Behind Closed Doors (2016–…): Season 0, Episode 0 - Pretty Woman - full transcript
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- Cut! That was good.
- WOMAN: Cutting!
- NATALIE: It's one of the
most successful and beloved
romantic comedies of all time.
- It just was wildfire.
Everybody had to see it.
And everywhere you went, it was
just Pretty Woman, Pretty Woman.
- OWEN: This was not
just an ordinary hit.
This was a movie that
had struck a chord.
- NATALIE:
An unlikely fairy tale
that captured hearts
around the globe.
- It kind of was a big surprise,
because it started off
to be a dark movie.
- It wasn't a rom-com.
It didn't have a happy ending.
- Here's a story about a
prostitute who is selling
herself to this guy who
is a despicable person.
Where's the good part in this?
- It's either going to
be a hit or a bomb.
Nothing in the middle.
And it turned out to be a hit.
[chuckles]
- NATALIE: From the music.
- [sings intro
to "Pretty Woman"]
- NATALIE: To the outfits.
- ELLEN: The red dress,
the black dress,
the brown-and-white polka dot.
I mean, her clothes
were perfect.
- NATALIE: To the cast.
And just how many big names
almost landed the lead roles.
- They talked about it with
Sean Connery, Al Panico.
- They went after
Sting, Robert Redford.
- Michelle Pfeifer,
Molly Ringwald.
- Everybody turned it down.
Everybody.
- DORI: Julia was
born to play that part.
- OWEN: And I'm
sitting next to Garry.
And he goes,
"She could be big."
- Nobody ever knew who she was.
- He said, "Julia,
the girl, that girl,
I think she has it. It!"
- MAN: Marker.
- NATALIE: Thirty years
after the film's release,
the cast and crew look back.
- There was something
special about that--
that group,
that set, that movie.
It was just, you know,
kind of magic.
- It was a phenomenon.
It really was.
- People have seen this film
a shocking number of times.
- WOMAN: Roll it!
- NATALIE: You know the movie.
Now hear the inside
stories only they can tell.
- I remember him saying he
wasn't sure about the ending.
- It's written.
It's written beautifully.
It's just the matter of
the pages didn't arrive yet.
- There had been tons
of practical jokes
up to that point.
- We started laughing,
and we didn't stop
laughing for two days.
- Cut!
You broke the trunk!
You broke the whole door!
- This is so important to me,
and you're not remembering--
- No, no, but
I'll tell you the--
- How often do you get to be
associated with a film that,
30 years later, is still giving
joy, finding new audiences,
playing in countries
around the world?
- ♪
- NATALIE: This is "Pretty
Woman: Behind Closed Doors."
Welcome to
"Behind Closed Doors."
I'm Natalie Morales.
It's become one of the most
beloved romantic comedies
of all time, and thrust
Julia Roberts into superstardom.
But back when "Pretty Woman"
was released in March of 1990,
expectations were low.
A story about a money-hungry
business tycoon hiring
a prostitute for a week wasn't
exactly a winning concept.
On top of that, the film
starred Richard Gere,
who was coming off a string
of box office disappointments,
and a little-known young actress
in the lead role of Vivian.
Even director Garry Marshall
wasn't entirely sure
how audiences would react.
Few know he spent opening night
sneaking into theaters
around Los Angeles.
- ♪
- We got into a
big-old limousine.
And we drove around
from theater to theater
to see how our
little movie was doing.
We got to go into the theater
and stand in the back, like,
"We had something to
do with this movie.
"Can we go in for five minutes
and just stand in the back?
We won't stay the whole time."
[laughs]
And we got to hear...
people loving this film.
- OWEN: There was no buzz.
It was not outside of Hollywood
a hotly anticipated movie.
- There was no real premiere.
All I remember is
fun wrap party,
and then this very small
kind of screening at Disney.
And then they had champagne and
strawberries in the commissary.
That was it.
- I was worried about
the moral of the story,
and have we really communicated
that she was rescuing him
and he was rescuing her?
Because I was really worried
that people would interpret it
as, well, a rich
guy, a Visa card,
follow a woman falls in love
with--'cause he's rich.
- KATE:
When the film hit theaters,
critical reactions
were a little mixed.
- Well, I think a lot of the
criticism of "Pretty Woman"
comes down to saying this is
a movie about a prostitute.
It can't be good.
- Some people did
take Disney to task
for making a movie
about a prostitute.
They felt it objectified
her a little bit.
But I think the fact that
Julia Roberts is so appealing,
and lovable, and winning
in it did help it go down.
And the term we use all the time
is "a hooker with
a heart of gold."
- NATALIE: Audiences agree, and
they fall in love with the film.
- SCOTT: I sat in the theater.
Like, 400 people,
screaming, cheering,
just--I was shocked.
I had seen the screening.
I had seen it.
It was cute. It was fun.
She was great.
They were a good team.
It was good.
But I was blown away by
how much they loved it.
It was crazy.
- My answering machine
was blinking, like--
the days when it was tape.
Folks, they used to
be tape back then.
- [laughs]
- HECTOR: And Garry--one,
I should have kept it.
"Hector, you gotta admit it.
"Take a little drive
to Westwood 'til you see--
I think something nice
is happening, Hector."
So I said, "All right."
I schlepped over there.
And there were lines
snaking around the block.
And I thought, "There's
something wrong here."
No, it was just that they--
the movie obviously touched
something in the collective.
- KATE: Tons of people went
to go back to see it again.
They took their friends.
They took their families.
They took their moms.
It was something that people
just wanted to see again.
And they wanted to see
it with other people.
- I think we opened at $7 1/2
or $8 million on the weekend.
And then it never stopped.
Every weekend for, like,
35 weeks or something.
It was crazy.
- KATE: "Pretty Woman," which
was made for less than
$20 million, rakes in
nearly half a billion
in worldwide ticket sales.
And Julia Roberts becomes one of
the biggest names in Hollywood.
- WOMAN: Miss Roberts!
- KATE: Julia Roberts had
done a few movies before.
But she was still a little
bit of an unknown quantity.
And just like Vivian, she
shows up with her own dreams,
and she makes this her
own part, her own world.
- SANDY: It's crazy.
She just becomes this other
thing, this other worldly thing.
- MAN: Julia, straight ahead!
- KATE: Julia Roberts was
always going to be a star.
But I think the fact
that "Pretty Woman"
was such a perfect marriage
of material, and spirit,
and co-star made it
happen all the quicker.
- NATALIE: The
tycoon-meets-prostitute
Cinderella story is now
one of the most-watched
romantic comedies of all time.
And everyone has
a favorite line.
- "Big mistake. Big, huge."
- "I have to go shopping now."
- "Not only a handsome man,
you're a powerful man."
- "He's not really my uncle."
"They never are, dear."
- "If I forget to
tell you later--"
- "--I had a really
good time tonight."
- "Take off the tie.
Give her the tie."
- "It happens all
the time, ma'am."
- There's always...
"Cinder-[bleep]-rella."
- The thing about "Pretty Woman"
that's so fantastic and that
people still love to this day
is yes, it's a Cinderella story.
It has such a warm message about
the power of actually changing
yourself and evolving in ways
that maybe we don't see
in most other romantic comedies.
- Julia Roberts was perfect in
"Pretty Woman" because she was
able effortlessly
in her performance
to show you that
a woman who was a prostitute
was still a real person.
She showed you that a woman
who cared about dressing
in a certain way
was still a feminist.
- This story is a classic story.
It's a story that affects all
of us worldwide to this day.
- Why do you think people
love the movie so much still?
- The--the fairytale
aspect of it.
And the fact that the man
actually goes
literally on a limb.
[laughs] He was
afraid of heights.
The man climbed the fire
escape, for heaven's sake.
Wouldn't you like
a guy like that?
- Do that arm thing.
I like that.
Let's take a walk.
- ♪
- Right from the get-go, we meet
this buoyant, fun, delightful,
surprising, beautiful energy,
this character, Vivian.
She is just a
breath of fresh air.
- PAULA: Vivian is a
truly authentic character.
And maybe that's one of the
reasons we all like her so much.
She's not afraid to be herself.
And we admire that quality.
- You've got two people
that find each other, uh,
two people that are struggling,
and trying to find
their way in the world.
And I think that it just
had a great story structure.
- ANDY: Edward Lewis needs love.
He's sort of searching for that
thing that will change him.
- KATE: When we
meet Edward, he's, uh--
he's pretty closed off.
We get the sense that he has
had a lot of relationships
that haven't worked out.
And Vivian comes in
who's just this ray of
sunshine who loves people.
And it forces him to re-evaluate
the way that he acts
in his personal life
and his professional life.
- They truly change each other,
is--is what I think is
the long-lasting,
deepest part of the movie.
- NATALIE: But it's more
than just the typical
boy-meets-girl love story.
- You know, it's a
modern-day fairy tale.
- This is a fable that could
only happen in Hollywood.
- The secret to it is...romance.
You have a wealthy man.
You have a prostitute.
Who would ever think
that would go anywhere?
- It's always a pleasure
meeting one of Edward's girls.
- ORFEH: It's just about two
lost people who find each other.
I think that, you know,
everybody wishes
for the happy ending.
- I just think it's one of
the most romantic movies
of all time.
- NATALIE: The romance works,
in part because of the chemistry
between Roberts and Gere.
- GARY: When you saw
these two together,
it was just a--there
was something magical
about their chemistry.
- Richard's really great.
- LARRY: They were
so natural together,
and so loving together.
- They were meant to be
on the screen together.
- Those two, they
really had something.
- The soul of "Pretty Woman"
comes from the interplay between
Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
It's this whole chemistry
and this play of personality.
And what really good actors do
is that they're able
to enact that antagonism
and show do they love
each other at the same time.
That's a tricky
thing to bring off.
And that's what Richard Gere and
Julia Roberts do in that film.
- NATALIE: In addition to
the romantic love story,
"Pretty Woman" is also a
film about friendship.
- I really love Laura
San Giacomo's role.
I love the way she did it.
I loved everything about her.
I think people were
crazy about her.
And everybody wished Kit De Luca
was their best friend.
- We spent a lot of--a lot of
time on--on that relationship.
When she came to Hollywood,
Kit was watching over Vivian.
And then when Vivian met Edward,
she turned it around
and wanted to help Kit.
- Kit has this sort of
lovable lightness to her
that's important,
because we need to see why
Vivian would love her so much,
and why Vivian, who really
doesn't have a lot of things
that she's attached to, would
still be so attached to Kit.
- I think that's part
of the heart that,
at least the response that I get
when women come and talk to me
about, you know,
loving this movie.
They--they talk about
that friendship.
- The friendship what
made the whole story.
I must say, that was one of
the most touching moments
in the film,
when they say goodbye.
- Yeah, well, I gotta split,
'cause goodbyes make me crazy.
So take care of you.
- Whoa. [chuckles]
- She has to leave before
she can really say goodbye.
I think that says a lot
about their friendship.
- NATALIE: Another vital
ingredient in "Pretty Woman's"
winning recipe is the supporting
cast led by Hector Elizondo.
He plays hotel manager
Barney Thompson.
You're in the movie
all of 10 minutes.
But you become one of the most
iconic characters in the film.
- That's because his character
made something happen.
- GARY: Hector is a staple in
Garry Marshall's life, right?
He's in all of Garry's films.
- How many now?
- I think, what? Ten?
- No, no, 17, Hector!
- Oh, I see, 17.
Something in the teens.
- Garry considered him
his good luck charm.
- Garry would say,
"Hector, do a thing."
And then Hector would
just crack us all up.
He would just riff,
and it was magic.
- HECTOR: And he gave me
one cornerstone direction.
- What was that?
- Just the play the man
you'd like to work for.
Bingo. And of course,
that's all you need,
an actor needs.
He needs that hinge.
Got it.
I know what to work on.
- ELLEN: All the scenes that
Hector had with
Julia were amazing.
The scene, obviously,
when Julia cries
and blows her nose in his--
in his handkerchief.
- "Garry, this is not funny."
- That's what she said.
- I said, "This is not funny.
"Nobody is gonna think
this is funny
when I blow in
that handkerchief."
- [blows nose]
- JULIA: I said,
"I know you know funny.
This is not funny."
- I said, "It's his
reaction that's funny."
- We screened this movie over
20 times before it was released.
And every single time, that is
the biggest laugh, is Hector's,
um, response to her
blowing her nose.
They laugh at the nose blow.
And then his reaction shot?
People just--I--people
were rolling on the ground.
- That's an iconic moment,
that--that--that scene
in the office.
That was the turning
point in there.
After that--
- How so?
- You know, that--
well, after that
was the fairy godfather
from there on in.
- LARRY: Garry Marshall didn't
believe there were small roles.
He always knew how to make
something out of nothing.
- NATALIE: Comedian Larry Miller
only appears in one scene.
But he becomes memorable
as Mr. Hollister,
the store manager who
shamelessly sucks up to Edward
and orders pizza for Vivian
while she spends an
obscene amount of money.
- He just said, "Larry,
just do what you do,"
and told Julia and Richard,
"Just try to keep up with him."
And every take was different.
I mean, the scene is hysterical.
- "Take off the tie.
Give her the tie."
- Larry Miller made me laugh
from the first time I saw him.
He said something
right off the bat.
And we started laughing,
and we didn't stop
laughing for two days.
- SCOTT: My daddy loved
Larry Miller in that scene.
We knew this was about
Julia wearing outfits,
and the makeover, and the
wish fulfillment of that.
But he needed a counter,
something to be funny.
So he put Larry with--with
Richard to do that whole thing.
- "I can see when you walked
in, you're not only a handsome,
but a powerful man."
- I don't think that scene
was in the original script.
Larry did the same thing
in "Princess Diaries"
when he played Paolo,
the hair-and-makeup guy.
He was amazing.
- Like a wolf.
- Ow.
- It's all right.
[chuckles]
- [grunts]
- I always knew with
Garry when to...
take the ball and run.
When he said,
"All right, come on,
you're gonna now call the
salesgirls over," and, uh...
and it just struck me that I'm--
if I name three Irish names and
one Jewish name, like, Israeli,
that that might be fun
and might be just interesting.
"Mary Pat, Mary Kate,
Mary Francis, Tovah."
And, "Come on, let's see it.
Let's go."
I've heard more about
that, which is wonderful.
Who are those?
You know, what was that?
It was made up.
- Larry Miller's just--
he--he cracks me up.
I don't know anyone who could've
brought that quite to life
the way he did.
- Patrick Richwood
is another one
of the Garry Marshall players.
- I played Dennis the
nighttime elevator operator
at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
- I use him as an example
that no part is too small,
because he took a--a part
that could've been just
a button-pusher, look straight
ahead, don't do anything.
He created a role
out of nothing.
- His facial expressions
alone were just so great.
- GARRY: He's this extraordinary
addition to the film.
He's us looking at this couple.
And it's beautifully done.
- NATALIE: Looking back now,
it's easy to see why
"Pretty Woman"
hit it big with audiences.
But the light and lovable
romantic comedy is a far cry
from the original concept.
The first draft of the script
was actually
a dark and sad drama.
Few know the story of how
it eventually made its way
to Garry Marshall and Disney.
- ♪
- Today, the mention of the
movie "Pretty Woman" evokes
thoughts of laughter,
romance, and above all,
the perfect fairytale
happy ending.
But it wasn't always
the lighthearted rom-com
we all know and love.
In fact, it was
exactly the opposite.
The journey of the film that
would become "Pretty Woman"
begins in 1983 with a struggling
Hollywood screenwriter
named Jonathan Lawton.
- Lawton was writing scripts
about ninjas
that no one was buying.
And, you know,
scripts about ninjas
were kind of hot
in the late '80s.
- He was 23 at the time.
And he was earning his
livelihood installing
computer systems
and programming.
- NATALIE: Gary Goldstein
is a literary manager.
And he hires Lawton to help him
set up his brand-new
desktop computer.
- He spent three
weeks in my office.
And he was a really
interesting guy.
And he shared that he had
dropped out of film school.
That he had seven completed
screenplays sitting in a stack
in his one-room studio.
- NATALIE: Goldstein asks to
read one of Lawton's scripts,
and says if he likes it, he
will help Lawton get an agent.
- I read one.
And I said, "That's fabulous.
It's a little quirky,
kind of a college-y script.
But the writing is really good.
Let me get read another."
And by the time
I'd read the third,
I was totally convinced he was
a supremely talented writer.
I said, you know, "Never
mind the idea of an agent.
I'm gonna work with you."
- NATALIE: Goldstein
has just one request.
- GARY: He'd been in
this relationship.
And she had recently
just left him.
And he was devastated.
And I just thought, "If
anyone's gonna write me just
"a compelling, extraordinary,
truthful story about
a romantic relationship,
this is the moment."
So I asked him if
he would do that.
And he didn't question it.
He came back 12 weeks
later, very fast,
with the first draft--
the best first draft
I've ever read of any script.
- NATALIE: Lawton's story
is a drama about Vivian,
a down-on-her-luck prostitute
who gets hired by Edward,
a wealthy businessman, to
be his companion for a week.
It's called "Three Thousand."
- The original was
titled "Three Thousand,"
which is simply the number of
dollars that Edward gives Vivian
for her companionship
for the week.
- NATALIE: The plot is a
dark cautionary tale about
street workers and drug abuse.
- ELLEN: It was sad.
It was mostly about
the character of Vivian
and the dark world
that she lived in.
- Jonathan at the time
was living in a one-room
studio apartment in a
difficult part of Hollywood.
I mean, his literal visual
tapestry on a daily basis
out the window was a parade
of drug dealers
and working girls.
- The kind of people that ended
up populating the film beyond
just Vivian and Edward--
like her best friend, Kit--
those were the kind
of people that he would see
around his neighborhood.
- NATALIE: Even with
the dark undertones,
Goldstein is drawn to the
power of the relationship
between Vivian and Edward.
- I think one of the reasons
it was such a profound read
was because his heart
was broken.
He was, like, bleeding
from the inside out.
And it was gorgeous.
- SANDY: The core of that
screenplay was that
at the very end of the movie,
she's fallen in love
with this businessman.
And he's driving her
back to her apartment,
this horrible
apartment in Hollywood,
and they're having
this huge argument.
- JULIA: Richard's character
threw my character out of
the car, threw the money on
top of her, and drove away.
And the credits rolled.
- NATALIE: Despite
the sad ending,
Goldstein believes
"Three Thousand" is special.
- GARY: It occurred to
me I had to light a fire.
I had to make a noise.
I had to do something
to bring attention
to this project.
So I took tons of meetings
and circulated the script
to everybody I could think of.
- NATALIE: He secures a deal
with a company
called Vestron Pictures,
and not long after
finds the perfect leading lady
when he's invited to a special
screening of another film.
- Some very dear friends of mine
produced the wonderful
indie film "Mystic Pizza."
And they asked a bunch of
folks--I was one of many--
to come to a friends and family
screening for feedback.
You know, criticism before
they would lock picture.
What needs to be tweeked?
And they screened the film.
And I had not one criticism.
I thought it was a
magnificent film,
except there was this one gal
on screen in this ensemble.
She was kind of goofy.
She was very funny.
She was charming beyond reason.
I had no idea who she was,
but I said, "That's Vivian."
- NATALIE: Goldstein of course
is referring to Julia Roberts.
"Mystic Pizza" is
her first big film.
- And I thought, "My god,
she's a young, new actress,
but she's absolutely
instinctively fabulous."
In my gut, I knew she
was right for this film.
- KATE: She had this
wonderful laugh.
She had this big smile.
She seemed poised to
be a leading lady.
But she hadn't yet had
that breakthrough role.
- NATALIE: After the screening,
Goldstein sends the script for
"Three Thousand"
to Roberts's agent.
- GARY: Julia read it, and
she just loved the character,
and said, "I wanna
be in this project."
- NATALIE: With Roberts
signed on to play Vivian,
Goldstein's next step is to find
an actor for the role of Edward.
He has just one man
in mind--Richard Gere.
- KATE: Richard Gere really fit
into the role because I think
it required a leading man,
like a--an actor
that we could recognize.
Obviously someone very
handsome, very self-possessed,
but willing to strip down
to some different layers.
