Susie Diamond
Susie Diamond is a fictional character who appears in the romantic musical comedy-drama film The Fabulous Baker Boys. Portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, Susie is a former escort who becomes a professional lounge singer when she is hired to help revitalize the career of The Fabulous Baker Boys, a waning piano duo consisting of brothers Jack and Frank Baker. Susie's addition to the group benefits both the trio's career and her own, but she also inadvertently generates conflict between the two brothers as Frank strongly disapproves of Jack's romantic interest in Susie, ultimately jeopardizing both the brothers' relationship with each other and the trio's future as a musical act.
Susie was created for the film by director and screenwriter Steve Kloves. Although Kloves was interested in casting Pfeiffer in the role from the beginning, Pfeiffer was much more hesitant to commit, citing exhaustion after having just recently completed several films at the time until Kloves ultimately convinced her to accept. Jodie Foster and Madonna were also considered for the role, among other candidates. Having not sung on-screen since her first leading role in the musical film Grease 2, Pfeiffer initially experienced reservations about providing her character's vocals herself but ultimately underwent several months of vocal coaching in preparation for the film's musical numbers. Furthermore, Pfeiffer researched professional lounge singers in addition to drawing inspiration from the performances of renowned jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
A pivotal role in the actress' career, Pfeiffer's performance garnered widespread acclaim from film critics, who were impressed with both her acting and singing abilities, and frequently dubbed her the film's highlight. Often commenting upon her strong sex appeal, comparisons were drawn between Pfeiffer and several classic Hollywood actresses, namely Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Rita Hayworth. Pfeiffer won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. The actress was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress but lost to Jessica Tandy's performance in Driving Miss Daisy, a controversial outcome at the time that disappointed several critics. Additionally, Pfeiffer was recognized with "best actress" accolades from nearly all prestigious American film award organizations between 1989 and 1990.
Susie remains Pfeiffer's most critically acclaimed performance to-date, responsible for establishing her as both a bankable film actress and sex symbol. The scene in which Susie seductively performs the jazz standard "Makin' Whoopee", for which The Fabulous Baker Boys continues to be best-remembered, is considered to be an iconic staple of modern-day cinema, while earning a reputation as one of the sexiest scenes in film history.
Role
The Fabulous Baker Boys conveys how Susie's induction into the eponymous musical duo affects the dynamic of both the act and the brothers' relationship with each other. As The Fabulous Baker Boys' business manager, Frank Baker decides that they should hire a female singer to help revive their struggling 15 year-old piano duo consisting of himself and his younger brother, Jack. 37 aspiring singers audition to be the group's third member, none of whom are promising candidates until Susie, a call girl previously employed by the Triple A Dating Service, arrives. Despite being an hour and a half late – by which time the brothers are frustrated – and dressed unprofessionally, Susie impresses them with her performance of "More Than You Know"; Jack in particular, being more forgiving of the character's unprofessionalism than Frank, believes that the combination of Susie's voice and attractiveness could help bolster their career. Susie is also much less accommodating than the other candidates Frank and Jack interview.While Susie's addition helps The Fabulous Baker Boys experience success, it also results in complications among the group by disturbing some of the original act's traditions and threatening to come between the two brothers when Jack begins to fall in love with her. Susie and Jack's growing mutual attraction towards each other eventually threatens the stability of the trio. Having a family of his own, Frank is particularly concerned that if his younger brother Jack pursues Susie he will ultimately disregard her and cause her to leave the group, while Susie insists that she deserves a say in determining what songs the trio will perform, particularly lamenting that she is forced to sing "Feelings" at every scheduled performance. When Frank is pulled away from work for a family emergency around New Year's Eve, Susie and Jack seize the opportunity to make adjustments to their set list and ultimately make love in a late night jazz club after performing alone together. Frank is furious to learn that Susie and Jack have changed the set list without his permission and an argument ensues between Jack and Frank. Susie eventually leaves both the group and Jack due to Jack's refusal to express his true feelings for her, accepting a job singing jingles for television commercials. After mending his relationship with Frank, Susie receives a visit from Jack who apologizes for his behavior towards her; Susie does not clarify if she and Jack will rekindle their romance before walking away.
