Richard Gere Jokes His ‘Pretty Woman’ Role Was “Criminally Underwritten”

Glenn Garner
·2 min read

Pretty Woman had an infamously winding road from the page to the screen, and Richard Gere‘s character must have gotten lost somewhere along the way.

The Golden Globe winner joked that his wealthy leading man role Edward Lewis in the 1990 romantic comedy was “criminally underwritten” while reflecting on the Garry Marshall-helmed film during a Masterclass on Sunday at the Venice Film Festival.

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“I was playing a character that was almost criminally underwritten,” he said with a laugh, according to multiple outlets. “It was basically a suit and a good haircut.”

While unpacking a sexy scene between Edward and sex worker Vivan Ward (Julia Roberts), in which he plays a piano before undressing her atop the instrument. “I mean, no chemistry,” he joked after the scene was played for the audience.

“This actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them… I haven’t seen that in a long time,” he added. “That’s a sexy scene.”

Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in <em>Pretty Woman</em> (1990). (Buena Vista/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in Pretty Woman (1990). (Buena Vista/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Gere revealed the scene was “never in the script,” noting, “We didn’t know how we would use it later. It ended up being integral to the film.”

“Garry said to me, ‘What do you do at late at night in a hotel?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m usually jet lagged, [that] would be the time I’m in a hotel. So I’m up all night and usually there’s a ballroom somewhere or a bar, and I’ll find a piano and I’ll play the piano,'” Gere recounted. “He said, ‘Well, let’s do something with that. So we just basically improvised this scene, and he said, ‘Play something moody.’ I just started playing something moody that was this character’s interior life.”

The improvised scene ultimately allowed Gere to see his character “in a complete different way. There was a mysterious yearning and maybe a damaged quality to this guy that she didn’t know,” he explained.

Although originally written as a dark drama about prostitution in 1980s Los Angeles, J. F. Lawton’s rewrite of Pretty Woman as a romantic comedy about businessman Edward falling in love with sex worker Vivian during a business trip, has become a beloved classic over the decades.

Gere was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, and Roberts won for Best Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.

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