Julia Roberts has donned quite a few iconic roles among the likes of Anna Scott in Notting Hill and Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich. And yet, none of her fan-favorite roles is still regarded as incredibly successful and popular as Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman.
But what many people don’t know is that she nearly lost that role right after scoring it.
Although surprising it may seem, Roberts originally bagged the role when the film was under production with a different studio and a whole other storyline.
However, within a mere three days of her getting the chance to play Ward in the iconic rom-com from 1990, the actress pretty much temporarily lost the role — that was until one producer came to the rescue: Garry Marshall.
Julia Roberts Almost Lost Pretty Woman Temporarily
Originally, Pretty Woman was named $3,000 and had a whole other plot with a “really heavy” ending, where the lead actress got treated like trash. Moreover, at the time, the film also had a different studio producing it. That was when Julia Roberts scored the role of Vivian Ward.
But around three days after Roberts’ involvement with the project and even before the film could go into development, the small movie company that was producing it chalked the idea and left, leaving the actress pretty much jobless.
As the Leave the World Behind star shared during Variety’s Actors on Actors:
I get the part, the studio that had it, a small movie company, folded over the weekend, and by Monday I didn’t have a job.
While that was that, Roberts also claimed that she had “no business being in a movie like that, really,” especially because of the storyline the movie originally had.
Moreover, when the movie went on to Disney instead, the Notting Hill actress was even more confused than ever before because she seemingly only knew the Mouse House as one that would end up animating the movie or something.
As she admitted while talking to Patricia Arquette during the series’ episode:
And then it went to Disney, and I thought, ‘Went to Disney? Are they going to animate it?’
Little did she know that she was in for a massive surprise, because the role she had temporarily lost because of the original studio shutting down was going to come back to her thanks to one producer who came to the rescue: Garry Marshall.
How Garry Marshall Saved Julia Robert’s Pretty Woman
During the same episode, Roberts further touched down on screenwriter cum filmmaker cum producer Garry Marshall‘s involvement in the movie and how he somehow not only managed to save it but also transformed it into a blockbuster box office success as its primary director.
Talking about him, the Ticket to Paradise actress said:
Then when Garry came on, I think because he’s a great human being, he met me just 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 lost it.
Not only that, but the changes that Marshall made to the script also made it all the more to Roberts’ liking and choices. As the star herself admitted:
They changed the whole thing. And it really became more something that is in my wheelhouse than what it originally was.
Needless to say, Disney’s intervention and Marshall’s excellent directing skills perfectly hit two birds with one stone: It saved Roberts’ iconic role as Princess Vivian all the while making a masterpiece that grossed a whopping $463 million on its budget of $14 million (via Box Office Mojo).
You can watch Pretty Woman on Prime Video.
