Pretty Woman: This classic with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere could have had a completely different title!

It’s hard to imagine Pretty Woman without the duo Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, its famous music, humor and happy ending. However, this nineties classic was meant to be the opposite of a romantic comedy. To understand this film’s strange trajectory, we need to look at its screenwriter, JF Lawton.

In the 1980s, the author struggled to make a living from his work. He earns money by writing scripts for comedies and ninja movies without any real success.

While living on Hollywood Boulevard, J.F. Lawton began meeting sex workers in hopes of finding a subject. She drinks coffee with them, observes their daily lives, and begins to imagine what Pretty Woman will be like.

The film should have had a different title. Three thousand – A reference to the price that his hero offers to the client for a week of service. The screenwriter invents a “story”.dark“and”Cool– in his words – is much more faithful to the reality of women on the street.

Two more actors are expected

The ending is also light years away from what we know – Richard Gere’s character throws Vivian out of the car, throws money in her face and drives away.

When JF Lawton’s script began to interest producers, the names of the first actors were also very different. Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer were first approached.

“With them, the film would be faithful to the original script and the ending would not be the same“, the author claims in the interview Vanity Fair. Eventually the script of Three Thousand was bought by the Walt Disney Company, who asked the screenwriter to revise his copy.

Abandoned title

JF Lawton radically changes the tone, so much so that the producers find the script too light. Eventually, the project as we know it took shape with director Garry Marshall, Julia Roberts, and Richard Gere.

The original title is abandoned and inspired by a Roy Orbison song – an iconic piece that accompanies one of the film’s most important scenes.

A few scenes also change tone thanks to improvisations by the director and Julia Roberts. One of the clearest examples is the scene where Vivian returns to see the obnoxious saleswomen at the luxury boutique. The actor improvised the line “Big mistake!However, Vivian had to tiptoe out of the store first.

Beautiful woman Leaving Netflix on June 22nd. Enjoy!