I posted this a few years ago in @Shelbelle's thread. I thought it might be fun to revisit!
Definitely one of my favorites! Here are some fun facts:
The original script by J.F. Lawton was called $3,000, a reference to the amount Edward pays Vivian for her week of service, but it was later changed to Pretty Woman, after the Roy Orbison song used in the soundtrack.
Initially much darker and less of a fairy tale story, Edward and Vivian do not end up together in the original script. The original ending was a drug-addicted Vivian and Kit (Laura San DiGiacomo) on a bus to Disneyland, a trip financed by her week spent with Edward (after he kicks her out of his rolling limo), as Vivian "stares out emptily ahead," delusionally thinking Edward was in love with her. The relationship between Vivian and Edward also harbored controversial themes, including the concept of having Vivian addicted to cocaine; part of the deal was that she had to stay off it for a week. One example of a changed plot line was when Edward breaks into the bathroom to find Vivian flossing her teeth instead of doing drugs as he had feared. In the original script she was doing drugs.
Marshall initially pictured Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles, but told Vanity Fair his vision for the film completely changed once he cast Gere and Roberts. (Pacino did read opposite Roberts before turning down the role.) "It would definitely have been a different movie if had it been Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. It might have been closer to the original script and maybe not have had a happy ending," he explained. "But the chemistry between Julia and Richard, it is palpable on the screen, it was palpable in auditions. You can't really see how it could end any other way, because they just light up with each other."
Other actors who were initially considered for the role of Edward before Gere signed on were reportedly Christopher Reeve (first choice), who turned it down; Burt Reynolds, who turned it down and said later he had made a mistake; Albert Brooks and Sylvester Stallone, who both turned it down; John Travolta, Kevin Kline, Denzel Washington, Dennis Quaid, and Harrison Ford.
"Every actress in town" wanted the role of Vivian, according to Diane Lane, who revealed she had to pass on the role due to "conflicting schedules." (She would go on to star with Richard Gere in three other movies.)
Actresses that read for the role included Valeria Golino (first choice), who turned it down; Daryl Hannah, who turned it down; Sandra Bullock, who turned it down; Molly Ringwald, who regrets turning it down; Winona Ryder and Drew Barrymore (Marshall thought they were too young); Brooke Shields, who didn't make it past auditions because Marshall didn't think she was right for the part; Kristen Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker, who both turned it down; Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Steenburgen and Meg Ryan, with Ryan being the studio and Marshall's early top pick, but who turned it down.
Roberts had to audition twice. After first landing the role when it was still $3,000, the mostly unknown 21-year-old (at the time of auditions) had to read again when Disney took over the project.
After he turned down the role of Edward several times, Roberts was the one to convince Gere to do the movie. When Roberts was flown to New York to try and persuade him, Marshall called Gere to check in. While he was on the phone, Roberts wrote "Please say yes" on a Post-it note. Gere then told Marshall over the phone, "I just said yes."
That iconic movie poster? It's not actually Roberts' body! Her head was super-imposed onto body double Shelley Michelle.
While it became one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, the bubble batch scene wreaked havoc for Roberts' hair, as spending so much time in the water ended up stripping all of the red dye out of her hair. "By the end of the day, the detergent had taken off all of my hair color," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "We had emergency hair color at 10 o'clock at night because of the bathtub."
The opera Vivian and Edward attend together is La Traviata, which is about a wealthy man falling in love with a prostitute.
When Roberts was having difficulty laughing in the scene where Vivian is watching re-runs of I Love Lucy, Marshall ended up off-camera tickling her feet to get a genuine laugh from his star.
In the piano scene, Gere is actually playing his original composition that ended up on the film's soundtrack.
Ferrari and Porsche both declined requests for their cars to be featured in the film, as they didn't want their brands associated with soliciting prostitutes. Edward ended up driving a sportscar from Lotus Cars, whose sales tripled after the movie's release.
The homeless man that Edward asks for directions? It's a quick cameo from Marshall.
Roberts, a relative newcomer, was so nervous to film the sex scene that she broke out in hives. "I had never done this kind of stuff before, and I was really nervous. I'd get hives. They'd say, 'kiss,' and I'd get a hive."
The person who shouts "What's your dream? Everybody's got a dream!" It was the film's costume designer, Marilyn Vance. Aside from a pair of Chanel heels, Vance and her team created every one of Vivian's looks in the movie, including the polka dot polo dress and her infamous cut-out dress.
All of Edward's suits were custom-made for Gere, with Vance going all the way to Italy to find the right fabric.
One of the film's most memorable looks was originally going to be completely different, as the studio wanted Vivian to wear a black gown to the opera, not red, Vance revealed, going on to say they tested out three looks before she convinced them the gown needed to be red.
The ruby and diamond necklace Edward presented to Vivian in the scene cost $250,000 and was so valuable that a security team was on set the entire time.
The most famous scene wasn't actually meant to make it in the movie. Wanting to pull a gag on Roberts, Marshall told Gere to snap the box shut during one take of the necklace scene, which resulted in that genuine reaction from the star, who wasn't expecting it. . It wasn't until the final edit that Marshall added it in.
Despite its surprise success, going on to become one of the top-grossing movies of the year, the director and his stars vowed to never do a sequel. "We made a pact a long time [ago] —when we did it," Marshall revealed.."We said, we're not doing Pretty Woman 2 unless we all do it together."
The trio did reunite for another rom-com in 1999: Runaway Bride, for the highly anticipated reunion, which Gere engineered. While he loved the script, Gere had one condition the studio had to meet before he signed on to play Ike: "If you can get Julia, I'm in." The stars then convinced Marshall to come on to direct.
30 years later, Pretty Woman remains Disney's highest-grossing R-rated release.
In August 2018, Pretty Woman: The Musical made its debut on Broadway after four years of development. Steve Kazee, Jenna Dewan's fiancé, played Edward during the show's initial run in Chicago before it closed one year later, and Samantha Barks of Les Miserables fame played Vivian.
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