- NATALIE: Gere has made a
name for himself in the hits
"American Gigolo" and
"An Officer and a Gentleman."
- Movie audiences knew Richard
Gere as a bit of a sex symbol.
He had done his
own hooker movie
in the form of
"American Gigolo."
It's not really
a question, like,
is Richard Gere attractive?
Yes.
But he also had the dimension
for what was actually
a really tough role.
- I always wanted Richard
Gere for the role.
He just struck me as--first of
all, it was to be a date movie.
And who is a better look--
I mean, put Richard Gere
in a suit.
He is that perfect guy.
- NATALIE: There's
only one problem.
Gere doesn't like the part.
And he turns it down.
- There wasn't a part.
There was just nothing.
The joke was it's
just--it's a suit.
You could put a suit on a
goat and put it out there,
and it would work.
- NATALIE: On top
of that, soon after,
the production company
that bought their script
goes bankrupt.
And Goldstein and Lawton
are back at square one.
Eventually Goldstein sends
the script to an executive
at The Walt Disney Company.
- I told him it was
a writing sample.
And the writer was brilliantly
gifted, and that the writer,
Jonathan, and I would come
in and pitch them a couple of
Disney-appropriate stories.
- Disney back then,
and still now,
really relied on their
sort of bread-and-butter
animated fairytale movies.
And so any kind of live-action,
adult-skewing movie
was a bit of a risk.
- NATALIE: But a few days later,
the executive calls Goldstein
and says they wanna
buy "Three Thousand."
- And I was like, uh, stymied.
I said, "You may have
read the wrong script,
"uh, because ours is
not a Disney movie.
It's about a prostitute."
And he laughed and he said,
"Yes, yes, we know."
- NATALIE: The following week,
Goldstein and Lawton
go to a meeting at Disney.
- GARY: This is a
major studio, a big deal.
- NATALIE: The executive in
charge of production at
the Mouse House explains
he loves the script,
but says it needs to be
rewritten a little more
Disney-friendly.
- Lawton had always
talked about how
the ending wasn't set in stone.
He was really open and
willing to change it.
He was so excited that
Disney wanted this film,
that this film he had written
was actually gonna get made
after years of trying, that
he was always open to changes.
- When we said yes, we can do
that, we're willing to do that,
uh, then the deal was made.
- NATALIE: Goldstein and Lawton
could never have predicted what
would happen next, or what their
finished film would become.
- ♪
- In 1989, Disney purchased
the rights to a drama called
"Three Thousand," a story about
a prostitute named Vivian
who falls in love with Edward,
a wealthy businessman
who hires her to be his
companion for the week.
The script was dark and sad.
But Disney had other plans.
They wanted to transform
it into a romantic comedy.
Enter director Garry Marshall.
- ♪
- Garry was funny.
He knew how to make funny.
- LARRY: This man had "it."
The "it" of show business.
The "it" of storytelling.
- GARY: Garry Marshall was in
the pantheon of deities to me.
He was the guy who
invented modern comedy.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Garry Marshall
started in show business as
a joke writer for Jack Parr
on "The Tonight Show."
- I grew up working with comics.
Who knows what we
wrote in those days?
We wrote fast.
- NATALIE: He then
became a household name,
creating the hit TV
sitcoms "Laverne & Shirley,"
"Mork & Mindy,"
and "Happy Days,"
featuring the iconic
character known as Fonzie.
- I was trying to make Henry
that kind of a cool guy.
And then he's--he
mostly did guttural sounds.
- Eeee.
- And, uh, he was so good
at it that he--he just--
the audience loved him,
so we built him up into
quite a--quite a guy.
- NATALIE: In 1982, he made the
tough leap to the big screen.
- Making the transition from
TV to movies was definitely
not easy, especially back then.
They didn't want
TV people in movies.
So he had to fight his way in.
- Rob Reiner, Jim Brooks,
my sister Penny, Ron Howard,
and me, we all came from TV.
We said, "We'll help each other.
They'll hate us."
- NATALIE: But while some in
showbiz might have envied
his seamless transition,
audiences loved his films,
including the
comedy "Overboard,"
starring Goldie Hawn
and Kurt Russell,
and the Bette Midler
tearjerker, "Beaches."
- We shot "Beaches" in 1988.
It was Garry's first
time working with Disney.
That was a big star.
And the relationship that Gary
had with Bette was amazing.
Barbara Hershey was also in it.
She was fantastic.
Everyone cried on the set.
It was a really special movie.
When we did the
scenes, you know,
Barbara Hershey was starting
to die on the beach,
everyone cried.
- KATE: It was a really
wonderful film for Garry because
it married his sensibilities--
this ability to do human drama
with a slightly lighter touch.
I think it's a movie that people
still think about in a fond way,
even if they also remember
sobbing at the end.
- NATALIE: The film and its
chart-topping soundtrack showed
Disney executives Marshall had
a magic touch when it came to
finding the balance
between serious and funny.
- I think that Disney was really
excited about the success that
they had with "Beaches"
and how well received it was
and well regarded by critics
and audiences alike.
And they really wanted
to keep doing that.
- NATALIE: As a result, they
give Marshall the opportunity
to overhaul "Three Thousand."
- They had been looking for
something a little bit darker
and more adult for
Touchstone Pictures,
which is their more
adult-facing label.
So it was kind of a weird
twist, a coincidence,
that this movie ended
up where it did.
- It was a very dark
kind of picture.
And they, uh, wanted to make
a different kind of film.
Wanted to make it
a cross between--
- It was a really
important film.
And now we're doing
a Disney movie.
- Not Disney! Touchstone!
- Touchstone!
- Touchstone is, you know,
Disney without the raccoon.
- ELLEN: I don't think Disney
had any expectation
at the beginning.
They knew Garry was
a talented filmmaker
and that he could do comedy,
and he could do charming,
and he could do funny.
So they gave him this
really dark, dark script,
which was not a Disney
script, and said, you know,
see what you can do with it.
- I think that,
you know, it was, uh,
kind of a ultimate challenge,
taking the core of this movie
and flipping it, and
turning it inside out,
because the core was
so dark and so grim.
And so we had to lighten it up
and change all the situations.
- KATHLEEN: I didn't totally
get why he would be doing it.
But he really thought he could
weave it into a love story.
- NATALIE: In addition to
Marshall, the original writer,
Jonathan Lawton, and executive
producer Laura Ziskin,
several others are brought
in to work on the script.
- We didn't change the
order of the scenes.
We didn't change a lot.
We just changed the tone.
And there were a lot of
good, smart, talented,
seasoned people sharing
their ideas for it.
But at the end of the day, the
great ambition was really being
shepherded by Garry Marshall.
- So many of your films are
romantic, romantic comedies.
Are you a romantic at heart?
- I--I--I am, a--
I, uh--I'm a Scorpio.
I'm Italian.
I grew up with sisters.
I have daughters.
And, uh, I like romance.
I've been--I have romance
around my life for many years.
- KATHLEEN: I think he
added in the fairy dust.
He wanted to tell how two
mixed-up people that aren't
doing that well find each other
and make each other better.
- SANDY: I think that it
was always about, you know,
her affecting him.
The two of them
affecting each other.
It isn't so much about
him rescuing her.
It's about them
rescuing each other.
- NATALIE: It's that sentiment
that leads executive producer
Laura Ziskin to suggest
the perfect final line.
- DORI: "She rescues
him right back."
That was a good line.
- SANDY: The last line was super
important to her when they got
on that balcony, that this
movie hadn't been about just him
rescuing her from this life.
And so it's such a great line.
- NATALIE: With the
rewrites underway,
focus shifts to casting.
Julia Roberts will never
forget what happened next.
- I was cast in
"Three Thousand,"
before it went to Garry.
And then over a happy
weekend of having a job,
it was sold to Disney,
and I was out of a job.
- I didn't know her
from Adam or anybody.
As I said, she was
just 21 years old.
Hello!
And, uh, we met.
- I came in, and he said, "I
don't know what to do with you.
"Some people say you
can't dress her up.
"Some people say you
can't dress her down.
What do you do?"
- You smile, that's what you do.
You lose it just
for a day or so.
Well, Disney wasn't sure.
- --quite lost for a few weeks.
- Well, Disney wasn't
sure who we should get,
and this and that.
- DORI: The studio wanted to
test more than just Julia.
So I think it was Diane Lane,
Annabella Sciorra,
Marissa Tomei, Laura Dern.
- GARY: Michelle Pfeiffer,
Molly Ringwald, Daryl Hannah.
- Pretty much everyone
in Hollywood came in.
- NATALIE: But they eventually
circled back to the little-known
actress with the tumbling
curls and megawatt smile.
- Julia Roberts was perfect for
Vivian because even though
I think Disney did wanna cast
a big name
and a big leading actress for
this, you have to understand,
Vivian is a girl who's come
to Hollywood with her own
big dreams, but no one
knows who she is.
- Julia walked in
and lit up a room.
And it was hard to...
see past her.
- She had the most
amazing laugh.
It was all about her laughter.
- She was dazzlingly beautiful.
She definitely has that thing
where someone kind of, you know,
is lit from within.
Her natural beauty and her
natural effervescence was real.
- NATALIE: That irresistible
charm would turn out to be
instrumental in eventually
convincing Richard Gere
to change his mind.
- ♪
- NATALIE: A little-known
actress named Julia Roberts has
just been cast as Vivian, the
hooker with a heart of gold,
in the film that will
become "Pretty Woman."
The next step, finding the right
actor to play opposite her.
But that proves challenging,
especially since everyone's
first choice, Richard Gere,
has already turned it down.
- They talked about
it with Sean Connery.
And Garry met with Sean Connery.
And Al Pacino's name came up.
And Garry flew to
New York and met with Al.
- They went after Sting.
They went after Robert Redford.
They went after everybody.
Everybody turned it down.
Everybody!
Richard turned it
down two, three times.
There was no script.
I mean, there was just--it--
the script people were reading
wasn't going to be the movie.
And to tell people,
you know what?
Read the script, but just
know Garry's gonna change it,
didn't fly well with
a lot of people.
- NATALIE: Although finding
a leading man is difficult,
director Garry Marshall sees
the process as an opportunity.
- So my dad wanted to see
what Julia would do
with different people, you know?
- That's how Garry
likes to work.
He likes to know what the
actors are capable of doing.
- We got a call to come in
and do a screen test
with Charles Grodin and Julia.
- Charles Grodin, he
brought in to be funny.
- ELLEN: It was definitely a
test for the role of Edward,
but also a test to see
what kind of comedy
that Julia was capable of.
- It was the funniest thing
I've ever done
in the history of mankind.
It was an actor, an
experienced comic actor,
who I've always loved, who
was given an opportunity
to go completely berserk.
- They improvised all day long.
And Julia was right there
with him, shot for shot,
word for word.
- NATALIE: In the end,
while Roberts and Grodin
are comedy gold,
the romantic chemistry
between them isn't right.
Having been through nearly
every big name in Hollywood,
Marshall and Goldstein
circle back to Richard Gere.
And they pull out
a secret weapon.
- Garry brought me
to meet Richard.
- I don't think so.
- He did! To New York.
- --the picture.
- I can't believe--
this is so important to me, and
you're not remembering this.
- But I'll tell you the
part that I do remember.
No, this was important to me.
I just remember you sitting
across from my desk.
- At your apartment.
- RICHARD: In my o--my
apartment and my office.
They were both the
same at that point.
- Garry brought me there.
And he said, "Richard, Julia.
Julia, Richard.
I'll see youse later!"
And he walked out.
- But I was so mesmerized,
I don't remember Garry.
I just remember the girl.
- [laughs] Yeah.
- When you meet stars, you have
a normal thing, you're taught.
You go to the restroom
while they talk.
And I came out and I saw the two
of them at the end of the hall
just looking at each other.
And right there I said,
"Look at that chemistry!
They don't know each other!"
And they're doing great.
- And yeah, we loved
each other immediately.
So it was a nice thing.
But I--to be honest,
I was still--
I didn't know if I was
doing this movie yet.
She's across from my desk.
We're getting to
know each other.
We're flirty flirty, nice
nice, it's all this is going.
And he calls up and it's kind
of like, "How's it going?"
- [laughs]
- And I'm going, "Yeah, yeah."
And she's across the desk.
And she takes a piece of
paper, and she's writing--
- A Post-It.
- A Post-It.
You remember more than I do.
And she--she turns it around
and she pushes it to me.
And it said, "Please say yes."
- I remember that.
- It was so sweet.
And I said,
"I've just said yes."
- [laughs]
- She did it, though.
She did it.
- I wanted to cry.
[laughs]
I actually--at one point,
I didn't believe
we would get there.
When we got the two of them,
and with Garry's obvious
enthusiastic support--but for
him, it wouldn't have happened.
To say that I was excited
would be an understatement.
The chemistry was
off the charts.
And I think everyone who saw it
immediately went, oh my gosh.
- It was just there.
I mean, it was undeniable.
- SANDY: We saw the way
Julia looked at Richard.
And that was telling.
We're like, wow, that's awesome.
- DORI: I have no idea what kind
of film this would've been with
anybody but those two.
Lucky for all of us, we
don't have to find out.
- $85,000.
- NATALIE: Jason Alexander
is cast as Philip Stuckey,
Edward's lawyer.
And Laura San Giacomo
lands the role of Kit,
Vivian's roommate
and best friend.
- DORI: Oh, Laura San Giacomo.
She came in and made
everyone laugh in the room.
And she was tough.
She just nailed it more
than anybody
who came in for the role.
It was just like, it--
you just gotta give it
to her and let her go.
- Laura, um, gosh,
she was so great.
Like, we just loved her.
She was such a fresh new face.
And he said in her audition, he
laughed out loud when she said
"Cinder-[bleep]-rella."
And he loved any actor
that could surprise him.
- NATALIE: Someone else who
keeps Marshall on his toes is
his good friend
Hector Elizondo.
- KATHLEEN: Hector
could surprise him.
And Hector could always
give him a different take.
And I think that's
what he loved.
Hector never gave up, either.
He would do it a different way,
or he'd do it a little slower,
or faster, or louder,
funnier, you know?
They--they had a shorthand.
And, uh, that was a
great collaboration.
- NATALIE: The two had met
10 years earlier
over a game of basketball.
Talk to me about meeting Garry.
- I think it was 1979, 1980.
And it was a half-court game.
We started to bang and sweat.
And this tall fellow
was guarding me,
and no one had introduced us.
And he had the knee pads
and elbow pads.
He had pads--and he
had very quick hands.
He was guarding me.
And I threw it
behind the back pass,
and the ball hit
him in the mouth.
And he--he--
it's got him on one knee.
And everybody went--
[gasps]
And he signaled to me.
I said, "Oh, this
is gonna be good.
What's going on here?"
I walk over.
And he says, "You're a terrific
actor and a lousy passer.
I think I got a movie for you."
- NATALIE: Elizondo has worked
on all of Marshall's films.
So the question isn't if
he will be cast, but rather,
who he will play.
- It got to the point where he
would just call at night and,
"Hector, what are
doing in there?
You got a couple of days?"
[laughs] "You busy?"
"No, Garry."
"It's a little thing.
I'll send you a
couple of pages."
And we took a look.
- NATALIE: Elizondo signs on
to play the role
of Barney Thompson, the
stern but lovable manager
of the Regent Beverly
Wilshire Hotel.
- Well, after having had
a couple of movies with him,
I'd done a couple of movies
with him,
I had to...I had faith.
I said, "All right.
At least it'll be fun.
The lunch will be good."
- NATALIE: The major
roles are all cast.
And in the summer of 1989,
with filming about to begin,
Marshall will soon find out
just how special this group is.
- WOMAN: And background!
- GARRY: And action!
- ♪
- Mark!
- NATALIE: On July 24, 1989,
filming begins on the movie that
would eventually be called
"Pretty Woman" with
veteran director Garry Marshall
calling the shots.
- Julia!
- We felt like people work
their best when they were happy.
- "Now you're happy."
He always had a toothpick.
"Now you're sad.
Not that sad.
Not a tragedy.
It's not Tennessee Williams."
[giggles] "It's a Garry
Marshall production.
Perfect. Cut. Print."
- He makes it fun.
It's not--it's not a job.
It's not work.
- Print it.
- HECTOR: He fed you very well.
Very important.
- NATALIE: He loved his food.
He loved food on the set.
[laughs]
- He knew that feeding
people well was a gateway.
Was a gateway.
It opened their hearts.
- SCOTT: Everybody in show
business knows he likes
tuna fish and bananas, and
he eats it every day at 3:00.
The people in Ohio
might not know that.
That's his cuisine,
the tuna fish and bananas
with a little olive oil.
Yeah, he liked to
eat constantly.
And sometimes the food
would fly out of his mouth.
- NATALIE: As he would go on to
do on every one of his films,
Marshall surrounds himself with
people he knows and trusts,
including his children,
Scott and Kathleen.
- In the beginning, it was
like take your kid to work day.
And then he started
putting us in.
And it was fun, and
we had a good time.
- SCOTT: He would put us
in the sitcoms once a year.
He wanted us to see what he did.
So we'd come to the set,
and we got to act
in one episode a year.
- On "Mork & Mindy,"
my son was Ted.
Played a boy scout.
And Robin was in a dress.
He was in drag.
It was part of the thing.
And he was the boy scout,
my son, in the park.
- Then, by the time it got to
the movies, it was more for fun.
My sister was an actress.
I was not.
But I would just do a little
bit part here and there.
- NATALIE: In "Pretty Woman,"
Kathleen plays an employee
at the Regent Beverly
Wilshire Hotel.
- I was the day desk clerk, as
opposed to the night desk clerk.
So you see me only in the day.
- NATALIE: Even
Marshall's wife, Barbara,
leaves her mark on the film.
- KATHLEEN: My mom
is the one who said,
"Kissing's too personal."
And that's where he
kind of got this idea
kissing is really just intimate.
And so that's where
it became, like,
"I don't kiss on the lips."
- NATALIE: Marshall famously
invites his friends to set
and gives them
small roles to play.
The crew affectionately refers
to these last-minute
additions as FoGs.
- A FoG is a Friend of Garry.
- Yes, all the FoGs
were Friends of Garry.
You know, they would come.
The dentist would
come be in a scene.
His cousin.
His old friend from
the Bronx, me, my sister,
whoever was around
would be in a scene.
- ELLEN: Friends that he
was still friends with
from the Bronx,
from his softball teams,
from his time in the Army.
If any of those friends
wanted to be in the movie,
that was okay, you know?
There was always a
part for--for everyone.
- It was different.
But it was good. It was looser.
- CHARLES: Every day,
we would have a FoG report
on the call sheet
for the next day.
You know, "Be cautioned, it
could be a very foggy day."
Or, "It's very clear tomorrow.
Don't worry."
It was like a weather report.
- SCOTT: He liked to
treat it like it was camp,
and he was the camp counselor.
That was his way of directing.
"We're here.
We're gonna have fun.
It's gonna be great."
You know, he liked
the camaraderie.
- He says, "Oh my
god, it's something--"
- CHARLES: His jokes
are really basic jokes.
And they also are
about real people.
And that makes them special.
And, um, those are the
characters that he creates.
- Gary was, you know,
very collaborative
in every sense of the word.
- NATALIE: Between takes, anyone
is free to write a joke
on a piece of paper
and hand it to Marshall.
- If he put it in his
pocket, it meant it was good.
If he threw it on the floor,
it meant no good, try again.
And so yeah, he didn't care
who had the idea, you know?
If it was funny, it was funny.
If it worked, it worked.
- If a cleaning lady walked
through the set, and stopped,
and said, "I think I have
a better line for you,"
he said, "I'm gonna take it."
- If a craft service person
had a great idea for the--
for the script,
he would pitch it to Garry.
And the next thing you know,
we could be shooting it
that afternoon.
- SCOTT: If Julia thought of
something, Richard of something,
he really, uh, would
take from anywhere.
It didn't matter.
He had no ego.
He just wanted it to be
the best movie it could be.
- NATALIE: Other Marshall
trademarks include
constant rewrites and
last-minute changes.
- This is the rewrite as of...
8/14/89.
And what is the date today?
- MAN: Uh...
