“She rescues him right back.”
On March 23, 1990, Disney released a little rom-com starring an up-and-coming actress about a businessman and a prostitute who fall in love after he pays her thousands of dollars to spend the week with him. Not the usual stuff fairy tales are made of…but Pretty Woman wasn’t your average romantic comedy.
Directed by Garry Marshall, the Hollywood legend who passed away in 2016, and starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, who turns 73 on Aug. 31, no one expected Pretty Woman to become a hit, let alone become one of 1990’s most successful films and one of movie history’s most enduring love stories.
Made for just $17 million, the story of Edward Lewis (Gere) and Vivian Ward (Roberts) went on to gross over $460 million worldwide, earn four Golden Globe nominations and made Roberts one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
But did you know Roberts almost wasn’t cast in the iconic roles and several other A-list actresses almost stepped into Vivian’s thigh-high boots? How about that the original script was much darker and would’ve made Walt Disney blush?
