In a recent appearance on the self-titled chat show hosted by Graham Norton, Hollywood icon Julia Roberts disclosed that the initial script for Pretty Woman diverged significantly from the familiar, leaving numerous people shocked.
The actress revealed her audition for a film titled "3000," where the main character is a drug addict. The original story concluded with a confrontation on a Los Angeles side street.
She explained: “The movie ended by him pulling down a side street in Los Angeles, and they have a fight, and he just says, ‘Get out’ and he kind of throws her out the car, throws the money on her, and drives away. The end."
Julia shared with Graham the twist of fate that led to the transformation of the film. Jeffrey Katzenberg has previously said that Julia’s character died of an overdose at the end of the initial script, leaving Julia devastated.
However, the narrative took an unexpected turn when Disney picked up the film, and Garry Marshall was assigned as the director. Given Disney's reputation for family-friendly content, Garry had worked on shows like The Fonz And The Happy Days Gang and Mork & Mindy.
Julia humorously expressed her surprise at the pairing, recalling her initial thoughts, “I was like, ‘oh, of course, this makes perfect sense to me,’”
Meeting with Garry, she learned about his plans to inject humor into the script, with some changes occurring so last-minute that they were essentially "writing the movie as they were filming," as Graham aptly described.
Julia said: “We would break at lunch at maybe 10:15 in the morning because we were out of pages."
“We would just kind of, make it up ― Garry would do things like this... ‘Uhhh ― be funny! Action!’."
Numberous viewer found the original ending more realistic, while others appreciated the insight into the creative journey of filmmaking, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of the process.