Development and casting
Director and screenwriter Steve Kloves spent six months writing The Fabulous Baker Boys from the perspectives of its three main characters, exploring their complicated relationships with each other. Susie is portrayed by American actress Michelle Pfeiffer, who was first offered the role five years before production, only to decline it several times. Having already known her personally, Pfeiffer was the first actor Kloves expressed interest in casting in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but eventually prioritized casting real-life brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges as the eponymous Baker Boys when securing Pfeiffer proved challenging. However, Kloves' script struggled without an actress playing Susie. During this time, actress Debra Winger and singer Madonna were both considered for the role, the latter of whom declined because she found the script "mushy". Actresses Jodie Foster and Jennifer Jason Leigh had also expressed interest, but Kloves was eventually able to convince Pfeiffer, and maintains that she is the only actress he had ever seriously considered for the role. Although the actress enjoyed and felt connected to the character, she was hesitant to commit to another role so soon after having just having recently completed several high-profile film projects, initially intending to go on an acting hiatus after Dangerous Liaisons. Thus, Kloves spent one week visiting Pfeiffer at her home until she relented. Prior to The Fabulous Baker Boys, most of Pfeiffer's roles had been rather unglamorous; Pfeiffer claims that she typically avoided playing glamorous characters because she found most of them uninteresting until she discovered Susie. Pfeiffer accepted the role because she "thought was a great woman ... someone I really wanted to be like".Pfeiffer performed all of her character's vocals for both the film and its soundtrack. Because she does not consider herself a professional singer, Pfeiffer's reservations about singing on camera contributed to her early hesitance to accept the role, having not done so since Grease 2. Kloves maintains that he did not hire Pfeiffer based on her singing, but rather because of how she uses acting to interpret lyrics. Despite Kloves' insistence that Pfeiffer's singing not be dubbed, composer Dave Grusin was skeptical until Pfeiffer's rendition of "My Funny Valentine" convinced him. For several months, the actress took extensive singing lessons from voice coach Sally Stevens to prepare for the role. In addition to performing vocal exercises to strengthen her vocal chords, Pfeiffer would often work 10-hour days in the recording studio before returning home to listen to and study her own recordings. Already impressed with Pfeiffer's rhythm and phrasing, Stevens trained her to avoid pronouncing words that would sound too contemporary for the film's jazz standards by using her teeth and smiling to "lift" her pitch. Admitting that the film's songs were much more challenging than what she had performed in Grease 2, Pfeiffer worked especially hard on improving her phrasing because the material for The Fabulous Baker Boys were different than the pop music she had grown more accustomed to singing. Additionally, she drew inspiration from real-life lounge singers performing at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, while listening to jazz singers Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Rickie Lee Jones, Billie Holiday and Helen Merrill for inspiration, without directly copying them. Pfeiffer incorporated the "undercurrent of anger" in the lounge singer's performances, drawn from the fact that "a lot of club singers ... haven't had the recognition they feel they deserve or that they had hoped for" into her own interpretation of Susie. Stevens encouraged Pfeiffer to envision herself as Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa Lund in the film Casablanca while recording "More Than You Know" for the film's soundtrack, which the actress identified as one of her favorite songs. Stevens also suggested that Pfeiffer research jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald because Fitzgerald possesses "a quality artists of that period had that we felt the character Susie might have listened to", describing the end result as "an airy alto, a nice breathy quality, and intelligence in delivery". Despite her extensive training, the vocal coach felt it was important that Susie's voice sound "pleasant" but still untrained.
Pfeiffer likened preparing for the role to a musician recording an album, describing the process as twice as much work. At one point, she confessed to Kloves that she felt she was performing terribly; Kloves insisted that Pfeiffer is a poignant and insightful perfectionist. Producer Mark Rosenberg appreciated Pfeiffer for portraying Susie as a character who is "so colorful and full of life that even Jack ... has to perk up and pay attention". Although Pfeiffer was ultimately pleased with her singing, she sometimes doubted her own abilities while filming in fear that she might have "outdone" herself. Pfeiffer slightly slurred her speech to portray her character. A scene originally intended for the film in which Pfeiffer's character accidentally allows a bath she has begun pouring herself to overflow because she has become distracted thinking about Jack was ultimately edited out of the final film. Pfeiffer initially had reservations about performing atop a grand piano, fearing that it would appear "silly" and cause audience members to laugh. However, Kloves encouraged her to commit to the scene. Pfeiffer's short evening dress worn during the musical sequence was designed to be revealing enough without exposing Pfeiffer while she moves, which was choreographed by dancer Peggy Holmes. Pfeiffer touted her character "one of the most alive characters that I've played", describing her as an "emotional creature" who is "not afraid to take risks ... doesn't lie to herself. If she makes a mistake, she doesn't blame anybody else. There's a purity in her honesty that I really respect", becoming a strong role model for the actress herself. According to the Orlando Sentinel