"Even though my character is sort of being talked about as the villain of Stardust, everyone is a villain in Stardust," she said. "I'm probably the ugliest villain in Stardust, for sure, and the oldest because I age. I'm 5,000 years old or something ridiculous like that."

So reserve your judgments until you see her whole performance, because she did her darndest to make her character well-rounded. "I think as fun as these characters are to play in the beginning, you don't want to fall into the trap of just going out and being mean because mean people don't think they're being mean. Mean people think they're completely justified in their outbursts or their comments and the truth underneath it all, they're fighting and angry. They feel like the victim, as twisted as they might be, so that's also why it's so interesting to play those because you kind of get to figure that all out."

Adapted from the Neil Gaiman novel, Stardust will hit theaters August 10. Meanwhile, catch Pfeiffer playing another baddie -- Velma Von Tussle -- in Adam Shankman's Certified Fresh Hairspray.