Maxwell Caulfield: Michelle Pfeiffer's Rise to Fame After Grease 2 Was 'a Kick in the Pants' - Yahoo Movies Canada

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Maxwell Caulfield is admitting that he struggled watching his Grease 2 costar Michelle Pfeiffer rise to fame while his own career stalled after the movie came out.

The actor, 61, played Michael in the Grease sequel, which hit theaters in 1982. Caulfield recently told Page Six that "it was, psychologically, quite a kick in the pants" to see his costar go on to score bigger roles in more popular movies.

After Grease 2 debuted, Pfeiffer, now 63, was cast in Scarface, and went on to star in films like Dangerous Liaisons and Batman Returns.

Looking back on the experience, Caulfield said, "And of course, Michelle rose like a Phoenix, right? Did Scarface and that, so that made it even, frankly, a little harder to swallow."

Michelle Pfeiffer

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Caulfield booked a few TV projects — including the The Powers of Matthew Star and TV films Journey's End and The Parade — after Grease 2, but did not see the same breakout success as Pfeiffer did.

"Every actor has his and her own path. She has gone on to multiple Oscar nominations and the rest of it," Caulfield told Page Six. "She delivers and she defines Hollywood beauty…You can't begrudge them their success."

He added, "But as I said, simultaneously, it makes it that much tougher to see that you've been benched. And it took a long wait time to come back."

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Before Grease 2 premiered, Caulfield told New York magazine in 1982 that he anticipated the film would make him a widely recognized star.

"Next year, if this film is marketed right, everyone will want to look like Maxwell Caulfield. I'm fascinated to see if the public is going to accept me or reject me," he said at the time, per BBC. "We're all terribly excited."

While his prediction did not come true, the actor eventually booked an iconic role of his own years later in Empire Records, the 1995 drama about an independent record store. Caulfield played Rex Manning in the film, a role that earned him his own informal "Rex Manning Day" in celebration of the character, which movie fans celebrate annually on April 8.

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Grease 2 came four years after the original smash hit film, which premiered in 1978 and was based on the musical of the same name. While the sequel was largely dismissed by critics as "stale" and "horribly dull," it's gone on to become a cult classic.

BBC's Claire Thorp wrote last year, "It might have a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and frequently appear in lists of the worst sequels – but it also has an army of fans willing to argue to the death that it is, in fact, 'The Empire Strikes Back of the Grease movies.'"