- BOTH: 8/14/89.
- Every day, he would come
into work with new pages.
- It''s written.
It is written beautifully.
It's just a matter of the
pages didn't arrive yet.
So we're waiting--
- I didn't arrive yet.
- It's like we're in Africa.
We're waiting.
Did the pages come?
You know, like
we're so far away.
Disney's around the corner.
No, but it's, uh--
- This is the third week,
and I'm used to it now.
I had a heart attack
the first week.
I had stomach problems.
I had--my vision was going.
My shoulders--
- It's called "Mr. Richard Gere
and the Second City Players."
- BOTH: [laughing]
- We didn't ever know
what we were gonna shoot.
No one else worked that way.
I'd never been exposed to that.
He loved the process
of working a scene,
finding the right moments,
and how that would work.
But if something wasn't
working, we would just stop.
We would talk about it.
He would talk to the actors.
We would talk to
whoever had a problem.
And then we would fix that.
- PRISCILLA: He just
so easily combined,
or effortlessly combined, the
drama of the story with comedy.
- SCOTT: And he worked hard,
rewrote every--you know,
was always writing, and always
trying to think of a joke
to make it funnier.
- "And another thing, why
didn't somebody write it down?
It's just funny!
Here comes funny!"
[laughs] Like that.
- He likes to
work under pressure
and come up with a line.
If that doesn't work,
"I got 10 other ones."
- We were really shooting from
the hip, just making it up.
We would just be
spit-balling it.
- Garry would just
come up to you and go,
"Okay, in this moment, be funny.
Rolling!"
- Exactly.
- PRISCILLA: He was
just so sharp, so quick,
so fast with--with the jokes.
- CHARLES: When
you shoot a comedy,
you have to make sure that
the camera sees the jokes.
- Cut!
- Cut it! Cut it!
- CHARLES: What makes the joke
is the way somebody reacts to
what the joke is.
And, um, that's
really important.
And Garry knew all of that.
- PRISCILLA: I wanna say
that we shot
the Hollywood Boulevard
stuff first.
So Julia would've been
in her little blonde wig
and her little tight outfit,
chewing her gum, marching
up and down the boulevard
in her high black
patent leather boots.
- NATALIE: The ensemble is the
creation of costume designer
Marilyn Vance.
- The reason for the
dress was for her body,
that it was two
pieces being held.
That was a bathing suit
my mother had gotten me.
It just really worked for her.
And, um, I was really
pleased with that.
- NATALIE: But two items, the
red jacket and the black hat,
are last-minute additions.
- We needed the jacket.
And we didn't have
one that we liked.
So we shoot on the street,
in Hollywood Boulevard.
We saw a kid.
I said, "See that girl?
See if you can buy her jacket."
And they said, "We'll give her
free tickets to Disneyland."
I said, "She don't want tickets.
She wants money.
Offer her money."
And they gave her--
and we got the jacket.
And we cleaned it,
and she wore it.
- While we were filming on,
uh, Hollywood Boulevard,
Julia was already in the jacket.
It was cold, and I had my
little fisherman's cap on.
And the next minute,
I turned around,
and Garry takes it off my
head and puts it on her.
I loved that scene, because
she--she's so adorable.
I mean, there's something--
she's so special, honest to god.
- SANDY: Garry wanted to do
a thing with the infamous
blue dress that she had crazy
sort of silver-blue bob wig.
So that you didn't see her
hair 'til the morning after.
And I didn't quite understand
why he wanted that done.
And looking back on it,
it was just--it was genius.
- NATALIE: The first time
Richard Gere's character,
Edward, sees Vivian is when
he's driving down
Hollywood Boulevard.
Sandy Isaac is
executive producer
Laura Ziskin's assistant.
And it's his responsibility
to find the perfect car
for Edward to drive.
- Laura said to me,"We need
a car. What should we get?"
And I said, "Well, you know,
a Ferrari's a great choice.
Let's go--we'll
go for a Ferrari."
So I compose a letter
to the Ferrari factory,
and we send it off to Italy.
And we get response back,
not just
"We are rejecting your request,"
they were angry.
Ferrari was out--outraged that
we would even approach them
about a movie in which a
businessman would drive a
prostitute in a Ferrari, because
of course that's never happened.
So then we go to Porsche.
And Porsche rejects us--
not as vehemently as Ferrari,
but they're like, "No way."
So Laura's like, "Okay,
smart guy, now what?"
So I said, "What about Lotus?"
And she's like,
"What's a Lotus?"
And I said, "Well, do
you remember James Bond
in 'The Spy That Loved Me'?"
And I started explaining
about the submarine car.
She's like, "Stop.
Get the Lotus."
- One of the primary
locations, of course,
what was then known as
the Regent Beverly Wilshire,
the "Reg Bev Wil," which is
now just the Beverly Wilshire.
It has a feeling about it.
You have this sense
of opulence and space.
And when Vivian and
Edward walk into it,
you feel how she would feel
walking into the kind of space
that she has never
been in before,
populated with
the kind of people
she doesn't hang out
with at all.
- CHARLES: Shooting at
the hotel was, uh, hard.
The Beverly Hills police
wouldn't let us putting lights
up for, uh--until
9 o'clock at night.
So it meant that
we had to go late.
And, uh, we couldn't get
any trucks on the street.
It was a big problem.
This hotel had a very
small, um, lobby.
So as a result, we wound up
shooting all the scenes
in the lobby in the
Ambassador Hotel downtown.
We never shot anything inside,
uh, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
- NATALIE: In addition,
the penthouse set
is recreated on a soundstage.
But inspiration is drawn
from the famous landmark.
- There was a number of
different areas where they came
through and really were
able to recreate them,
whether it be the elevator,
whether it be the restaurant.
All of those areas
were true to form
of exactly what you would
experience inside of the hotel.
- NATALIE: And yes,
the hotel elevators
really do have sofas inside.
- It's a very, uh, popular piece
for a lot of the visitors
and guests when
they come through.
Numerous times, we've actually
seen--the doors will open, and
there's people in there
taking a photo
of somebody sitting
on that elevator.
Part of the hotel that
then became famous
as part of the movie.
- CHARLES: Shooting on Rodeo
Drive was fun with Garry,
because we had very limited
access to Rodeo Drive.
We shot on the sidewalk only
for a limited amount of time.
And usually we didn't--weren't
able to close it down for more
than 15 minutes at a time.
But he wanted to make sure that
we saw all of the iconic stores
on Rodeo Drive at the time.
That was important, because
he wanted to show really
Richard's world as opposed
to Julia's world.
That was very important,
the story point.
- NATALIE: Inside the posh
boutiques on Rodeo Drive is
where one of the most memorable
scenes of the film takes place.
Dey Young plays the world's
most famous snobby saleswoman.
- "I don't think we have
anything here for you.
"You're obviously
in the wrong place.
Please leave."
- NATALIE: She then ends up on
the receiving end
of an iconic comeback.
- You work on commission, right?
- Ah, yes.
- Big mistake. Big, huge.
I have to go shopping now.
- I had no idea that scene would
have the impact that it did.
I have people who come up
all the time to me
and will recite
my dialogue to me.
And I'm going, "I'm so
glad you remembered."
[laughs]
- When we go to Vivian
and Kit's Hollywood, like,
that's real Hollywood.
I think that a lot of people,
when they think about Hollywood,
they think about the
glitz and the glamour.
They don't think
about, you know,
the sort of shady club
where the girls hang out
and Kit stealing cherries
so she has something to eat.
There's all kinds
of people around.
They're not all great people.
But you have a sense of place
there that I think when other
movies do Hollywood, they're
not willing to go that way.
- NATALIE: Marshall is known to
play practical jokes to lighten
the mood and keep
actors on their toes.
One happens when Julia
Roberts is in the bathtub.
- I wanted to do a great prank.
And by this time, Richard
was in on it, I think.
So when we shot the scene,
when she went underwater,
all the cameramen left,
the whole crew left.
Nobody was there.
- They just left
the camera running.
And she's singing,
this and that, whatever.
And she just kept singing
and waiting for someone
to yell something.
- Finally we just heard in
the background, you know,
"Oh my god!
Oh my god, where is everybody?"
It was like that.
It was great. It was great.
- NATALIE: As filming
continues throughout
the summer and
early fall of 1989,
some of the most
iconic moments and outfits
are about to come to life.
- ♪
- At the heart of the film,
"Pretty Woman" is
a Cinderella story
about Vivian's extreme makeover
from rough around the edges
to sophisticated and stylish.
Behind this drastic
transformation is one woman--
costume designer Marilyn Vance.
- It was a progression.
When we first see her, you know,
it's very important that you see
the transition without
being garish, you know?
- The first time that Vivian
is actually made over,
and we as the audience get to
see her in a different kind of
outfit, is this beautiful black
lace cocktail dress that she has
to wear to this very
important business dinner.
- I made that dress for her.
Instead of wearing a necklace,
because she has narrower
shoulders,
so I wanted to keep
the, uh, shoulders
up on the top of her shoulder.
So I made the pieces
that came from the dress.
We cut out the embroidered
piece, put it around her neck,
and to the sleeve.
And she looks gorgeous.
- NATALIE: So much so,
that when Edward walks in,
he doesn't recognize her.
- There's a principle
called dramatic irony,
where the audience
knows something
before the characters do.
And only Garry Marshall, in my
mind, has been able to do this,
and--and loved it.
- It's a turning
point in the movie.
He looks at her as somebody
completely different than
who he picked up on
Hollywood Boulevard.
And that's what
the movie's about.
That's the core scene.
And the way we blocked
it, he looks around,
and he can't see her.
And he turns away.
- He doesn't notice
that's Julia Roberts
sitting at the bar
about 20 feet away.
But we see it.
And that's a nice feeling.
We know something
he doesn't know.
- And then Richard turns away.
And then he goes back, and
he realizes it's Julia.
And then he's knocked out.
- He's falling for her.
And she's falling for him.
But we know it before they do.
- It all happened
right in one shot.
It was fantastic.
- The way Garry shoots it is
she walks over with that smile.
"You're late."
"You're stunning."
"You're forgiven."
And...it's the most loving
scene I've ever seen.
- I still think it's
one of the best shots.
It's very simple.
It's not very complicated.
- NATALIE: Another memorable
Marilyn Vance creation is
the brown-and-white
polka dot dress.
- She had that auburn hair.
And so I was looking for
something to set off, you know,
the hair, and just I'm always
looking for something to enhance
a--a--a portrait-type thing.
So what I did was I looked
all over for a fabric
that had some
rust-ish color in it.
And I--I went everywhere.
I couldn't find it anywhere.
I'm looking all over for
what matches her hair.
And lo and behold, there
is this polka-dot roll.
It was exactly 4 yards,
not a stitch more or less.
Nothing.
That was it.
I said, "Oh my god.
We have to have this. Please."
- NATALIE: Vance uses every last
inch of fabric on the dress.
But when producers ask her
to make it a little shorter,
she sees an opportunity.
- I was so excited,
because I said,
"If they go with the short
dress, we have a hatband."
[chuckles] And that's
how we got the hatband.
- NATALIE: The polo sequence
is one of the biggest
and most complex to shoot.
In addition to Roberts and
Gere, the cast includes
Jason Alexander and Amy Yasbeck,
who plays his wife.
- But don't rush too fast.
The camera don't know
where you're going.
- Remember...him being really
annoyed at the polo scene.
And he had--in a golf cart,
shooting second unit.
Just the ponies and back to one,
getting horses to go back to one
is a huge pain in the ass.
- All right, cut, cut, cut...
- NATALIE: Along with
wrangling horses,
Marshall also has to deal
with the bright summer sun.
Director of photography
Charles Minsky
develops the perfect solution.
- In the summer,
it can really be deadly
to be out shooting
outside all the time.
And we thought this
is gonna be a disaster.
And we came up with the
theory of dappled light.
And dappled light meant that we
put up telephone poles around
the Equestrian Center.
And we put up
camouflage netting.
And that allowed the sun to
come through and create shadows
on top of the actors.
And then, uh, we could clean
it up with a little bit of
softening, and we could
shoot all day long.
Didn't matter what
time of day it was.
And the actors would look
great and had a great look.
This was a great opportunity
for us to allow Garry to shoot
whatever he wanted to shoot
for as long as
he wanted to shoot it.
- NATALIE: The sun and the heat
present challenges
to both the cast and the crew.
But it's actually
one of the props
that ends up a casualty
of the elements.
- GARRY: There we go.
- Background and...action!
- When we shot
the polo sequence,
it was a lovely 103-degree day.
And the sun was just killing
everyone and everything.
And the Lotus had
been out all day long,
waiting to be used in a scene.
And, uh, the scene was just
Jason and his wife getting out
with a picnic basket,
if I remember correctly.
His wife gets out of the car.
He slams the door.
She slams the door.
- [glass shattering]
- [gasps]
- SANDY: And the
glass just shatters.
Just goes everywhere.
And then it led to this
hilarious improv of him
blaming her
for wrecking his car.
- I can't believe--
an $85,000 car.
- Can't you just forget
about it for a minute?
Please, Pookie, I made a
little seat for you right here
with some nice, soft grass--
- I swear to god,
I'm gonna kill the guy
that sold me that piece of--
- Cut!
You broke the trunk!
You broke the whole door!
- There was a sniper!
[laughs]
- NATALIE: While it's
spontaneous and funny,
that moment doesn't
end up in the final film.
A last-minute addition to
the cast in the polo scene
is Alex Hyde-White.
- Hi, I'm Alex Hyde-White,
and I play David Morse
in the movie "Pretty Woman."
Who was David Morse?
All right, you--
you remember the guy...
No, no, no.
That was Richard Gere.
He was the guy.
No, that was his lawyer.
No, he slaps her at the end.
No, no, no.
You remember the other guy?
I'm the grandson of the
industrialist, shipbuilder,
and, you know, I have
a little bit of a fight
with Richard Gere
at the restaurant.
And then I have a little
bit of a flirt with, uh,
Miss Roberts in that beautiful
dress at the polo match.
- Garry says, "I need
someone charming.
"I need someone who
would threaten Richard.
"I need someone younger than
Richard who would fall for
"Julia, and Julia
would fall for him.
But Richard would win."
That was the description.
- I was in the final
season of "Newhart,"
playing this character
called Scooter Drake
who lived in New York City.
And he was one of
these, oh, I don't know,
kind of like John Lindsay
kind of characters.
You know, he's not Michael
Douglas in "Wall Street."
He's just--just a guy.
But he's a New York socialite.
- NATALIE: Zuckerman
believes White is perfect,
and asks him to come
in for an audition.
- I get a call from my agent.
Says, "They want to
see you tomorrow."
Disney, Stage Eight,
whatever it was.
They started filming
a few days ago.
And I go, "Oh, okay, cool."
So I go to the set.
And, "Okay, okay, great, cut.
All right, okay, new setup,"
something like that.
And Garry Marshall comes over.
And he says, "Great, hi.
Hi, are you good?
Good, okay."
He's looking like
this, all right?
And then Dori, we do the scene.
I says, "Hi, Vivian.
David Morse.
Hey, I like the hat
Come see my horse."
Whatever it is, right?
And Garry goes, "Would
you dye your hair blond?"
He goes, "I got--everybody's
dark in this movie."
I go, "Yeah."
"And I hear you play polo."
He said, "Hey, great, you're in.
Congratulations.
Uh, you work tomorrow morning."
It was a good job.
I enjoyed it. It was fun.
I got to ride a
beautiful Arabian pony.
- NATALIE: White held on to the
leather boots he wore that day.
- These were, um, custom made.
And they are the polo boots
that David Morse wore
in "Pretty Woman."
- NATALIE: Perhaps one of the
most iconic scenes is when
Edward surprises Vivian
with a trip to the opera.
- PATRICK: The thing I remember
about shooting that scene is
exactly the thing
that everyone remembers
when they watch the movie.
My breath was taken
away by Julia,
the way she had transformed.
- NATALIE: Originally
Disney and Marshall
want the gown to be black.
But Vance convinces
them it should be red.
- She's my princess, in a sense.
She was growing.
She was becoming so much
more than a black gown.
- Well, the red dress
is, like, legendary.
I mean, there was such a
thing about that dress.
For six months after the movie,
I was getting calls at Disney
from high school girls saying,
"Where can I buy the red dress?
I want to wear the
red dress to the prom."
And the depression when I told
them there was only one
red dress, and--and
it was made for Julia.
- GARRY: I was very
frightened of one moment,
with the red dress.
It turns out Julia in her heels
was just slightly
taller than Richard.
And Richard was
not gonna be happy.
So I said, "Richard,
you're not happy?"
"No, she's--look how tall!"
I said, "We do honesty here.
Why don't we say that line?"
"What--"
- That was my idea!
Why are you taking
credit for that?
That was my line!
- No, and he came up--I said,
"Think of what
you honestly feel."
He said the line.
He said, "You look
beautiful and very tall."
- NATALIE: At one point
while filming the scene,
Marshall notices his leading
lady is a bit low energy.
So he devises a plan."
- RICHARD: I have a box.
It's just fabulous.
I'm in my tuxedo.
She's in the red dress.
So I open the box, and
she goes, "Oh! Wonderful."
So we did, like,
three or four takes.
"Oh, it's wonderful."
She's so excited.
Garry says, "Snap it as
soon as she reaches it."
- Yes. She was, uh,
out late one night.
So she was there, but I figured
snap it, we'll--we'll do a--
I do gag reel stuff.
So he snapped it.
- Whoa! [laughs]
- But she laughed so well
that people said
leave it in the movie.
- RICHARD: We both
laughed so much.
It was just--it was one
of the charming moments.
- Whoo! She laughed.
She didn't know that
was gonna happen.
She didn't know he
was gonna do that.
But he did it, and she's such
a terrific--and her acting is
so good, she didn't
break character.
- If you watch
the movie closely,
there's a beat where
Julia actually
not only lets loose
with her big laugh,
she glances over at us
watching it being shot,
because there had been
tons of practical jokes
up to that point.
And so there was this moment of,
like, is this a practical joke?
Is this for real?
- I mean, we couldn't have
asked for a better reaction.
Her reaction was so perfect,
and--and her laughter was
so genuine and real, that even
though we shot it as a gag,
kept it in the movie.
- It's so honest.
It's so who she is.
That sort of unbridled laughter
was happening off screen
all the time.
That's who she is.
- It's magic. It is magic.
And so we were lucky
enough to capture it.
Star-making moment, absolutely.
- NATALIE: By the fall of 1989,
the shoot is nearly over.
Marshall has just one scene
left to figure out--the ending.
- ♪
- [clack]
- So this is the original
marker from "Pretty Woman."
Yeah, my dad always kept it.
[laughs]
- NATALIE: The bulk of the
movie that would soon be titled
"Pretty Woman" has been filmed.
Director Garry Marshall
faces one last challenge.
- He wasn't sure
about the ending.
What was the ending gonna be?
And how were they gonna connect?
We're trying to figure
out how it would work.
He shot it, and I think he did
two or three takes of the limo
pulling up, Richard pops out,
Julia comes out of the window.
And the crew was kind of
rolling their eyes a little.
It wasn't feeling like
it was really working.
And so I think he said,
"Play the opera music.
Can we play the music
while he pulls up?"
So they play the music.
And the thing pulls up, and
there was a security guard
who just got there.
Like, they changed shifts.
So there was a new security
guard standing there.
And he was watching the scene
with the opera music playing,
the limo pulling up.
And Garry said, "Cut! Great!"
And he looked at
the security guard.
And he had a tear in his eye.
He was like, "What? You okay?"
He's like, "That was really
beautiful, Mr. Marshall."
Like, the security guard,
just random guy on the street.
And said that's when
he knew he had an ending.
- After we were shooting
it a couple of hours,
we didn't notice
this in advance,
but the sun on the building
created these slats
from the fire escape.
So it was only there
in some of the shots.
So after we finished the
scene and we saw the dailies,
we noticed that
some of the close-ups
had slats and
some of them didn't.
So we had to go back a few weeks
later and reshoot the ending.
- KATE: I love that at
the end of the movie,
you can see that she's deciding
what kind of person
she wants to be from now on.
