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Sep 01, 2024 09:13 PM IST
Hosting a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival, actor Richard Gere revealed some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the 1990 film directed by Garry Marshall.
Actor Richard Gere celebrated his 75th birthday with a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival. He shared some behind-the-scenes details about the filming of his famous 1990 film Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Julia Roberts. (Also read: Richard Gere drew on father’s death to land role in his Cannes entry Oh, Canada)
‘Basically a suit and a good haircut’
Fans may love Richard’s character, a wealthy but lonely businessman named Edward Lewis, in Pretty Woman, but the actor thinks it could have been even better. According to Variety, when he was shown the film’s steamy piano scene, the actor blushed and joked that he had ‘no chemistry’ with Julia in the ‘sexy, sexy scene’. Julia plays an escort hired by Edward, named Vivian Ward.
He further explained that the scene was improvised, adding what he felt about his character. Richard said, “It was never in the script. We didn’t know how we would use it later. It became an integral part of the film. I was playing a character that was almost criminally underwritten. It was basically a suit and a good haircut. We just improvised the scene. I just started playing something moody that was about the inner life of this character.”
Richard said the scene added depth to the plot because Vivian could see Edward in a completely different light. “There was a mysterious yearning in this man and maybe a damaged quality that she didn’t know she had.” Pretty Woman was made on a budget of $14 million and grossed over $460 million worldwide. But the actor says when they were making the film, they didn’t know if anyone would see it.
Upcoming work
Richard made a big comeback this year with Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, which swept the Cannes Film Festival. It’s their first film together since the 1980 film American Gigolo, in which they played an ailing writer and filmmaker who sits down for one final interview. He will soon be seen in The Agency, an American remake of the French spy thriller Le Bureau des Legends. It also stars Michael Fassbender. Richard is also working on a project with his son.
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