Julia Roberts reveals Pretty Woman ending was originally ‘really dark’

‘It really read like a dark, gritty art movie’

Julia Roberts has spoken about how bleak the original ending of the 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman was supposed to be.

Roberts who starred opposite Richard Gere in what would become her breakout role as prostitute Vivian Ward, spoke with fellow actor Patricia Arquette – who also auditioned for the part – during a Variety round table episode about her experience on the film.

“That movie was really dark and the ending was really heavy,” Arquette recalled. “It really read like a dark, gritty art movie.”

Roberts remembered reading the original ending in the script, where a man tosses Vivian out of his car, “threw the money on top of her, as memory serves, and just drove away leaving her in some dirty alley”.

Roberts then spoke about how just days after getting the part, the original film company producing Pretty Woman – then titled “3000” – folded, and she was left without a job until Disney stepped in.

“There was one producer that stayed with the script and then it went to Disney,” Roberts said. “And I went, ‘Went to Disney? Are they gonna animate it? How does this become a Disney movie?’ ”

Garry Marshall, the new director, agreed to meet with Roberts and showed her the re-written ending of the film that was now titled Pretty Woman.

“I think because he’s a great human being, he met with me 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 then lost it,” Roberts said.

“They changed the whole thing and it really became more something that’s in my wheelhouse than what it originally was.”

“Thank god it [the original version] fell apart,” she added.