And I think even though, yeah,
the movie has this happy ending,
where the guy and the
girl get together,
you also have a sense
that Vivian's entire life
has been changed for the better,
and that she's the one
who's making these decisions.
- NATALIE: When filming
wraps in October of 1989,
focus shifts to editing.
- PRISCILLA: Our first
cut on the movie,
I think it was close
to three hours.
And the movie ended up being
a little less than two hours.
So you can imagine how
much we had to trim down.
We had tons of montage footage
of Julia and Richard
that we didn't end up using.
We had them, you know, walking
through parks together,
riding horses together
on the day
that she tells him
to take the day off.
- NATALIE: No one is spared.
Not even Marshall's own son.
- SCOTT: I had a big scene where
Vivian brings Edward to meet
her friends at The Blue Banana,
and we're the tough guys.
And I had a skateboard with a
switchblade that came out of it.
The prop guy made it.
It was the coolest
thing of all time.
But it was a great scene, and
it just got completely cut out.
- HECTOR: We had one
wonderful scene
that unfortunately was cut.
- NATALIE: Must have pained you!
- HECTOR: A little bit,
'cause it was a moment.
It was a sweet moment
that said a lot about the--
their relationship--
- So what was the scene?
- HECTOR: Oh, it was simple.
Uh, it's near the end, where
she's got herself together
and she's--she's on the
way, and he senses it.
And she starts walking away.
And I say to myself,
"Kick ass, Miss Vivian."
Beautiful moment.
Gorgeous moment.
- NATALIE: When it comes to
piecing together multiple takes,
Marshall has one rule.
- He had this famous saying.
He used to say,
"Matching is for sissies."
- "Matching is for sissies."
If it doesn't match, if
the--the performance is there,
always go with the performance.
- Garry never looked at
them as being errors.
To him, it was always
about the best performance.
One of the most famous ones,
when they're in the penthouse
the morning that
they're eating breakfast,
she's eating a croissant
through most of the scene.
And then all of a sudden,
she has a pancake in her hand.
- And he knew. Garry knew.
But it was the
better line reading.
- It was their look at
each other in that take
that he wanted, and
the way that she said it.
And he thought that
made the story.
- ELLEN: When he takes
a day off of work
and we did a whole montage,
they're laying in the grass,
and Julia takes off
Richard's shoes and socks.
And then the next cut, Richard
has his shoes and socks back on.
- I mean, unless
something is glaring,
you don't notice it so much.
He cared most about the comedy.
He cared most about
the timing of the scene.
And to hell with the matching.
It just didn't
really matter to him.
- NATALIE: In November 1989,
Julia Roberts's big film,
"Steel Magnolias," is released.
Its all-star ensemble cast,
including the then-relatively
little known Roberts,
are a hit with critics.
Roberts earns an
Academy Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actress,
and takes home the Golden Globe.
- I'm just--I'm happy with this.
This is nice.
Yeah, I think it'll take me
a while to get over this.
- PRISCILLA: Two days
later, she was with us,
coming in and doing
extra dialogue.
She put on her headphones
to start doing the work.
And Garry had put
in the headphones,
"And the winner is...
Julia Roberts from
'Steel Magnolias'!"
She was supposed to hear
the line preceding her line
so she would be able
to perform the scene.
She started screaming.
She was like, "What? Aah!"
And with a huge laugh.
I mean, it just--it--
it brought--we screamed.
Everybody thought it
was the greatest thing.
It was so perfect that he played
this trick on her, 'cause it was
such an exciting moment for her.
And he took advantage
of it and twisted it.
- NATALIE: At this point,
the film is still called
"Three Thousand."
- My dad always said, "You
can't call it Three Thousand.
It sounds like it's about
hookers on the moon."
- ELLEN: Disney wanted a
song that could be the title.
And they put together a list.
And "Pretty Woman" was--was on
that list, the Roy Orbison song.
And it was just perfect.
We couldn't have asked
for a better title.
- [sings the intro
of "Pretty Woman"]
- [intro of
"Pretty Woman" plays]
- NATALIE: The title is set.
But putting the song in the
middle of the film is editor
Priscilla Nedd Friendly's idea.
- Well, I suggested it.
The logical thing to do with it
is to put it in the opening
credits or the end credits,
'cause it's the '80s, and
that's what every movie did.
That's where you had it.
"Pretty Woman" had
to be in the middle,
for that shopping montage.
It just--nothing was
ever gonna beat that.
you have this tall gazelle
that's gorgeous
with a big smile and a big hat
strolling down Rodeo Drive,
and then taking over
the lobby of the hotel.
It's just so priceless.
- ELLEN: Garry spent 10 weeks
doing assembly, his cut.
He called about five
or six of us to Disney.
And we went into a screening
room, and we watched it.
And it was...
there was absolute silence
after the movie's over,
because it--it took, like, a
minute and two for people to
take in, because it was beyond
our wildest expectations.
It was such a great movie.
- I remember after
the screening,
when the lights came
up, I was in shock,
because I had gone to
see a lot of the dailies.
But I really had no idea of
the assemblance of this film.
Priscilla Nedd did
an incredible job.
- When I saw the finished
film, I was knocked out.
I was actually flabbergasted.
It was, ah, amazingly
funny, charming.
It looked beautiful.
- I loved it.
I mean, I am loving
every minute.
I just fell in love
with both of them.
- NATALIE:
On March 23, 1990,
"Pretty Woman"
opens in theaters.
It goes on to earn
$463 million worldwide.
- I don't think there
was any expectation.
I think that we were one
of many Touchstone movies
that were being made.
The budget was
under $20 million.
And so--I mean, look,
it wasn't $3 million.
But at the same time, um,
I think they were hoping
that the movie would do
business.
- KATE: I think the fact that
Julia Roberts is so appealing,
and lovable, and winning in it--
even though the critics were
a little bit mixed
about the film,
audiences loved it right away.
- ALEX: When it was
released, it did well.
But then it kept doing well.
Several--like, I don't
know, 40 weeks or something.
- PRISCILLA: One of the
producers, Steve Reuther,
was kind of the
money guy, you know?
He would call me and he'd say,
"Priscilla, do ya know
what we did this weekend?"
I go, "No."
"We made another $10 million!"
[laughs] "We made
another $20 million!"
I mean, every Monday morning,
I had a phone call from him.
- It was pretty exciting,
because we didn't expect it.
We made this movie.
We had a few laughs on the set.
- Cross your legs. One more.
- [laughter]
- We'll go again.
We thought it was charming.
But we did not expect it to
be the success that it was.
- To say that we knew that
the movie was gonna be a hit,
I don't think so.
I don't think anybody knew.
- GARY: No one was more
surprised than I was.
The box office increased.
Word-of-mouth was the best
friend this film ever had.
And that was just a reflection
of how people in America
felt about the movie.
The film became an experience.
It became part of
relationship-building,
mothers and daughters,
families going to see it.
Certainly couples.
- It kind of was a big surprise,
because it never started off
to be a huge movie.
And then it just was wildfire.
Everybody had to see it.
Everybody was telling
everybody and talking about it.
And everywhere you went,
people were talking
about "Pretty Woman."
That was it.
It was just Pretty Woman,
Pretty Woman.
- NARRATOR: Worldwide, "Pretty
Woman" becomes the third
highest-grossing film of 1990,
behind "Home Alone" and "Ghost,"
and catapults Roberts
to Hollywood royalty.
- OWEN: I would have considered
Julia Roberts
a star on the rise.
But I don't think
anyone guessed,
going into "Pretty Woman," that
she was going to totally pop
on screen the way that she did,
because we hadn't had
a female movie star pop
like that in a long time.
- I ran into her right after
"Pretty Woman" had opened.
And she turned to
me and she said,
"I was in 'Pretty
Woman' with you."
And I said, "Yeah. Yeah, no,
I was in 'Pretty Woman'
with you."
- I wasn't necessarily surprised
that it became a big hit.
But what it took me
some time to realize
was that this was not
just an ordinary hit.
This was a movie that
had struck a chord.
- KATE: Vivian goes through a
huge change and really becomes
an evolved woman who's
in control of herself
and her destiny in
a way that we don't see
in a ton of movies these days.
- I think young women
saw this movie
and saw a new way to be,
a new possibility, a new
way that what we think of
as princess culture could come
together with feminist culture
in a way that wasn't
a contradiction.
- NATALIE: As with any
mega Hollywood hit,
talks of a sequel swirl.
- There was an enormous...
pressure, or consensus,
that there must be a sequel.
Anything that does
that well, right?
It's just business.
- People talked about
that to us.
I think that it kind of
appealed to Garry sometimes.
And I think that
one person had a story
that sort of appealed
to Richard.
But, um, it always seemed
like a really bad idea to me.
- The ideas that were
circulated were...abysmal.
Like, embarrassing.
I was always of the opinion
that some things in life,
like a great novel,
should just be left alone
to be what it is.
- NATALIE: Ten years
later, however,
Roberts and Gere would
reunite with Marshall.
And the legacy of "Pretty Woman"
lives on, but not as a sequel.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Ten years
after "Pretty Woman,"
director Garry Marshall
reunites stars Richard Gere
and Julia Roberts, along with
Hector Elizondo, Larry Miller,
Patrick Richwood, and Garry's
children, Scott and Kathleen,
for another romantic comedy
called "Runaway Bride."
- It is not "Pretty Woman 2,"
but it really is
just teaming up
the two of you again,
and Garry Marshall as well.
Are you happy with it?
- Well, I haven't seen it.
Um, but we sure had a
lot of fun making it.
- Was it like the old days?
Or...
- Well, no, because the
difference between being 20
and being 30 is vast.
I'm like a different person now.
And it was nice
because we had, um,
some of the same cast that
we had in "Pretty Woman,"
came in and did things for us.
- Was there the same
chemistry there?
- Yes.
Same, but different.
[laughs] You know,
we were all different.
She was now an established star.
And, uh, the chemistry between
them was different, you know?
- NATALIE: With Julia Roberts
and Richard Gere now bona fide
Hollywood heavyweights,
on July 30, 1999,
"Runaway Bride" gets the big
celebrity red carpet premiere
that "Pretty Woman" never had.
- WOMAN: Is it very different
from "Pretty Woman"?
Or is it something entirely--
- "Runaway Bride"
is very different.
Their--their--their--and,
uh, their rapport and the--
you know, it's very romantic,
"Runaway Bride."
It's just that "Pretty Woman"
didn't have a wedding.
We made up for it.
- That was terrific,
to come back like that.
It was, um--it was--it was
quite emotional, sometime,
especially in the beginning.
We'd say, "Here we are again.
Here we are again."
- PATRICK: On "Runaway Bride,"
it was more just
a bunch of laughs, frankly.
It was really more like the--
now we're just having fun.
- It was like time
had stopped still.
The shorthand that
we had developed
during "Pretty Woman"
still existed.
- It was fun.
It was fun to, um,
share memories and
be back together again.
- NATALIE: The film
even includes a nod
to "Pretty Woman."
- ELLEN: One of the things
that Garry does is
we like to do a lot of montages
on the movie still.
Like on "Pretty Woman," when
we shot the polo scene at
the Equestrian Center, we did
a piece for the love montage
of Richard and Julia
riding horseback.
We never really--it didn't
make it into the love montage.
So then when we shot "Runaway
Bride," we did a love montage.
And we had them
riding horses again,
similar to what we
did in "Pretty Woman."
And that made it
into "Runaway Bride."
- NATALIE: As the years go by,
"Pretty Woman" continues to be
beloved by audiences
around the globe.
And Marshall sees this as
an opportunity to fulfill
a lifelong goal.
- His real dream was
to be on Broadway,
'cause he grew up in the
Bronx, going to Broadway shows,
live theater.
Never conquered Broadway.
Conquered sitcom.
Conquered movies.
The movie struck such a chord,
he thought he could
translate that to Broadway.
- He thought that "Pretty Woman"
was a good piece to do that with
and bring it back to
the Broadway stage.
Edward and Vivian are so beloved
that people wanted
to see them again.
- NATALIE: Marshall reunites
with the original screenwriter,
Jonathan Lawton,
and production begins.
But in July 2016,
there's devastating news.
- Tonight, Hollywood is mourning
the loss of a legend behind
some of the biggest hits
on screens big and small.
Garry Marshall made us laugh and
cry for decades as a producer,
director, writer, and actor.
He passed away of complications
from pneumonia
after having a stroke.
- The loss of Garry Marshall
is--is--is much bigger than just
your personal
feelings toward him.
Losing him was almost more than
the loss of an individual that
you held in the highest esteem.
It was, um--it was sad.
It was really deeply sad.
- I was completely devastated.
It was awful.
What it's done to the industry,
there is nobody like Garry.
He was a one-of-a-kind person.
- I had a very, very close
relationship with Garry.
We did, you know,
11 films together.
He made so many people
laugh over the years,
and so many people happy.
And Garry was so full of life.
He had a amazing way about him.
And it's just hard to believe
that he's not here anymore.
- NATALIE: The moment
you heard he passed--
- Hmm.
- --tell me about that.
- Can't go there.
- Still hard.
- Yup. I miss him very much.
- NATALIE: With Marshall gone,
those working on
the Broadway version
remained committed
to seeing it through.
- Getting something to the
stage is always challenging.
How do you take something that
has many different locations?
You go from Hollywood
Boulevard to Rodeo Drive.
You go to the
Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
You go to the opera.
How do you put
all of this together
in one location, a stage?
- NATALIE: Singer Bryan Adams
and his partner, Jim Vallance,
sign on to do the music.
- I think Bryan Adams was
obviously the perfect choice.
His music lived in an era
that that movie was created.
And he really knows
his phrasing and style.
And he writes big,
romantic power ballads.
- NATALIE: Samantha Barks
and Andy Karl
are cast as Vivian and Edward.
And New York native Orfeh
earns the role of Kit.
- I think we had a certain
similarity as far as, you know,
the body language and,
you know, we talk like this,
and we're both kind of,
you know, street-y, kind of,
you know, urban
chicks, you know.
I think both Italian,
that helps, you know?
- NATALIE: On August 16,
2018, the show opens at
the Nederlander Theater
in New York City.
- PAULA: I think Garry Marshall
would have been thrilled.
And the theater,
we set aside a chair,
the Garry Marshall chair,
for Garry.
And, uh, I know
he would have been
absolutely mesmerized by
seeing this come to life
in such a beautiful way.
- Oh, god, he would've been--
"This is fantastic!
You're all fantastic!"
That's what I can
hear him saying it.
- We had to keep things
that the audience loved.
You had to have your favorite
lines, your favorite moments.
- We had the ultimate Kit line
in there, "Cinder-hmm-rella."
I did the bleep for you.
You had to have
"Big mistake. Big, huge."
That's not my line.
But, you know,
"Take care of you."
We said that a lot.
Again, couldn't do
it without that line.
- What's similar is, uh,
a lot of the, uh, you know,
the beauty of the movie.
We tried to bring to the stage,
uh, beautiful dresses, hair.
Everybody had great hair.
- MAN: Julia!
- NATALIE: One night,
the cast and crew
get a huge surprise
when Julia Roberts
comes to the show.
- MAN: Julia, look at us!
Over here!
- We were so excited
that she was there.
You know, it's--it's not often
that the major mega A-list
uber movie star
comes to the musicals
that they originated
the roles in the film for.
And so we were all--the
whole place was buzzing.
And you could see her instantly,
because she's literally
a radiant beam of light.
- She came and spoke to us
after the show, uh, for a while,
and took a moment with
each and every one of us.
- ORFEH: She went to every
single person in the cast
and held their, you know,
hands and stared at them,
and said something wonderful.
She really took
the entire show in.
- KATHLEEN: It was obviously
a huge deal for the cast, um,
to meet her.
And she was lovely.
And--and you know what?
I think it's an important
piece of her history, too.
- NATALIE: After running
on Broadway for a year,
"Pretty Woman: The Musical"
goes on tour.
- This show really
transcends language
and different cultures.
It's so basic.
And so it translates
beautifully all over the world.
- NATALIE: The
characters, the story,
and the memorable moments
are etched in pop culture.
And for those who were
involved in the film,
its lasting impact
is inescapable.
- I hear "Pretty Woman"
more than any other movie.
And I kind of go,
"Another decade?
Anything a little closer?"
And they go, "Oh, no,
that's the one for me.
I sit with my mother.
We watch that all the time."
- You know what their
favorite movie is?
"Pretty Woman."
Everybody wants to talk to you
about that movie all the time.
- We just brought it up here.
One of the people you work with.
It does come up.
There's probably not a day,
wherever I am on the planet.
- WOMAN: And you've
made peace with that?
- RICHARD: Well, yeah.
I like the movie, too.
We had a wonderful
time making it.
- Tell the cave story.
- [laughter]
- What's the cave story?
I don't know.
- Oh, wait, I remember a story.
It wasn't a cave.
It was a far, faraway place.
- It was in Papua New Guinea.
No, it wasn't.
It was in Borneo. In Borneo.
They got bones in their
ears, bones in here.
I've taken a missionary flight.
I'm in the middle of nowhere.
Nowhere.
And I get in this boat, and they
take me down to the longhouse.
And we pull up on shore.
And they start with,
"'Pretty Woman' man!
'Pretty Woman' man!"
They've never seen a movie
in their entire life.
But they know "Pretty Woman."
- I'll be telling stories
about "Pretty Woman" far more
as the years go by
than I will about
any of the other movies
that he made that I was in.
- I was telling my friends
that I was coming here today.
And they said, "Where
is the interview at?"
And I said, "The
Beverly Wilshire."
And they all said,
"Reg Bev Wil."
I mean, that was a
big quote of the movie.
- I don't think anyone
could have imagined
what sort of an impact it had.
And, you know, 30 years on, to
still have people coming into
the hotel, talking about it,
having a dream, having a vision,
wanting to learn more,
wanting to see more,
wanting to experience
more, um, you know.
Even to this day, it's on
a lot of people's bucket lists
to be able to come
over here, and visit,
and stay at the
Beverly Wilshire.
- Even though the
Regent Beverly Wilshire
is now just
the Beverly Wilshire,
the hotel's really embraced
the legacy of the film.
There's a "Pretty Woman"
experience,
where you can go and you
can sort of live like Vivian,
stay in one of their rooms.
It's great.
- Everywhere I go on the planet,
people recognize me
from that film.
They say, "Oh my
god, you're that guy!
You're the guy in the elevator!"
[laughs] And
sometimes they go...
from across the room.
[laughs]
- Movies...over
the last 100 years
have shown us the way to be.
Uh, they've shown us
how we wanna look,
how we wanna present ourselves.
And they've shown us, in
a way, how to fall in love.
And "Pretty Woman"
continued the tradition.
- To this day, and we're talking
about 30 years since the movie
came out, I cannot go to meet
a director, or a producer,
or an executive, whoever
it is that I'm meeting,
to talk about doing a new film
without talking about
"Pretty Woman."
It was a gift.
- I've had a--a big career,
where I've worked a lot
and had large roles in, um--
on television shows, in series.
And this is probably one
of my most memorable roles.
People love this movie.
They remember this part.
- ALEX: It's very hard
to explain
being a small part,
yet an integral part
of something like that.
You know, at the time,
it was a small part.
And as the years go by, that
part's not so small anymore.
The whole film
has become so big.
- It's one of those movies
where if it's on TV,
and I'm flipping the
channels, and I see it,
I have to stop and
watch the whole thing.
I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not changing the channel.
- I've been blessed to do
some other films
that did really well.
Hands down this is the film
most people want to talk about.
- SCOTT: I mean,
for years it was always
Garry "Happy Days" Marshall.
And then it switched to
Garry "Pretty Woman" Marshall.
I mean, there was "Princess
Diaries" and "Valentine's Day."
He had other hits.
But there was none that
struck a chord like
"Pretty Woman" did.
I think he'd be really happy
that "Pretty Woman" the movie
is still in people's minds.
The success of the movie
and the lasting quality
of it thrilled him,
and it enabled him
to do so much more
with his life and his career.
- KATHLEEN: You know, he wanted
to just be remembered for
bringing laughter,
and making people happy
and laugh, and joyous.
And I think that's what he did.
