Page 3 Profile: Michelle Pfeiffer, actress

Michelle Pfeiffer (Getty)

Another film to promote?

Yes, she stars in new action comedy The Family alongside Robert De Niro, but more importantly, Pfeiffer, 55, has admitted to being in a cult during her fledgling months in Hollywood.

Burning people in giant wicker men?

Absolutely not. Pfeiffer was taken under the wings of what she describes as a “very controlling” couple in Los Angeles when she moved there at the age of 20. They believed in breatharianism – the ability to live without food and water.

Isn’t that a bit dangerous?

The practice has attracted criticism and has been linked to several deaths.

She must have known what she was signing up for.

Pfeiffer would spend time with the pair on the proviso they were her personal trainers. “They worked with weights and put people on diets. They were very controlling,” she told The Sunday Telegraph’s Stella magazine.

She got out fast then?

Not immediately, but her first husband, actor Peter Horton had been cast in a film about the Moonies. Helping him with some research, the actress realised she was in her very own cult. “We were talking with an ex-Moonie and he was describing the psychological manipulation and I just clicked,” she said.