copy of it on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. The set includes not only cool extras about Michelle Pfeiffer's legendary cat burglar, but a full load of special features, including an audio commentary track with Tim Burton.