I think "Pretty Woman: The
Musical" and "Pretty Woman"
the movie live on today and
bring a lot of joy to the world.
And that's what he would
have wanted to last.
---
- Cut! That was good.
- WOMAN: Cutting!
- NATALIE: It's one of the
most successful and beloved
romantic comedies of all time.
- It just was wildfire.
Everybody had to see it.
And everywhere you went, it was
just Pretty Woman, Pretty Woman.
- OWEN: This was not
just an ordinary hit.
This was a movie that
had struck a chord.
- NATALIE:
An unlikely fairy tale
that captured hearts
around the globe.
- It kind of was a big surprise,
because it started off
to be a dark movie.
- It wasn't a rom-com.
It didn't have a happy ending.
- Here's a story about a
prostitute who is selling
herself to this guy who
is a despicable person.
Where's the good part in this?
- It's either going to
be a hit or a bomb.
Nothing in the middle.
And it turned out to be a hit.
[chuckles]
- NATALIE: From the music.
- [sings intro
to "Pretty Woman"]
- NATALIE: To the outfits.
- ELLEN: The red dress,
the black dress,
the brown-and-white polka dot.
I mean, her clothes
were perfect.
- NATALIE: To the cast.
And just how many big names
almost landed the lead roles.
- They talked about it with
Sean Connery, Al Panico.
- They went after
Sting, Robert Redford.
- Michelle Pfeifer,
Molly Ringwald.
- Everybody turned it down.
Everybody.
- DORI: Julia was
born to play that part.
- OWEN: And I'm
sitting next to Garry.
And he goes,
"She could be big."
- Nobody ever knew who she was.
- He said, "Julia,
the girl, that girl,
I think she has it. It!"
- MAN: Marker.
- NATALIE: Thirty years
after the film's release,
the cast and crew look back.
- There was something
special about that--
that group,
that set, that movie.
It was just, you know,
kind of magic.
- It was a phenomenon.
It really was.
- People have seen this film
a shocking number of times.
- WOMAN: Roll it!
- NATALIE: You know the movie.
Now hear the inside
stories only they can tell.
- I remember him saying he
wasn't sure about the ending.
- It's written.
It's written beautifully.
It's just the matter of
the pages didn't arrive yet.
- There had been tons
of practical jokes
up to that point.
- We started laughing,
and we didn't stop
laughing for two days.
- Cut!
You broke the trunk!
You broke the whole door!
- This is so important to me,
and you're not remembering--
- No, no, but
I'll tell you the--
- How often do you get to be
associated with a film that,
30 years later, is still giving
joy, finding new audiences,
playing in countries
around the world?
- ♪
- NATALIE: This is "Pretty
Woman: Behind Closed Doors."
Welcome to
"Behind Closed Doors."
I'm Natalie Morales.
It's become one of the most
beloved romantic comedies
of all time, and thrust
Julia Roberts into superstardom.
But back when "Pretty Woman"
was released in March of 1990,
expectations were low.
A story about a money-hungry
business tycoon hiring
a prostitute for a week wasn't
exactly a winning concept.
On top of that, the film
starred Richard Gere,
who was coming off a string
of box office disappointments,
and a little-known young actress
in the lead role of Vivian.
Even director Garry Marshall
wasn't entirely sure
how audiences would react.
Few know he spent opening night
sneaking into theaters
around Los Angeles.
- ♪
- We got into a
big-old limousine.
And we drove around
from theater to theater
to see how our
little movie was doing.
We got to go into the theater
and stand in the back, like,
"We had something to
do with this movie.
"Can we go in for five minutes
and just stand in the back?
We won't stay the whole time."
[laughs]
And we got to hear...
people loving this film.
- OWEN: There was no buzz.
It was not outside of Hollywood
a hotly anticipated movie.
- There was no real premiere.
All I remember is
fun wrap party,
and then this very small
kind of screening at Disney.
And then they had champagne and
strawberries in the commissary.
That was it.
- I was worried about
the moral of the story,
and have we really communicated
that she was rescuing him
and he was rescuing her?
Because I was really worried
that people would interpret it
as, well, a rich
guy, a Visa card,
follow a woman falls in love
with--'cause he's rich.
- KATE:
When the film hit theaters,
critical reactions
were a little mixed.
- Well, I think a lot of the
criticism of "Pretty Woman"
comes down to saying this is
a movie about a prostitute.
It can't be good.
- Some people did
take Disney to task
for making a movie
about a prostitute.
They felt it objectified
her a little bit.
But I think the fact that
Julia Roberts is so appealing,
and lovable, and winning
in it did help it go down.
And the term we use all the time
is "a hooker with
a heart of gold."
- NATALIE: Audiences agree, and
they fall in love with the film.
- SCOTT: I sat in the theater.
Like, 400 people,
screaming, cheering,
just--I was shocked.
I had seen the screening.
I had seen it.
It was cute. It was fun.
She was great.
They were a good team.
It was good.
But I was blown away by
how much they loved it.
It was crazy.
- My answering machine
was blinking, like--
the days when it was tape.
Folks, they used to
be tape back then.
- [laughs]
- HECTOR: And Garry--one,
I should have kept it.
"Hector, you gotta admit it.
"Take a little drive
to Westwood 'til you see--
I think something nice
is happening, Hector."
So I said, "All right."
I schlepped over there.
And there were lines
snaking around the block.
And I thought, "There's
something wrong here."
No, it was just that they--
the movie obviously touched
something in the collective.
- KATE: Tons of people went
to go back to see it again.
They took their friends.
They took their families.
They took their moms.
It was something that people
just wanted to see again.
And they wanted to see
it with other people.
- I think we opened at $7 1/2
or $8 million on the weekend.
And then it never stopped.
Every weekend for, like,
35 weeks or something.
It was crazy.
- KATE: "Pretty Woman," which
was made for less than
$20 million, rakes in
nearly half a billion
in worldwide ticket sales.
And Julia Roberts becomes one of
the biggest names in Hollywood.
- WOMAN: Miss Roberts!
- KATE: Julia Roberts had
done a few movies before.
But she was still a little
bit of an unknown quantity.
And just like Vivian, she
shows up with her own dreams,
and she makes this her
own part, her own world.
- SANDY: It's crazy.
She just becomes this other
thing, this other worldly thing.
- MAN: Julia, straight ahead!
- KATE: Julia Roberts was
always going to be a star.
But I think the fact
that "Pretty Woman"
was such a perfect marriage
of material, and spirit,
and co-star made it
happen all the quicker.
- NATALIE: The
tycoon-meets-prostitute
Cinderella story is now
one of the most-watched
romantic comedies of all time.
And everyone has
a favorite line.
- "Big mistake. Big, huge."
- "I have to go shopping now."
- "Not only a handsome man,
you're a powerful man."
- "He's not really my uncle."
"They never are, dear."
- "If I forget to
tell you later--"
- "--I had a really
good time tonight."
- "Take off the tie.
Give her the tie."
- "It happens all
the time, ma'am."
- There's always...
"Cinder-[bleep]-rella."
- The thing about "Pretty Woman"
that's so fantastic and that
people still love to this day
is yes, it's a Cinderella story.
It has such a warm message about
the power of actually changing
yourself and evolving in ways
that maybe we don't see
in most other romantic comedies.
- Julia Roberts was perfect in
"Pretty Woman" because she was
able effortlessly
in her performance
to show you that
a woman who was a prostitute
was still a real person.
She showed you that a woman
who cared about dressing
in a certain way
was still a feminist.
- This story is a classic story.
It's a story that affects all
of us worldwide to this day.
- Why do you think people
love the movie so much still?
- The--the fairytale
aspect of it.
And the fact that the man
actually goes
literally on a limb.
[laughs] He was
afraid of heights.
The man climbed the fire
escape, for heaven's sake.
Wouldn't you like
a guy like that?
- Do that arm thing.
I like that.
Let's take a walk.
- ♪
- Right from the get-go, we meet
this buoyant, fun, delightful,
surprising, beautiful energy,
this character, Vivian.
She is just a
breath of fresh air.
- PAULA: Vivian is a
truly authentic character.
And maybe that's one of the
reasons we all like her so much.
She's not afraid to be herself.
And we admire that quality.
- You've got two people
that find each other, uh,
two people that are struggling,
and trying to find
their way in the world.
And I think that it just
had a great story structure.
- ANDY: Edward Lewis needs love.
He's sort of searching for that
thing that will change him.
- KATE: When we
meet Edward, he's, uh--
he's pretty closed off.
We get the sense that he has
had a lot of relationships
that haven't worked out.
And Vivian comes in
who's just this ray of
sunshine who loves people.
And it forces him to re-evaluate
the way that he acts
in his personal life
and his professional life.
- They truly change each other,
is--is what I think is
the long-lasting,
deepest part of the movie.
- NATALIE: But it's more
than just the typical
boy-meets-girl love story.
- You know, it's a
modern-day fairy tale.
- This is a fable that could
only happen in Hollywood.
- The secret to it is...romance.
You have a wealthy man.
You have a prostitute.
Who would ever think
that would go anywhere?
- It's always a pleasure
meeting one of Edward's girls.
- ORFEH: It's just about two
lost people who find each other.
I think that, you know,
everybody wishes
for the happy ending.
- I just think it's one of
the most romantic movies
of all time.
- NATALIE: The romance works,
in part because of the chemistry
between Roberts and Gere.
- GARY: When you saw
these two together,
it was just a--there
was something magical
about their chemistry.
- Richard's really great.
- LARRY: They were
so natural together,
and so loving together.
- They were meant to be
on the screen together.
- Those two, they
really had something.
- The soul of "Pretty Woman"
comes from the interplay between
Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
It's this whole chemistry
and this play of personality.
And what really good actors do
is that they're able
to enact that antagonism
and show do they love
each other at the same time.
That's a tricky
thing to bring off.
And that's what Richard Gere and
Julia Roberts do in that film.
- NATALIE: In addition to
the romantic love story,
"Pretty Woman" is also a
film about friendship.
- I really love Laura
San Giacomo's role.
I love the way she did it.
I loved everything about her.
I think people were
crazy about her.
And everybody wished Kit De Luca
was their best friend.
- We spent a lot of--a lot of
time on--on that relationship.
When she came to Hollywood,
Kit was watching over Vivian.
And then when Vivian met Edward,
she turned it around
and wanted to help Kit.
- Kit has this sort of
lovable lightness to her
that's important,
because we need to see why
Vivian would love her so much,
and why Vivian, who really
doesn't have a lot of things
that she's attached to, would
still be so attached to Kit.
- I think that's part
of the heart that,
at least the response that I get
when women come and talk to me
about, you know,
loving this movie.
They--they talk about
that friendship.
- The friendship what
made the whole story.
I must say, that was one of
the most touching moments
in the film,
when they say goodbye.
- Yeah, well, I gotta split,
'cause goodbyes make me crazy.
So take care of you.
- Whoa. [chuckles]
- She has to leave before
she can really say goodbye.
I think that says a lot
about their friendship.
- NATALIE: Another vital
ingredient in "Pretty Woman's"
winning recipe is the supporting
cast led by Hector Elizondo.
He plays hotel manager
Barney Thompson.
You're in the movie
all of 10 minutes.
But you become one of the most
iconic characters in the film.
- That's because his character
made something happen.
- GARY: Hector is a staple in
Garry Marshall's life, right?
He's in all of Garry's films.
- How many now?
- I think, what? Ten?
- No, no, 17, Hector!
- Oh, I see, 17.
Something in the teens.
- Garry considered him
his good luck charm.
- Garry would say,
"Hector, do a thing."
And then Hector would
just crack us all up.
He would just riff,
and it was magic.
- HECTOR: And he gave me
one cornerstone direction.
- What was that?
- Just the play the man
you'd like to work for.
Bingo. And of course,
that's all you need,
an actor needs.
He needs that hinge.
Got it.
I know what to work on.
- ELLEN: All the scenes that
Hector had with
Julia were amazing.
The scene, obviously,
when Julia cries
and blows her nose in his--
in his handkerchief.
- "Garry, this is not funny."
- That's what she said.
- I said, "This is not funny.
"Nobody is gonna think
this is funny
when I blow in
that handkerchief."
- [blows nose]
- JULIA: I said,
"I know you know funny.
This is not funny."
- I said, "It's his
reaction that's funny."
- We screened this movie over
20 times before it was released.
And every single time, that is
the biggest laugh, is Hector's,
um, response to her
blowing her nose.
They laugh at the nose blow.
And then his reaction shot?
People just--I--people
were rolling on the ground.
- That's an iconic moment,
that--that--that scene
in the office.
That was the turning
point in there.
After that--
- How so?
- You know, that--
well, after that
was the fairy godfather
from there on in.
- LARRY: Garry Marshall didn't
believe there were small roles.
He always knew how to make
something out of nothing.
- NATALIE: Comedian Larry Miller
only appears in one scene.
But he becomes memorable
as Mr. Hollister,
the store manager who
shamelessly sucks up to Edward
and orders pizza for Vivian
while she spends an
obscene amount of money.
- He just said, "Larry,
just do what you do,"
and told Julia and Richard,
"Just try to keep up with him."
And every take was different.
I mean, the scene is hysterical.
- "Take off the tie.
Give her the tie."
- Larry Miller made me laugh
from the first time I saw him.
He said something
right off the bat.
And we started laughing,
and we didn't stop
laughing for two days.
- SCOTT: My daddy loved
Larry Miller in that scene.
We knew this was about
Julia wearing outfits,
and the makeover, and the
wish fulfillment of that.
But he needed a counter,
something to be funny.
So he put Larry with--with
Richard to do that whole thing.
- "I can see when you walked
in, you're not only a handsome,
but a powerful man."
- I don't think that scene
was in the original script.
Larry did the same thing
in "Princess Diaries"
when he played Paolo,
the hair-and-makeup guy.
He was amazing.
- Like a wolf.
- Ow.
- It's all right.
[chuckles]
- [grunts]
- I always knew with
Garry when to...
take the ball and run.
When he said,
"All right, come on,
you're gonna now call the
salesgirls over," and, uh...
and it just struck me that I'm--
if I name three Irish names and
one Jewish name, like, Israeli,
that that might be fun
and might be just interesting.
"Mary Pat, Mary Kate,
Mary Francis, Tovah."
And, "Come on, let's see it.
Let's go."
I've heard more about
that, which is wonderful.
Who are those?
You know, what was that?
It was made up.
- Larry Miller's just--
he--he cracks me up.
I don't know anyone who could've
brought that quite to life
the way he did.
- Patrick Richwood
is another one
of the Garry Marshall players.
- I played Dennis the
nighttime elevator operator
at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
- I use him as an example
that no part is too small,
because he took a--a part
that could've been just
a button-pusher, look straight
ahead, don't do anything.
He created a role
out of nothing.
- His facial expressions
alone were just so great.
- GARRY: He's this extraordinary
addition to the film.
He's us looking at this couple.
And it's beautifully done.
- NATALIE: Looking back now,
it's easy to see why
"Pretty Woman"
hit it big with audiences.
But the light and lovable
romantic comedy is a far cry
from the original concept.
The first draft of the script
was actually
a dark and sad drama.
Few know the story of how
it eventually made its way
to Garry Marshall and Disney.
- ♪
- Today, the mention of the
movie "Pretty Woman" evokes
thoughts of laughter,
romance, and above all,
the perfect fairytale
happy ending.
But it wasn't always
the lighthearted rom-com
we all know and love.
In fact, it was
exactly the opposite.
The journey of the film that
would become "Pretty Woman"
begins in 1983 with a struggling
Hollywood screenwriter
named Jonathan Lawton.
- Lawton was writing scripts
about ninjas
that no one was buying.
And, you know,
scripts about ninjas
were kind of hot
in the late '80s.
- He was 23 at the time.
And he was earning his
livelihood installing
computer systems
and programming.
- NATALIE: Gary Goldstein
is a literary manager.
And he hires Lawton to help him
set up his brand-new
desktop computer.
- He spent three
weeks in my office.
And he was a really
interesting guy.
And he shared that he had
dropped out of film school.
That he had seven completed
screenplays sitting in a stack
in his one-room studio.
- NATALIE: Goldstein asks to
read one of Lawton's scripts,
and says if he likes it, he
will help Lawton get an agent.
- I read one.
And I said, "That's fabulous.
It's a little quirky,
kind of a college-y script.
But the writing is really good.
Let me get read another."
And by the time
I'd read the third,
I was totally convinced he was
a supremely talented writer.
I said, you know, "Never
mind the idea of an agent.
I'm gonna work with you."
- NATALIE: Goldstein
has just one request.
- GARY: He'd been in
this relationship.
And she had recently
just left him.
And he was devastated.
And I just thought, "If
anyone's gonna write me just
"a compelling, extraordinary,
truthful story about
a romantic relationship,
this is the moment."
So I asked him if
he would do that.
And he didn't question it.
He came back 12 weeks
later, very fast,
with the first draft--
the best first draft
I've ever read of any script.
- NATALIE: Lawton's story
is a drama about Vivian,
a down-on-her-luck prostitute
who gets hired by Edward,
a wealthy businessman, to
be his companion for a week.
It's called "Three Thousand."
- The original was
titled "Three Thousand,"
which is simply the number of
dollars that Edward gives Vivian
for her companionship
for the week.
- NATALIE: The plot is a
dark cautionary tale about
street workers and drug abuse.
- ELLEN: It was sad.
It was mostly about
the character of Vivian
and the dark world
that she lived in.
- Jonathan at the time
was living in a one-room
studio apartment in a
difficult part of Hollywood.
I mean, his literal visual
tapestry on a daily basis
out the window was a parade
of drug dealers
and working girls.
- The kind of people that ended
up populating the film beyond
just Vivian and Edward--
like her best friend, Kit--
those were the kind
of people that he would see
around his neighborhood.
- NATALIE: Even with
the dark undertones,
Goldstein is drawn to the
power of the relationship
between Vivian and Edward.
- I think one of the reasons
it was such a profound read
was because his heart
was broken.
He was, like, bleeding
from the inside out.
And it was gorgeous.
- SANDY: The core of that
screenplay was that
at the very end of the movie,
she's fallen in love
with this businessman.
And he's driving her
back to her apartment,
this horrible
apartment in Hollywood,
and they're having
this huge argument.
- JULIA: Richard's character
threw my character out of
the car, threw the money on
top of her, and drove away.
And the credits rolled.
- NATALIE: Despite
the sad ending,
Goldstein believes
"Three Thousand" is special.
- GARY: It occurred to
me I had to light a fire.
I had to make a noise.
I had to do something
to bring attention
to this project.
So I took tons of meetings
and circulated the script
to everybody I could think of.
- NATALIE: He secures a deal
with a company
called Vestron Pictures,
and not long after
finds the perfect leading lady
when he's invited to a special
screening of another film.
- Some very dear friends of mine
produced the wonderful
indie film "Mystic Pizza."
And they asked a bunch of
folks--I was one of many--
to come to a friends and family
screening for feedback.
You know, criticism before
they would lock picture.
What needs to be tweeked?
And they screened the film.
And I had not one criticism.
I thought it was a
magnificent film,
except there was this one gal
on screen in this ensemble.
She was kind of goofy.
She was very funny.
She was charming beyond reason.
I had no idea who she was,
but I said, "That's Vivian."
- NATALIE: Goldstein of course
is referring to Julia Roberts.
"Mystic Pizza" is
her first big film.
- And I thought, "My god,
she's a young, new actress,
but she's absolutely
instinctively fabulous."
In my gut, I knew she
was right for this film.
- KATE: She had this
wonderful laugh.
She had this big smile.
She seemed poised to
be a leading lady.
But she hadn't yet had
that breakthrough role.
- NATALIE: After the screening,
Goldstein sends the script for
"Three Thousand"
to Roberts's agent.
- GARY: Julia read it, and
she just loved the character,
and said, "I wanna
be in this project."
- NATALIE: With Roberts
signed on to play Vivian,
Goldstein's next step is to find
an actor for the role of Edward.
He has just one man
in mind--Richard Gere.
- KATE: Richard Gere really fit
into the role because I think
it required a leading man,
like a--an actor
that we could recognize.
Obviously someone very
handsome, very self-possessed,
but willing to strip down
to some different layers.
