Michelle Pfeiffer Admits She Passed on Silence of the Lambs Because It Was Too Evil The adaptation of Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs accomplished the impressive feat of earning all five of the Academy Awards' top honors, though original plans for the project looked a lot different, which included considering Michelle Pfeiffer for the role of Clarice Starling. Making its accomplishments even more impressive is the fact that it took home the ceremony's most esteemed awards while also being an unsettling horror movie, with Pfeiffer recently detailing it was the story's disturbing subject matter that prevented her from getting involved. Ultimately, the only real regret that Pfeiffer had about passing on the "evil" role was that she wouldn't get the chance to collaborate with director Jonathan Demme an additional time before his passing in 2017.