Even though movies have been one of the principal forms of entertainment in the world for decades at this point, a lot of people know very little about how they are made. For example, most people have no idea how many people work behind the scenes on major movies, how boring working on a film can be, or how much money is spent promoting blockbusters.
When it comes to the misconceptions that a lot of people have about Hollywood, one of the biggest has to be the idea that film scripts usually closely reflect the final movie that gets made. In reality, movies often undergo massive changes during the pre-production process, while they are filmed, and most notably when they are edited. In fact, some of the most popular movies ever made almost were radically different, for one reason or another.
A lot of the time, movies are forced to change because of budget constraints. With that in mind, you may think that most romantic comedies stay mostly faithful to their original script. As it turns out, that simply isn’t the case as evidenced by the extremely different original plans for Pretty Woman.
A Gigantic Star
In the years since Julia Roberts became an acting megastar, her legions of fans have continued to love her so much that they want to know about every interesting fact there is about her. Thankfully for them, based on all of the behind-the-scenes stories of Roberts’ on set antics, she seems like a fun person to work with, at least assuming you aren’t Nick Nolte.
Commonly referred to as America’s Sweetheart throughout her lengthy career, Julia Roberts starred in some of the most popular films of all-time. For example, most people adore Roberts in movies like Pretty Woman, My Best Friend's Wedding, Stepmom, Notting Hill, and Ocean's Eleven. On top of being lovable, Roberts has proved herself to be a titan of acting in more dramatic films like Erin Brockovich, The Normal Heart, Wonder, and August: Osage County.
A Different Woman
In 2019, Julia Roberts and Patricia Arquette took part in an “Actors on Actors” wide-ranging conversation for Variety’s YouTube channel. During the just over 40-minute discussion, it was revealed that many years earlier, Arquette auditioned for Roberts’ legendary Pretty Woman role. On top of talking about auditioning for the film, Arquette brought up the fact that Pretty Woman originally was a “gritty art movie” called $3,000 and that had a “really heavy” ending.
Quickly picking up on that conversational thread, Julia Roberts went on to reveal just how dark the original ending for Pretty Woman was. According to Roberts, the movie was going to end with her character getting “(thrown) out of the car” with money thrown on top of her. Worse yet, the man who tossed her out of the car would then “sort of (drive) away, leaving her in some dirty alley”.
During the conversation, Roberts didn’t specifically say that Richard Gere’s character Edward Lewis was the one who was going to throw her out of the car. However, based on the movie that was eventually made, it seems very safe to assume that would have been the case if things hadn’t changed.
Back And Forth
On top of touching on how different Pretty Woman’s original ending was during their “Actors on Actors” discussion, Roberts and Arquette talked about how dark the whole movie was going to be. It was during this stage of the conversation that Roberts said; “I had no business being in a movie like that, really”. Despite Roberts feeling that way, she was chosen to star in the movie when it was still going to be very gritty.
Continuing, Roberts then revealed what happened after she initially was cast as Pretty Woman’s main character. “I get the part, the studio that had it, a small movie company, folded over the weekend, and by Monday I didn’t have a job. And then it went to Disney, and I thought, ‘Went to Disney? Are they going to animate it?’”
Even after Pretty Woman became a Disney production, things easily could have been very different as Julia Roberts was no longer attached to the project. Fortunately, Roberts got involved in the film that took her career to another level yet again because of the kindness of the man who helmed Pretty Woman.
“Then when Garry Marshall came on, I think because he’s a great human being, he met me just because I had once had the job and he felt it would only be fair to at least meet me, since I had this job for three days and lost it. And they changed the whole thing. And it really became more something that is in my wheelhouse than what it originally was.”