- NATALIE: Gere has made a
name for himself in the hits
"American Gigolo" and
"An Officer and a Gentleman."
- Movie audiences knew Richard
Gere as a bit of a sex symbol.
He had done his
own hooker movie
in the form of
"American Gigolo."
It's not really
a question, like,
is Richard Gere attractive?
Yes.
But he also had the dimension
for what was actually
a really tough role.
- I always wanted Richard
Gere for the role.
He just struck me as--first of
all, it was to be a date movie.
And who is a better look--
I mean, put Richard Gere
in a suit.
He is that perfect guy.
- NATALIE: There's
only one problem.
Gere doesn't like the part.
And he turns it down.
- There wasn't a part.
There was just nothing.
The joke was it's
just--it's a suit.
You could put a suit on a
goat and put it out there,
and it would work.
- NATALIE: On top
of that, soon after,
the production company
that bought their script
goes bankrupt.
And Goldstein and Lawton
are back at square one.
Eventually Goldstein sends
the script to an executive
at The Walt Disney Company.
- I told him it was
a writing sample.
And the writer was brilliantly
gifted, and that the writer,
Jonathan, and I would come
in and pitch them a couple of
Disney-appropriate stories.
- Disney back then,
and still now,
really relied on their
sort of bread-and-butter
animated fairytale movies.
And so any kind of live-action,
adult-skewing movie
was a bit of a risk.
- NATALIE: But a few days later,
the executive calls Goldstein
and says they wanna
buy "Three Thousand."
- And I was like, uh, stymied.
I said, "You may have
read the wrong script,
"uh, because ours is
not a Disney movie.
It's about a prostitute."
And he laughed and he said,
"Yes, yes, we know."
- NATALIE: The following week,
Goldstein and Lawton
go to a meeting at Disney.
- GARY: This is a
major studio, a big deal.
- NATALIE: The executive in
charge of production at
the Mouse House explains
he loves the script,
but says it needs to be
rewritten a little more
Disney-friendly.
- Lawton had always
talked about how
the ending wasn't set in stone.
He was really open and
willing to change it.
He was so excited that
Disney wanted this film,
that this film he had written
was actually gonna get made
after years of trying, that
he was always open to changes.
- When we said yes, we can do
that, we're willing to do that,
uh, then the deal was made.
- NATALIE: Goldstein and Lawton
could never have predicted what
would happen next, or what their
finished film would become.
- ♪
- In 1989, Disney purchased
the rights to a drama called
"Three Thousand," a story about
a prostitute named Vivian
who falls in love with Edward,
a wealthy businessman
who hires her to be his
companion for the week.
The script was dark and sad.
But Disney had other plans.
They wanted to transform
it into a romantic comedy.
Enter director Garry Marshall.
- ♪
- Garry was funny.
He knew how to make funny.
- LARRY: This man had "it."
The "it" of show business.
The "it" of storytelling.
- GARY: Garry Marshall was in
the pantheon of deities to me.
He was the guy who
invented modern comedy.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Garry Marshall
started in show business as
a joke writer for Jack Parr
on "The Tonight Show."
- I grew up working with comics.
Who knows what we
wrote in those days?
We wrote fast.
- NATALIE: He then
became a household name,
creating the hit TV
sitcoms "Laverne & Shirley,"
"Mork & Mindy,"
and "Happy Days,"
featuring the iconic
character known as Fonzie.
- I was trying to make Henry
that kind of a cool guy.
And then he's--he
mostly did guttural sounds.
- Eeee.
- And, uh, he was so good
at it that he--he just--
the audience loved him,
so we built him up into
quite a--quite a guy.
- NATALIE: In 1982, he made the
tough leap to the big screen.
- Making the transition from
TV to movies was definitely
not easy, especially back then.
They didn't want
TV people in movies.
So he had to fight his way in.
- Rob Reiner, Jim Brooks,
my sister Penny, Ron Howard,
and me, we all came from TV.
We said, "We'll help each other.
They'll hate us."
- NATALIE: But while some in
showbiz might have envied
his seamless transition,
audiences loved his films,
including the
comedy "Overboard,"
starring Goldie Hawn
and Kurt Russell,
and the Bette Midler
tearjerker, "Beaches."
- We shot "Beaches" in 1988.
It was Garry's first
time working with Disney.
That was a big star.
And the relationship that Gary
had with Bette was amazing.
Barbara Hershey was also in it.
She was fantastic.
Everyone cried on the set.
It was a really special movie.
When we did the
scenes, you know,
Barbara Hershey was starting
to die on the beach,
everyone cried.
- KATE: It was a really
wonderful film for Garry because
it married his sensibilities--
this ability to do human drama
with a slightly lighter touch.
I think it's a movie that people
still think about in a fond way,
even if they also remember
sobbing at the end.
- NATALIE: The film and its
chart-topping soundtrack showed
Disney executives Marshall had
a magic touch when it came to
finding the balance
between serious and funny.
- I think that Disney was really
excited about the success that
they had with "Beaches"
and how well received it was
and well regarded by critics
and audiences alike.
And they really wanted
to keep doing that.
- NATALIE: As a result, they
give Marshall the opportunity
to overhaul "Three Thousand."
- They had been looking for
something a little bit darker
and more adult for
Touchstone Pictures,
which is their more
adult-facing label.
So it was kind of a weird
twist, a coincidence,
that this movie ended
up where it did.
- It was a very dark
kind of picture.
And they, uh, wanted to make
a different kind of film.
Wanted to make it
a cross between--
- It was a really
important film.
And now we're doing
a Disney movie.
- Not Disney! Touchstone!
- Touchstone!
- Touchstone is, you know,
Disney without the raccoon.
- ELLEN: I don't think Disney
had any expectation
at the beginning.
They knew Garry was
a talented filmmaker
and that he could do comedy,
and he could do charming,
and he could do funny.
So they gave him this
really dark, dark script,
which was not a Disney
script, and said, you know,
see what you can do with it.
- I think that,
you know, it was, uh,
kind of a ultimate challenge,
taking the core of this movie
and flipping it, and
turning it inside out,
because the core was
so dark and so grim.
And so we had to lighten it up
and change all the situations.
- KATHLEEN: I didn't totally
get why he would be doing it.
But he really thought he could
weave it into a love story.
- NATALIE: In addition to
Marshall, the original writer,
Jonathan Lawton, and executive
producer Laura Ziskin,
several others are brought
in to work on the script.
- We didn't change the
order of the scenes.
We didn't change a lot.
We just changed the tone.
And there were a lot of
good, smart, talented,
seasoned people sharing
their ideas for it.
But at the end of the day, the
great ambition was really being
shepherded by Garry Marshall.
- So many of your films are
romantic, romantic comedies.
Are you a romantic at heart?
- I--I--I am, a--
I, uh--I'm a Scorpio.
I'm Italian.
I grew up with sisters.
I have daughters.
And, uh, I like romance.
I've been--I have romance
around my life for many years.
- KATHLEEN: I think he
added in the fairy dust.
He wanted to tell how two
mixed-up people that aren't
doing that well find each other
and make each other better.
- SANDY: I think that it
was always about, you know,
her affecting him.
The two of them
affecting each other.
It isn't so much about
him rescuing her.
It's about them
rescuing each other.
- NATALIE: It's that sentiment
that leads executive producer
Laura Ziskin to suggest
the perfect final line.
- DORI: "She rescues
him right back."
That was a good line.
- SANDY: The last line was super
important to her when they got
on that balcony, that this
movie hadn't been about just him
rescuing her from this life.
And so it's such a great line.
- NATALIE: With the
rewrites underway,
focus shifts to casting.
Julia Roberts will never
forget what happened next.
- I was cast in
"Three Thousand,"
before it went to Garry.
And then over a happy
weekend of having a job,
it was sold to Disney,
and I was out of a job.
- I didn't know her
from Adam or anybody.
As I said, she was
just 21 years old.
Hello!
And, uh, we met.
- I came in, and he said, "I
don't know what to do with you.
"Some people say you
can't dress her up.
"Some people say you
can't dress her down.
What do you do?"
- You smile, that's what you do.
You lose it just
for a day or so.
Well, Disney wasn't sure.
- --quite lost for a few weeks.
- Well, Disney wasn't
sure who we should get,
and this and that.
- DORI: The studio wanted to
test more than just Julia.
So I think it was Diane Lane,
Annabella Sciorra,
Marissa Tomei, Laura Dern.
- GARY: Michelle Pfeiffer,
Molly Ringwald, Daryl Hannah.
- Pretty much everyone
in Hollywood came in.
- NATALIE: But they eventually
circled back to the little-known
actress with the tumbling
curls and megawatt smile.
- Julia Roberts was perfect for
Vivian because even though
I think Disney did wanna cast
a big name
and a big leading actress for
this, you have to understand,
Vivian is a girl who's come
to Hollywood with her own
big dreams, but no one
knows who she is.
- Julia walked in
and lit up a room.
And it was hard to...
see past her.
- She had the most
amazing laugh.
It was all about her laughter.
- She was dazzlingly beautiful.
She definitely has that thing
where someone kind of, you know,
is lit from within.
Her natural beauty and her
natural effervescence was real.
- NATALIE: That irresistible
charm would turn out to be
instrumental in eventually
convincing Richard Gere
to change his mind.
- ♪
- NATALIE: A little-known
actress named Julia Roberts has
just been cast as Vivian, the
hooker with a heart of gold,
in the film that will
become "Pretty Woman."
The next step, finding the right
actor to play opposite her.
But that proves challenging,
especially since everyone's
first choice, Richard Gere,
has already turned it down.
- They talked about
it with Sean Connery.
And Garry met with Sean Connery.
And Al Pacino's name came up.
And Garry flew to
New York and met with Al.
- They went after Sting.
They went after Robert Redford.
They went after everybody.
Everybody turned it down.
Everybody!
Richard turned it
down two, three times.
There was no script.
I mean, there was just--it--
the script people were reading
wasn't going to be the movie.
And to tell people,
you know what?
Read the script, but just
know Garry's gonna change it,
didn't fly well with
a lot of people.
- NATALIE: Although finding
a leading man is difficult,
director Garry Marshall sees
the process as an opportunity.
- So my dad wanted to see
what Julia would do
with different people, you know?
- That's how Garry
likes to work.
He likes to know what the
actors are capable of doing.
- We got a call to come in
and do a screen test
with Charles Grodin and Julia.
- Charles Grodin, he
brought in to be funny.
- ELLEN: It was definitely a
test for the role of Edward,
but also a test to see
what kind of comedy
that Julia was capable of.
- It was the funniest thing
I've ever done
in the history of mankind.
It was an actor, an
experienced comic actor,
who I've always loved, who
was given an opportunity
to go completely berserk.
- They improvised all day long.
And Julia was right there
with him, shot for shot,
word for word.
- NATALIE: In the end,
while Roberts and Grodin
are comedy gold,
the romantic chemistry
between them isn't right.
Having been through nearly
every big name in Hollywood,
Marshall and Goldstein
circle back to Richard Gere.
And they pull out
a secret weapon.
- Garry brought me
to meet Richard.
- I don't think so.
- He did! To New York.
- --the picture.
- I can't believe--
this is so important to me, and
you're not remembering this.
- But I'll tell you the
part that I do remember.
No, this was important to me.
I just remember you sitting
across from my desk.
- At your apartment.
- RICHARD: In my o--my
apartment and my office.
They were both the
same at that point.
- Garry brought me there.
And he said, "Richard, Julia.
Julia, Richard.
I'll see youse later!"
And he walked out.
- But I was so mesmerized,
I don't remember Garry.
I just remember the girl.
- [laughs] Yeah.
- When you meet stars, you have
a normal thing, you're taught.
You go to the restroom
while they talk.
And I came out and I saw the two
of them at the end of the hall
just looking at each other.
And right there I said,
"Look at that chemistry!
They don't know each other!"
And they're doing great.
- And yeah, we loved
each other immediately.
So it was a nice thing.
But I--to be honest,
I was still--
I didn't know if I was
doing this movie yet.
She's across from my desk.
We're getting to
know each other.
We're flirty flirty, nice
nice, it's all this is going.
And he calls up and it's kind
of like, "How's it going?"
- [laughs]
- And I'm going, "Yeah, yeah."
And she's across the desk.
And she takes a piece of
paper, and she's writing--
- A Post-It.
- A Post-It.
You remember more than I do.
And she--she turns it around
and she pushes it to me.
And it said, "Please say yes."
- I remember that.
- It was so sweet.
And I said,
"I've just said yes."
- [laughs]
- She did it, though.
She did it.
- I wanted to cry.
[laughs]
I actually--at one point,
I didn't believe
we would get there.
When we got the two of them,
and with Garry's obvious
enthusiastic support--but for
him, it wouldn't have happened.
To say that I was excited
would be an understatement.
The chemistry was
off the charts.
And I think everyone who saw it
immediately went, oh my gosh.
- It was just there.
I mean, it was undeniable.
- SANDY: We saw the way
Julia looked at Richard.
And that was telling.
We're like, wow, that's awesome.
- DORI: I have no idea what kind
of film this would've been with
anybody but those two.
Lucky for all of us, we
don't have to find out.
- $85,000.
- NATALIE: Jason Alexander
is cast as Philip Stuckey,
Edward's lawyer.
And Laura San Giacomo
lands the role of Kit,
Vivian's roommate
and best friend.
- DORI: Oh, Laura San Giacomo.
She came in and made
everyone laugh in the room.
And she was tough.
She just nailed it more
than anybody
who came in for the role.
It was just like, it--
you just gotta give it
to her and let her go.
- Laura, um, gosh,
she was so great.
Like, we just loved her.
She was such a fresh new face.
And he said in her audition, he
laughed out loud when she said
"Cinder-[bleep]-rella."
And he loved any actor
that could surprise him.
- NATALIE: Someone else who
keeps Marshall on his toes is
his good friend
Hector Elizondo.
- KATHLEEN: Hector
could surprise him.
And Hector could always
give him a different take.
And I think that's
what he loved.
Hector never gave up, either.
He would do it a different way,
or he'd do it a little slower,
or faster, or louder,
funnier, you know?
They--they had a shorthand.
And, uh, that was a
great collaboration.
- NATALIE: The two had met
10 years earlier
over a game of basketball.
Talk to me about meeting Garry.
- I think it was 1979, 1980.
And it was a half-court game.
We started to bang and sweat.
And this tall fellow
was guarding me,
and no one had introduced us.
And he had the knee pads
and elbow pads.
He had pads--and he
had very quick hands.
He was guarding me.
And I threw it
behind the back pass,
and the ball hit
him in the mouth.
And he--he--
it's got him on one knee.
And everybody went--
[gasps]
And he signaled to me.
I said, "Oh, this
is gonna be good.
What's going on here?"
I walk over.
And he says, "You're a terrific
actor and a lousy passer.
I think I got a movie for you."
- NATALIE: Elizondo has worked
on all of Marshall's films.
So the question isn't if
he will be cast, but rather,
who he will play.
- It got to the point where he
would just call at night and,
"Hector, what are
doing in there?
You got a couple of days?"
[laughs] "You busy?"
"No, Garry."
"It's a little thing.
I'll send you a
couple of pages."
And we took a look.
- NATALIE: Elizondo signs on
to play the role
of Barney Thompson, the
stern but lovable manager
of the Regent Beverly
Wilshire Hotel.
- Well, after having had
a couple of movies with him,
I'd done a couple of movies
with him,
I had to...I had faith.
I said, "All right.
At least it'll be fun.
The lunch will be good."
- NATALIE: The major
roles are all cast.
And in the summer of 1989,
with filming about to begin,
Marshall will soon find out
just how special this group is.
- WOMAN: And background!
- GARRY: And action!
- ♪
- Mark!
- NATALIE: On July 24, 1989,
filming begins on the movie that
would eventually be called
"Pretty Woman" with
veteran director Garry Marshall
calling the shots.
- Julia!
- We felt like people work
their best when they were happy.
- "Now you're happy."
He always had a toothpick.
"Now you're sad.
Not that sad.
Not a tragedy.
It's not Tennessee Williams."
[giggles] "It's a Garry
Marshall production.
Perfect. Cut. Print."
- He makes it fun.
It's not--it's not a job.
It's not work.
- Print it.
- HECTOR: He fed you very well.
Very important.
- NATALIE: He loved his food.
He loved food on the set.
[laughs]
- He knew that feeding
people well was a gateway.
Was a gateway.
It opened their hearts.
- SCOTT: Everybody in show
business knows he likes
tuna fish and bananas, and
he eats it every day at 3:00.
The people in Ohio
might not know that.
That's his cuisine,
the tuna fish and bananas
with a little olive oil.
Yeah, he liked to
eat constantly.
And sometimes the food
would fly out of his mouth.
- NATALIE: As he would go on to
do on every one of his films,
Marshall surrounds himself with
people he knows and trusts,
including his children,
Scott and Kathleen.
- In the beginning, it was
like take your kid to work day.
And then he started
putting us in.
And it was fun, and
we had a good time.
- SCOTT: He would put us
in the sitcoms once a year.
He wanted us to see what he did.
So we'd come to the set,
and we got to act
in one episode a year.
- On "Mork & Mindy,"
my son was Ted.
Played a boy scout.
And Robin was in a dress.
He was in drag.
It was part of the thing.
And he was the boy scout,
my son, in the park.
- Then, by the time it got to
the movies, it was more for fun.
My sister was an actress.
I was not.
But I would just do a little
bit part here and there.
- NATALIE: In "Pretty Woman,"
Kathleen plays an employee
at the Regent Beverly
Wilshire Hotel.
- I was the day desk clerk, as
opposed to the night desk clerk.
So you see me only in the day.
- NATALIE: Even
Marshall's wife, Barbara,
leaves her mark on the film.
- KATHLEEN: My mom
is the one who said,
"Kissing's too personal."
And that's where he
kind of got this idea
kissing is really just intimate.
And so that's where
it became, like,
"I don't kiss on the lips."
- NATALIE: Marshall famously
invites his friends to set
and gives them
small roles to play.
The crew affectionately refers
to these last-minute
additions as FoGs.
- A FoG is a Friend of Garry.
- Yes, all the FoGs
were Friends of Garry.
You know, they would come.
The dentist would
come be in a scene.
His cousin.
His old friend from
the Bronx, me, my sister,
whoever was around
would be in a scene.
- ELLEN: Friends that he
was still friends with
from the Bronx,
from his softball teams,
from his time in the Army.
If any of those friends
wanted to be in the movie,
that was okay, you know?
There was always a
part for--for everyone.
- It was different.
But it was good. It was looser.
- CHARLES: Every day,
we would have a FoG report
on the call sheet
for the next day.
You know, "Be cautioned, it
could be a very foggy day."
Or, "It's very clear tomorrow.
Don't worry."
It was like a weather report.
- SCOTT: He liked to
treat it like it was camp,
and he was the camp counselor.
That was his way of directing.
"We're here.
We're gonna have fun.
It's gonna be great."
You know, he liked
the camaraderie.
- He says, "Oh my
god, it's something--"
- CHARLES: His jokes
are really basic jokes.
And they also are
about real people.
And that makes them special.
And, um, those are the
characters that he creates.
- Gary was, you know,
very collaborative
in every sense of the word.
- NATALIE: Between takes, anyone
is free to write a joke
on a piece of paper
and hand it to Marshall.
- If he put it in his
pocket, it meant it was good.
If he threw it on the floor,
it meant no good, try again.
And so yeah, he didn't care
who had the idea, you know?
If it was funny, it was funny.
If it worked, it worked.
- If a cleaning lady walked
through the set, and stopped,
and said, "I think I have
a better line for you,"
he said, "I'm gonna take it."
- If a craft service person
had a great idea for the--
for the script,
he would pitch it to Garry.
And the next thing you know,
we could be shooting it
that afternoon.
- SCOTT: If Julia thought of
something, Richard of something,
he really, uh, would
take from anywhere.
It didn't matter.
He had no ego.
He just wanted it to be
the best movie it could be.
- NATALIE: Other Marshall
trademarks include
constant rewrites and
last-minute changes.
- This is the rewrite as of...
8/14/89.
And what is the date today?
- MAN: Uh...
- BOTH: 8/14/89.
- Every day, he would come
into work with new pages.
- It''s written.
It is written beautifully.
It's just a matter of the
pages didn't arrive yet.
So we're waiting--
- I didn't arrive yet.
- It's like we're in Africa.
We're waiting.
Did the pages come?
You know, like
we're so far away.
Disney's around the corner.
No, but it's, uh--
- This is the third week,
and I'm used to it now.
I had a heart attack
the first week.
I had stomach problems.
I had--my vision was going.
My shoulders--
- It's called "Mr. Richard Gere
and the Second City Players."
- BOTH: [laughing]
- We didn't ever know
what we were gonna shoot.
No one else worked that way.
I'd never been exposed to that.
He loved the process
of working a scene,
finding the right moments,
and how that would work.
But if something wasn't
working, we would just stop.
We would talk about it.
He would talk to the actors.
We would talk to
whoever had a problem.
And then we would fix that.
- PRISCILLA: He just
so easily combined,
or effortlessly combined, the
drama of the story with comedy.
- SCOTT: And he worked hard,
rewrote every--you know,
was always writing, and always
trying to think of a joke
to make it funnier.
- "And another thing, why
didn't somebody write it down?
It's just funny!
Here comes funny!"
[laughs] Like that.
- He likes to
work under pressure
and come up with a line.
If that doesn't work,
"I got 10 other ones."
- We were really shooting from
the hip, just making it up.
We would just be
spit-balling it.
- Garry would just
come up to you and go,
"Okay, in this moment, be funny.
Rolling!"
- Exactly.
- PRISCILLA: He was
just so sharp, so quick,
so fast with--with the jokes.
- CHARLES: When
you shoot a comedy,
you have to make sure that
the camera sees the jokes.
- Cut!
- Cut it! Cut it!
- CHARLES: What makes the joke
is the way somebody reacts to
what the joke is.
And, um, that's
really important.
And Garry knew all of that.
- PRISCILLA: I wanna say
that we shot
the Hollywood Boulevard
stuff first.
So Julia would've been
in her little blonde wig
and her little tight outfit,
chewing her gum, marching
up and down the boulevard
in her high black
patent leather boots.
- NATALIE: The ensemble is the
creation of costume designer
Marilyn Vance.
- The reason for the
dress was for her body,
that it was two
pieces being held.
That was a bathing suit
my mother had gotten me.
It just really worked for her.
And, um, I was really
pleased with that.
- NATALIE: But two items, the
red jacket and the black hat,
are last-minute additions.
- We needed the jacket.
And we didn't have
one that we liked.
So we shoot on the street,
in Hollywood Boulevard.
We saw a kid.
I said, "See that girl?
See if you can buy her jacket."
And they said, "We'll give her
free tickets to Disneyland."
I said, "She don't want tickets.
She wants money.
Offer her money."
And they gave her--
and we got the jacket.
And we cleaned it,
and she wore it.
- While we were filming on,
uh, Hollywood Boulevard,
Julia was already in the jacket.
It was cold, and I had my
little fisherman's cap on.
And the next minute,
I turned around,
and Garry takes it off my
head and puts it on her.
I loved that scene, because
she--she's so adorable.
I mean, there's something--
she's so special, honest to god.
- SANDY: Garry wanted to do
a thing with the infamous
blue dress that she had crazy
sort of silver-blue bob wig.
So that you didn't see her
hair 'til the morning after.
And I didn't quite understand
why he wanted that done.
And looking back on it,
it was just--it was genius.
- NATALIE: The first time
Richard Gere's character,
Edward, sees Vivian is when
he's driving down
Hollywood Boulevard.
Sandy Isaac is
executive producer
Laura Ziskin's assistant.
And it's his responsibility
to find the perfect car
for Edward to drive.
- Laura said to me,"We need
a car. What should we get?"
And I said, "Well, you know,
a Ferrari's a great choice.
Let's go--we'll
go for a Ferrari."
So I compose a letter
to the Ferrari factory,
and we send it off to Italy.
And we get response back,
not just
"We are rejecting your request,"
they were angry.
Ferrari was out--outraged that
we would even approach them
about a movie in which a
businessman would drive a
prostitute in a Ferrari, because
of course that's never happened.
So then we go to Porsche.
And Porsche rejects us--
not as vehemently as Ferrari,
but they're like, "No way."
So Laura's like, "Okay,
smart guy, now what?"
So I said, "What about Lotus?"
And she's like,
"What's a Lotus?"
And I said, "Well, do
you remember James Bond
in 'The Spy That Loved Me'?"
And I started explaining
about the submarine car.
She's like, "Stop.
Get the Lotus."
- One of the primary
locations, of course,
what was then known as
the Regent Beverly Wilshire,
the "Reg Bev Wil," which is
now just the Beverly Wilshire.
It has a feeling about it.
You have this sense
of opulence and space.
And when Vivian and
Edward walk into it,
you feel how she would feel
walking into the kind of space
that she has never
been in before,
populated with
the kind of people
she doesn't hang out
with at all.
- CHARLES: Shooting at
the hotel was, uh, hard.
The Beverly Hills police
wouldn't let us putting lights
up for, uh--until
9 o'clock at night.
So it meant that
we had to go late.
And, uh, we couldn't get
any trucks on the street.
It was a big problem.
This hotel had a very
small, um, lobby.
So as a result, we wound up
shooting all the scenes
in the lobby in the
Ambassador Hotel downtown.
We never shot anything inside,
uh, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
- NATALIE: In addition,
the penthouse set
is recreated on a soundstage.
But inspiration is drawn
from the famous landmark.
- There was a number of
different areas where they came
through and really were
able to recreate them,
whether it be the elevator,
whether it be the restaurant.
All of those areas
were true to form
of exactly what you would
experience inside of the hotel.
- NATALIE: And yes,
the hotel elevators
really do have sofas inside.
- It's a very, uh, popular piece
for a lot of the visitors
and guests when
they come through.
Numerous times, we've actually
seen--the doors will open, and
there's people in there
taking a photo
of somebody sitting
on that elevator.
Part of the hotel that
then became famous
as part of the movie.
- CHARLES: Shooting on Rodeo
Drive was fun with Garry,
because we had very limited
access to Rodeo Drive.
We shot on the sidewalk only
for a limited amount of time.
And usually we didn't--weren't
able to close it down for more
than 15 minutes at a time.
But he wanted to make sure that
we saw all of the iconic stores
on Rodeo Drive at the time.
That was important, because
he wanted to show really
Richard's world as opposed
to Julia's world.
That was very important,
the story point.
- NATALIE: Inside the posh
boutiques on Rodeo Drive is
where one of the most memorable
scenes of the film takes place.
Dey Young plays the world's
most famous snobby saleswoman.
- "I don't think we have
anything here for you.
"You're obviously
in the wrong place.
Please leave."
- NATALIE: She then ends up on
the receiving end
of an iconic comeback.
- You work on commission, right?
- Ah, yes.
- Big mistake. Big, huge.
I have to go shopping now.
- I had no idea that scene would
have the impact that it did.
I have people who come up
all the time to me
and will recite
my dialogue to me.
And I'm going, "I'm so
glad you remembered."
[laughs]
- When we go to Vivian
and Kit's Hollywood, like,
that's real Hollywood.
I think that a lot of people,
when they think about Hollywood,
they think about the
glitz and the glamour.
They don't think
about, you know,
the sort of shady club
where the girls hang out
and Kit stealing cherries
so she has something to eat.
There's all kinds
of people around.
They're not all great people.
But you have a sense of place
there that I think when other
movies do Hollywood, they're
not willing to go that way.
- NATALIE: Marshall is known to
play practical jokes to lighten
the mood and keep
actors on their toes.
One happens when Julia
Roberts is in the bathtub.
- I wanted to do a great prank.
And by this time, Richard
was in on it, I think.
So when we shot the scene,
when she went underwater,
all the cameramen left,
the whole crew left.
Nobody was there.
- They just left
the camera running.
And she's singing,
this and that, whatever.
And she just kept singing
and waiting for someone
to yell something.
- Finally we just heard in
the background, you know,
"Oh my god!
Oh my god, where is everybody?"
It was like that.
It was great. It was great.
- NATALIE: As filming
continues throughout
the summer and
early fall of 1989,
some of the most
iconic moments and outfits
are about to come to life.
- ♪
- At the heart of the film,
"Pretty Woman" is
a Cinderella story
about Vivian's extreme makeover
from rough around the edges
to sophisticated and stylish.
Behind this drastic
transformation is one woman--
costume designer Marilyn Vance.
- It was a progression.
When we first see her, you know,
it's very important that you see
the transition without
being garish, you know?
- The first time that Vivian
is actually made over,
and we as the audience get to
see her in a different kind of
outfit, is this beautiful black
lace cocktail dress that she has
to wear to this very
important business dinner.
- I made that dress for her.
Instead of wearing a necklace,
because she has narrower
shoulders,
so I wanted to keep
the, uh, shoulders
up on the top of her shoulder.
So I made the pieces
that came from the dress.
We cut out the embroidered
piece, put it around her neck,
and to the sleeve.
And she looks gorgeous.
- NATALIE: So much so,
that when Edward walks in,
he doesn't recognize her.
- There's a principle
called dramatic irony,
where the audience
knows something
before the characters do.
And only Garry Marshall, in my
mind, has been able to do this,
and--and loved it.
- It's a turning
point in the movie.
He looks at her as somebody
completely different than
who he picked up on
Hollywood Boulevard.
And that's what
the movie's about.
That's the core scene.
And the way we blocked
it, he looks around,
and he can't see her.
And he turns away.
- He doesn't notice
that's Julia Roberts
sitting at the bar
about 20 feet away.
But we see it.
And that's a nice feeling.
We know something
he doesn't know.
- And then Richard turns away.
And then he goes back, and
he realizes it's Julia.
And then he's knocked out.
- He's falling for her.
And she's falling for him.
But we know it before they do.
- It all happened
right in one shot.
It was fantastic.
- The way Garry shoots it is
she walks over with that smile.
"You're late."
"You're stunning."
"You're forgiven."
And...it's the most loving
scene I've ever seen.
- I still think it's
one of the best shots.
It's very simple.
It's not very complicated.
- NATALIE: Another memorable
Marilyn Vance creation is
the brown-and-white
polka dot dress.
- She had that auburn hair.
And so I was looking for
something to set off, you know,
the hair, and just I'm always
looking for something to enhance
a--a--a portrait-type thing.
So what I did was I looked
all over for a fabric
that had some
rust-ish color in it.
And I--I went everywhere.
I couldn't find it anywhere.
I'm looking all over for
what matches her hair.
And lo and behold, there
is this polka-dot roll.
It was exactly 4 yards,
not a stitch more or less.
Nothing.
That was it.
I said, "Oh my god.
We have to have this. Please."
- NATALIE: Vance uses every last
inch of fabric on the dress.
But when producers ask her
to make it a little shorter,
she sees an opportunity.
- I was so excited,
because I said,
"If they go with the short
dress, we have a hatband."
[chuckles] And that's
how we got the hatband.
- NATALIE: The polo sequence
is one of the biggest
and most complex to shoot.
In addition to Roberts and
Gere, the cast includes
Jason Alexander and Amy Yasbeck,
who plays his wife.
- But don't rush too fast.
The camera don't know
where you're going.
- Remember...him being really
annoyed at the polo scene.
And he had--in a golf cart,
shooting second unit.
Just the ponies and back to one,
getting horses to go back to one
is a huge pain in the ass.
- All right, cut, cut, cut...
- NATALIE: Along with
wrangling horses,
Marshall also has to deal
with the bright summer sun.
Director of photography
Charles Minsky
develops the perfect solution.
- In the summer,
it can really be deadly
to be out shooting
outside all the time.
And we thought this
is gonna be a disaster.
And we came up with the
theory of dappled light.
And dappled light meant that we
put up telephone poles around
the Equestrian Center.
And we put up
camouflage netting.
And that allowed the sun to
come through and create shadows
on top of the actors.
And then, uh, we could clean
it up with a little bit of
softening, and we could
shoot all day long.
Didn't matter what
time of day it was.
And the actors would look
great and had a great look.
This was a great opportunity
for us to allow Garry to shoot
whatever he wanted to shoot
for as long as
he wanted to shoot it.
- NATALIE: The sun and the heat
present challenges
to both the cast and the crew.
But it's actually
one of the props
that ends up a casualty
of the elements.
- GARRY: There we go.
- Background and...action!
- When we shot
the polo sequence,
it was a lovely 103-degree day.
And the sun was just killing
everyone and everything.
And the Lotus had
been out all day long,
waiting to be used in a scene.
And, uh, the scene was just
Jason and his wife getting out
with a picnic basket,
if I remember correctly.
His wife gets out of the car.
He slams the door.
She slams the door.
- [glass shattering]
- [gasps]
- SANDY: And the
glass just shatters.
Just goes everywhere.
And then it led to this
hilarious improv of him
blaming her
for wrecking his car.
- I can't believe--
an $85,000 car.
- Can't you just forget
about it for a minute?
Please, Pookie, I made a
little seat for you right here
with some nice, soft grass--
- I swear to god,
I'm gonna kill the guy
that sold me that piece of--
- Cut!
You broke the trunk!
You broke the whole door!
- There was a sniper!
[laughs]
- NATALIE: While it's
spontaneous and funny,
that moment doesn't
end up in the final film.
A last-minute addition to
the cast in the polo scene
is Alex Hyde-White.
- Hi, I'm Alex Hyde-White,
and I play David Morse
in the movie "Pretty Woman."
Who was David Morse?
All right, you--
you remember the guy...
No, no, no.
That was Richard Gere.
He was the guy.
No, that was his lawyer.
No, he slaps her at the end.
No, no, no.
You remember the other guy?
I'm the grandson of the
industrialist, shipbuilder,
and, you know, I have
a little bit of a fight
with Richard Gere
at the restaurant.
And then I have a little
bit of a flirt with, uh,
Miss Roberts in that beautiful
dress at the polo match.
- Garry says, "I need
someone charming.
"I need someone who
would threaten Richard.
"I need someone younger than
Richard who would fall for
"Julia, and Julia
would fall for him.
But Richard would win."
That was the description.
- I was in the final
season of "Newhart,"
playing this character
called Scooter Drake
who lived in New York City.
And he was one of
these, oh, I don't know,
kind of like John Lindsay
kind of characters.
You know, he's not Michael
Douglas in "Wall Street."
He's just--just a guy.
But he's a New York socialite.
- NATALIE: Zuckerman
believes White is perfect,
and asks him to come
in for an audition.
- I get a call from my agent.
Says, "They want to
see you tomorrow."
Disney, Stage Eight,
whatever it was.
They started filming
a few days ago.
And I go, "Oh, okay, cool."
So I go to the set.
And, "Okay, okay, great, cut.
All right, okay, new setup,"
something like that.
And Garry Marshall comes over.
And he says, "Great, hi.
Hi, are you good?
Good, okay."
He's looking like
this, all right?
And then Dori, we do the scene.
I says, "Hi, Vivian.
David Morse.
Hey, I like the hat
Come see my horse."
Whatever it is, right?
And Garry goes, "Would
you dye your hair blond?"
He goes, "I got--everybody's
dark in this movie."
I go, "Yeah."
"And I hear you play polo."
He said, "Hey, great, you're in.
Congratulations.
Uh, you work tomorrow morning."
It was a good job.
I enjoyed it. It was fun.
I got to ride a
beautiful Arabian pony.
- NATALIE: White held on to the
leather boots he wore that day.
- These were, um, custom made.
And they are the polo boots
that David Morse wore
in "Pretty Woman."
- NATALIE: Perhaps one of the
most iconic scenes is when
Edward surprises Vivian
with a trip to the opera.
- PATRICK: The thing I remember
about shooting that scene is
exactly the thing
that everyone remembers
when they watch the movie.
My breath was taken
away by Julia,
the way she had transformed.
- NATALIE: Originally
Disney and Marshall
want the gown to be black.
But Vance convinces
them it should be red.
- She's my princess, in a sense.
She was growing.
She was becoming so much
more than a black gown.
- Well, the red dress
is, like, legendary.
I mean, there was such a
thing about that dress.
For six months after the movie,
I was getting calls at Disney
from high school girls saying,
"Where can I buy the red dress?
I want to wear the
red dress to the prom."
And the depression when I told
them there was only one
red dress, and--and
it was made for Julia.
- GARRY: I was very
frightened of one moment,
with the red dress.
It turns out Julia in her heels
was just slightly
taller than Richard.
And Richard was
not gonna be happy.
So I said, "Richard,
you're not happy?"
"No, she's--look how tall!"
I said, "We do honesty here.
Why don't we say that line?"
"What--"
- That was my idea!
Why are you taking
credit for that?
That was my line!
- No, and he came up--I said,
"Think of what
you honestly feel."
He said the line.
He said, "You look
beautiful and very tall."
- NATALIE: At one point
while filming the scene,
Marshall notices his leading
lady is a bit low energy.
So he devises a plan."
- RICHARD: I have a box.
It's just fabulous.
I'm in my tuxedo.
She's in the red dress.
So I open the box, and
she goes, "Oh! Wonderful."
So we did, like,
three or four takes.
"Oh, it's wonderful."
She's so excited.
Garry says, "Snap it as
soon as she reaches it."
- Yes. She was, uh,
out late one night.
So she was there, but I figured
snap it, we'll--we'll do a--
I do gag reel stuff.
So he snapped it.
- Whoa! [laughs]
- But she laughed so well
that people said
leave it in the movie.
- RICHARD: We both
laughed so much.
It was just--it was one
of the charming moments.
- Whoo! She laughed.
She didn't know that
was gonna happen.
She didn't know he
was gonna do that.
But he did it, and she's such
a terrific--and her acting is
so good, she didn't
break character.
- If you watch
the movie closely,
there's a beat where
Julia actually
not only lets loose
with her big laugh,
she glances over at us
watching it being shot,
because there had been
tons of practical jokes
up to that point.
And so there was this moment of,
like, is this a practical joke?
Is this for real?
- I mean, we couldn't have
asked for a better reaction.
Her reaction was so perfect,
and--and her laughter was
so genuine and real, that even
though we shot it as a gag,
kept it in the movie.
- It's so honest.
It's so who she is.
That sort of unbridled laughter
was happening off screen
all the time.
That's who she is.
- It's magic. It is magic.
And so we were lucky
enough to capture it.
Star-making moment, absolutely.
- NATALIE: By the fall of 1989,
the shoot is nearly over.
Marshall has just one scene
left to figure out--the ending.
- ♪
- [clack]
- So this is the original
marker from "Pretty Woman."
Yeah, my dad always kept it.
[laughs]
- NATALIE: The bulk of the
movie that would soon be titled
"Pretty Woman" has been filmed.
Director Garry Marshall
faces one last challenge.
- He wasn't sure
about the ending.
What was the ending gonna be?
And how were they gonna connect?
We're trying to figure
out how it would work.
He shot it, and I think he did
two or three takes of the limo
pulling up, Richard pops out,
Julia comes out of the window.
And the crew was kind of
rolling their eyes a little.
It wasn't feeling like
it was really working.
And so I think he said,
"Play the opera music.
Can we play the music
while he pulls up?"
So they play the music.
And the thing pulls up, and
there was a security guard
who just got there.
Like, they changed shifts.
So there was a new security
guard standing there.
And he was watching the scene
with the opera music playing,
the limo pulling up.
And Garry said, "Cut! Great!"
And he looked at
the security guard.
And he had a tear in his eye.
He was like, "What? You okay?"
He's like, "That was really
beautiful, Mr. Marshall."
Like, the security guard,
just random guy on the street.
And said that's when
he knew he had an ending.
- After we were shooting
it a couple of hours,
we didn't notice
this in advance,
but the sun on the building
created these slats
from the fire escape.
So it was only there
in some of the shots.
So after we finished the
scene and we saw the dailies,
we noticed that
some of the close-ups
had slats and
some of them didn't.
So we had to go back a few weeks
later and reshoot the ending.
- KATE: I love that at
the end of the movie,
you can see that she's deciding
what kind of person
she wants to be from now on.
And I think even though, yeah,
the movie has this happy ending,
where the guy and the
girl get together,
you also have a sense
that Vivian's entire life
has been changed for the better,
and that she's the one
who's making these decisions.
- NATALIE: When filming
wraps in October of 1989,
focus shifts to editing.
- PRISCILLA: Our first
cut on the movie,
I think it was close
to three hours.
And the movie ended up being
a little less than two hours.
So you can imagine how
much we had to trim down.
We had tons of montage footage
of Julia and Richard
that we didn't end up using.
We had them, you know, walking
through parks together,
riding horses together
on the day
that she tells him
to take the day off.
- NATALIE: No one is spared.
Not even Marshall's own son.
- SCOTT: I had a big scene where
Vivian brings Edward to meet
her friends at The Blue Banana,
and we're the tough guys.
And I had a skateboard with a
switchblade that came out of it.
The prop guy made it.
It was the coolest
thing of all time.
But it was a great scene, and
it just got completely cut out.
- HECTOR: We had one
wonderful scene
that unfortunately was cut.
- NATALIE: Must have pained you!
- HECTOR: A little bit,
'cause it was a moment.
It was a sweet moment
that said a lot about the--
their relationship--
- So what was the scene?
- HECTOR: Oh, it was simple.
Uh, it's near the end, where
she's got herself together
and she's--she's on the
way, and he senses it.
And she starts walking away.
And I say to myself,
"Kick ass, Miss Vivian."
Beautiful moment.
Gorgeous moment.
- NATALIE: When it comes to
piecing together multiple takes,
Marshall has one rule.
- He had this famous saying.
He used to say,
"Matching is for sissies."
- "Matching is for sissies."
If it doesn't match, if
the--the performance is there,
always go with the performance.
- Garry never looked at
them as being errors.
To him, it was always
about the best performance.
One of the most famous ones,
when they're in the penthouse
the morning that
they're eating breakfast,
she's eating a croissant
through most of the scene.
And then all of a sudden,
she has a pancake in her hand.
- And he knew. Garry knew.
But it was the
better line reading.
- It was their look at
each other in that take
that he wanted, and
the way that she said it.
And he thought that
made the story.
- ELLEN: When he takes
a day off of work
and we did a whole montage,
they're laying in the grass,
and Julia takes off
Richard's shoes and socks.
And then the next cut, Richard
has his shoes and socks back on.
- I mean, unless
something is glaring,
you don't notice it so much.
He cared most about the comedy.
He cared most about
the timing of the scene.
And to hell with the matching.
It just didn't
really matter to him.
- NATALIE: In November 1989,
Julia Roberts's big film,
"Steel Magnolias," is released.
Its all-star ensemble cast,
including the then-relatively
little known Roberts,
are a hit with critics.
Roberts earns an
Academy Award nomination
for Best Supporting Actress,
and takes home the Golden Globe.
- I'm just--I'm happy with this.
This is nice.
Yeah, I think it'll take me
a while to get over this.
- PRISCILLA: Two days
later, she was with us,
coming in and doing
extra dialogue.
She put on her headphones
to start doing the work.
And Garry had put
in the headphones,
"And the winner is...
Julia Roberts from
'Steel Magnolias'!"
She was supposed to hear
the line preceding her line
so she would be able
to perform the scene.
She started screaming.
She was like, "What? Aah!"
And with a huge laugh.
I mean, it just--it--
it brought--we screamed.
Everybody thought it
was the greatest thing.
It was so perfect that he played
this trick on her, 'cause it was
such an exciting moment for her.
And he took advantage
of it and twisted it.
- NATALIE: At this point,
the film is still called
"Three Thousand."
- My dad always said, "You
can't call it Three Thousand.
It sounds like it's about
hookers on the moon."
- ELLEN: Disney wanted a
song that could be the title.
And they put together a list.
And "Pretty Woman" was--was on
that list, the Roy Orbison song.
And it was just perfect.
We couldn't have asked
for a better title.
- [sings the intro
of "Pretty Woman"]
- [intro of
"Pretty Woman" plays]
- NATALIE: The title is set.
But putting the song in the
middle of the film is editor
Priscilla Nedd Friendly's idea.
- Well, I suggested it.
The logical thing to do with it
is to put it in the opening
credits or the end credits,
'cause it's the '80s, and
that's what every movie did.
That's where you had it.
"Pretty Woman" had
to be in the middle,
for that shopping montage.
It just--nothing was
ever gonna beat that.
you have this tall gazelle
that's gorgeous
with a big smile and a big hat
strolling down Rodeo Drive,
and then taking over
the lobby of the hotel.
It's just so priceless.
- ELLEN: Garry spent 10 weeks
doing assembly, his cut.
He called about five
or six of us to Disney.
And we went into a screening
room, and we watched it.
And it was...
there was absolute silence
after the movie's over,
because it--it took, like, a
minute and two for people to
take in, because it was beyond
our wildest expectations.
It was such a great movie.
- I remember after
the screening,
when the lights came
up, I was in shock,
because I had gone to
see a lot of the dailies.
But I really had no idea of
the assemblance of this film.
Priscilla Nedd did
an incredible job.
- When I saw the finished
film, I was knocked out.
I was actually flabbergasted.
It was, ah, amazingly
funny, charming.
It looked beautiful.
- I loved it.
I mean, I am loving
every minute.
I just fell in love
with both of them.
- NATALIE:
On March 23, 1990,
"Pretty Woman"
opens in theaters.
It goes on to earn
$463 million worldwide.
- I don't think there
was any expectation.
I think that we were one
of many Touchstone movies
that were being made.
The budget was
under $20 million.
And so--I mean, look,
it wasn't $3 million.
But at the same time, um,
I think they were hoping
that the movie would do
business.
- KATE: I think the fact that
Julia Roberts is so appealing,
and lovable, and winning in it--
even though the critics were
a little bit mixed
about the film,
audiences loved it right away.
- ALEX: When it was
released, it did well.
But then it kept doing well.
Several--like, I don't
know, 40 weeks or something.
- PRISCILLA: One of the
producers, Steve Reuther,
was kind of the
money guy, you know?
He would call me and he'd say,
"Priscilla, do ya know
what we did this weekend?"
I go, "No."
"We made another $10 million!"
[laughs] "We made
another $20 million!"
I mean, every Monday morning,
I had a phone call from him.
- It was pretty exciting,
because we didn't expect it.
We made this movie.
We had a few laughs on the set.
- Cross your legs. One more.
- [laughter]
- We'll go again.
We thought it was charming.
But we did not expect it to
be the success that it was.
- To say that we knew that
the movie was gonna be a hit,
I don't think so.
I don't think anybody knew.
- GARY: No one was more
surprised than I was.
The box office increased.
Word-of-mouth was the best
friend this film ever had.
And that was just a reflection
of how people in America
felt about the movie.
The film became an experience.
It became part of
relationship-building,
mothers and daughters,
families going to see it.
Certainly couples.
- It kind of was a big surprise,
because it never started off
to be a huge movie.
And then it just was wildfire.
Everybody had to see it.
Everybody was telling
everybody and talking about it.
And everywhere you went,
people were talking
about "Pretty Woman."
That was it.
It was just Pretty Woman,
Pretty Woman.
- NARRATOR: Worldwide, "Pretty
Woman" becomes the third
highest-grossing film of 1990,
behind "Home Alone" and "Ghost,"
and catapults Roberts
to Hollywood royalty.
- OWEN: I would have considered
Julia Roberts
a star on the rise.
But I don't think
anyone guessed,
going into "Pretty Woman," that
she was going to totally pop
on screen the way that she did,
because we hadn't had
a female movie star pop
like that in a long time.
- I ran into her right after
"Pretty Woman" had opened.
And she turned to
me and she said,
"I was in 'Pretty
Woman' with you."
And I said, "Yeah. Yeah, no,
I was in 'Pretty Woman'
with you."
- I wasn't necessarily surprised
that it became a big hit.
But what it took me
some time to realize
was that this was not
just an ordinary hit.
This was a movie that
had struck a chord.
- KATE: Vivian goes through a
huge change and really becomes
an evolved woman who's
in control of herself
and her destiny in
a way that we don't see
in a ton of movies these days.
- I think young women
saw this movie
and saw a new way to be,
a new possibility, a new
way that what we think of
as princess culture could come
together with feminist culture
in a way that wasn't
a contradiction.
- NATALIE: As with any
mega Hollywood hit,
talks of a sequel swirl.
- There was an enormous...
pressure, or consensus,
that there must be a sequel.
Anything that does
that well, right?
It's just business.
- People talked about
that to us.
I think that it kind of
appealed to Garry sometimes.
And I think that
one person had a story
that sort of appealed
to Richard.
But, um, it always seemed
like a really bad idea to me.
- The ideas that were
circulated were...abysmal.
Like, embarrassing.
I was always of the opinion
that some things in life,
like a great novel,
should just be left alone
to be what it is.
- NATALIE: Ten years
later, however,
Roberts and Gere would
reunite with Marshall.
And the legacy of "Pretty Woman"
lives on, but not as a sequel.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Ten years
after "Pretty Woman,"
director Garry Marshall
reunites stars Richard Gere
and Julia Roberts, along with
Hector Elizondo, Larry Miller,
Patrick Richwood, and Garry's
children, Scott and Kathleen,
for another romantic comedy
called "Runaway Bride."
- It is not "Pretty Woman 2,"
but it really is
just teaming up
the two of you again,
and Garry Marshall as well.
Are you happy with it?
- Well, I haven't seen it.
Um, but we sure had a
lot of fun making it.
- Was it like the old days?
Or...
- Well, no, because the
difference between being 20
and being 30 is vast.
I'm like a different person now.
And it was nice
because we had, um,
some of the same cast that
we had in "Pretty Woman,"
came in and did things for us.
- Was there the same
chemistry there?
- Yes.
Same, but different.
[laughs] You know,
we were all different.
She was now an established star.
And, uh, the chemistry between
them was different, you know?
- NATALIE: With Julia Roberts
and Richard Gere now bona fide
Hollywood heavyweights,
on July 30, 1999,
"Runaway Bride" gets the big
celebrity red carpet premiere
that "Pretty Woman" never had.
- WOMAN: Is it very different
from "Pretty Woman"?
Or is it something entirely--
- "Runaway Bride"
is very different.
Their--their--their--and,
uh, their rapport and the--
you know, it's very romantic,
"Runaway Bride."
It's just that "Pretty Woman"
didn't have a wedding.
We made up for it.
- That was terrific,
to come back like that.
It was, um--it was--it was
quite emotional, sometime,
especially in the beginning.
We'd say, "Here we are again.
Here we are again."
- PATRICK: On "Runaway Bride,"
it was more just
a bunch of laughs, frankly.
It was really more like the--
now we're just having fun.
- It was like time
had stopped still.
The shorthand that
we had developed
during "Pretty Woman"
still existed.
- It was fun.
It was fun to, um,
share memories and
be back together again.
- NATALIE: The film
even includes a nod
to "Pretty Woman."
- ELLEN: One of the things
that Garry does is
we like to do a lot of montages
on the movie still.
Like on "Pretty Woman," when
we shot the polo scene at
the Equestrian Center, we did
a piece for the love montage
of Richard and Julia
riding horseback.
We never really--it didn't
make it into the love montage.
So then when we shot "Runaway
Bride," we did a love montage.
And we had them
riding horses again,
similar to what we
did in "Pretty Woman."
And that made it
into "Runaway Bride."
- NATALIE: As the years go by,
"Pretty Woman" continues to be
beloved by audiences
around the globe.
And Marshall sees this as
an opportunity to fulfill
a lifelong goal.
- His real dream was
to be on Broadway,
'cause he grew up in the
Bronx, going to Broadway shows,
live theater.
Never conquered Broadway.
Conquered sitcom.
Conquered movies.
The movie struck such a chord,
he thought he could
translate that to Broadway.
- He thought that "Pretty Woman"
was a good piece to do that with
and bring it back to
the Broadway stage.
Edward and Vivian are so beloved
that people wanted
to see them again.
- NATALIE: Marshall reunites
with the original screenwriter,
Jonathan Lawton,
and production begins.
But in July 2016,
there's devastating news.
- Tonight, Hollywood is mourning
the loss of a legend behind
some of the biggest hits
on screens big and small.
Garry Marshall made us laugh and
cry for decades as a producer,
director, writer, and actor.
He passed away of complications
from pneumonia
after having a stroke.
- The loss of Garry Marshall
is--is--is much bigger than just
your personal
feelings toward him.
Losing him was almost more than
the loss of an individual that
you held in the highest esteem.
It was, um--it was sad.
It was really deeply sad.
- I was completely devastated.
It was awful.
What it's done to the industry,
there is nobody like Garry.
He was a one-of-a-kind person.
- I had a very, very close
relationship with Garry.
We did, you know,
11 films together.
He made so many people
laugh over the years,
and so many people happy.
And Garry was so full of life.
He had a amazing way about him.
And it's just hard to believe
that he's not here anymore.
- NATALIE: The moment
you heard he passed--
- Hmm.
- --tell me about that.
- Can't go there.
- Still hard.
- Yup. I miss him very much.
- NATALIE: With Marshall gone,
those working on
the Broadway version
remained committed
to seeing it through.
- Getting something to the
stage is always challenging.
How do you take something that
has many different locations?
You go from Hollywood
Boulevard to Rodeo Drive.
You go to the
Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
You go to the opera.
How do you put
all of this together
in one location, a stage?
- NATALIE: Singer Bryan Adams
and his partner, Jim Vallance,
sign on to do the music.
- I think Bryan Adams was
obviously the perfect choice.
His music lived in an era
that that movie was created.
And he really knows
his phrasing and style.
And he writes big,
romantic power ballads.
- NATALIE: Samantha Barks
and Andy Karl
are cast as Vivian and Edward.
And New York native Orfeh
earns the role of Kit.
- I think we had a certain
similarity as far as, you know,
the body language and,
you know, we talk like this,
and we're both kind of,
you know, street-y, kind of,
you know, urban
chicks, you know.
I think both Italian,
that helps, you know?
- NATALIE: On August 16,
2018, the show opens at
the Nederlander Theater
in New York City.
- PAULA: I think Garry Marshall
would have been thrilled.
And the theater,
we set aside a chair,
the Garry Marshall chair,
for Garry.
And, uh, I know
he would have been
absolutely mesmerized by
seeing this come to life
in such a beautiful way.
- Oh, god, he would've been--
"This is fantastic!
You're all fantastic!"
That's what I can
hear him saying it.
- We had to keep things
that the audience loved.
You had to have your favorite
lines, your favorite moments.
- We had the ultimate Kit line
in there, "Cinder-hmm-rella."
I did the bleep for you.
You had to have
"Big mistake. Big, huge."
That's not my line.
But, you know,
"Take care of you."
We said that a lot.
Again, couldn't do
it without that line.
- What's similar is, uh,
a lot of the, uh, you know,
the beauty of the movie.
We tried to bring to the stage,
uh, beautiful dresses, hair.
Everybody had great hair.
- MAN: Julia!
- NATALIE: One night,
the cast and crew
get a huge surprise
when Julia Roberts
comes to the show.
- MAN: Julia, look at us!
Over here!
- We were so excited
that she was there.
You know, it's--it's not often
that the major mega A-list
uber movie star
comes to the musicals
that they originated
the roles in the film for.
And so we were all--the
whole place was buzzing.
And you could see her instantly,
because she's literally
a radiant beam of light.
- She came and spoke to us
after the show, uh, for a while,
and took a moment with
each and every one of us.
- ORFEH: She went to every
single person in the cast
and held their, you know,
hands and stared at them,
and said something wonderful.
She really took
the entire show in.
- KATHLEEN: It was obviously
a huge deal for the cast, um,
to meet her.
And she was lovely.
And--and you know what?
I think it's an important
piece of her history, too.
- NATALIE: After running
on Broadway for a year,
"Pretty Woman: The Musical"
goes on tour.
- This show really
transcends language
and different cultures.
It's so basic.
And so it translates
beautifully all over the world.
- NATALIE: The
characters, the story,
and the memorable moments
are etched in pop culture.
And for those who were
involved in the film,
its lasting impact
is inescapable.
- I hear "Pretty Woman"
more than any other movie.
And I kind of go,
"Another decade?
Anything a little closer?"
And they go, "Oh, no,
that's the one for me.
I sit with my mother.
We watch that all the time."
- You know what their
favorite movie is?
"Pretty Woman."
Everybody wants to talk to you
about that movie all the time.
- We just brought it up here.
One of the people you work with.
It does come up.
There's probably not a day,
wherever I am on the planet.
- WOMAN: And you've
made peace with that?
- RICHARD: Well, yeah.
I like the movie, too.
We had a wonderful
time making it.
- Tell the cave story.
- [laughter]
- What's the cave story?
I don't know.
- Oh, wait, I remember a story.
It wasn't a cave.
It was a far, faraway place.
- It was in Papua New Guinea.
No, it wasn't.
It was in Borneo. In Borneo.
They got bones in their
ears, bones in here.
I've taken a missionary flight.
I'm in the middle of nowhere.
Nowhere.
And I get in this boat, and they
take me down to the longhouse.
And we pull up on shore.
And they start with,
"'Pretty Woman' man!
'Pretty Woman' man!"
They've never seen a movie
in their entire life.
But they know "Pretty Woman."
- I'll be telling stories
about "Pretty Woman" far more
as the years go by
than I will about
any of the other movies
that he made that I was in.
- I was telling my friends
that I was coming here today.
And they said, "Where
is the interview at?"
And I said, "The
Beverly Wilshire."
And they all said,
"Reg Bev Wil."
I mean, that was a
big quote of the movie.
- I don't think anyone
could have imagined
what sort of an impact it had.
And, you know, 30 years on, to
still have people coming into
the hotel, talking about it,
having a dream, having a vision,
wanting to learn more,
wanting to see more,
wanting to experience
more, um, you know.
Even to this day, it's on
a lot of people's bucket lists
to be able to come
over here, and visit,
and stay at the
Beverly Wilshire.
- Even though the
Regent Beverly Wilshire
is now just
the Beverly Wilshire,
the hotel's really embraced
the legacy of the film.
There's a "Pretty Woman"
experience,
where you can go and you
can sort of live like Vivian,
stay in one of their rooms.
It's great.
- Everywhere I go on the planet,
people recognize me
from that film.
They say, "Oh my
god, you're that guy!
You're the guy in the elevator!"
[laughs] And
sometimes they go...
from across the room.
[laughs]
- Movies...over
the last 100 years
have shown us the way to be.
Uh, they've shown us
how we wanna look,
how we wanna present ourselves.
And they've shown us, in
a way, how to fall in love.
And "Pretty Woman"
continued the tradition.
- To this day, and we're talking
about 30 years since the movie
came out, I cannot go to meet
a director, or a producer,
or an executive, whoever
it is that I'm meeting,
to talk about doing a new film
without talking about
"Pretty Woman."
It was a gift.
- I've had a--a big career,
where I've worked a lot
and had large roles in, um--
on television shows, in series.
And this is probably one
of my most memorable roles.
People love this movie.
They remember this part.
- ALEX: It's very hard
to explain
being a small part,
yet an integral part
of something like that.
You know, at the time,
it was a small part.
And as the years go by, that
part's not so small anymore.
The whole film
has become so big.
- It's one of those movies
where if it's on TV,
and I'm flipping the
channels, and I see it,
I have to stop and
watch the whole thing.
I'm not going anywhere.
I'm not changing the channel.
- I've been blessed to do
some other films
that did really well.
Hands down this is the film
most people want to talk about.
- SCOTT: I mean,
for years it was always
Garry "Happy Days" Marshall.
And then it switched to
Garry "Pretty Woman" Marshall.
I mean, there was "Princess
Diaries" and "Valentine's Day."
He had other hits.
But there was none that
struck a chord like
"Pretty Woman" did.
I think he'd be really happy
that "Pretty Woman" the movie
is still in people's minds.
The success of the movie
and the lasting quality
of it thrilled him,
and it enabled him
to do so much more
with his life and his career.
- KATHLEEN: You know, he wanted
to just be remembered for
bringing laughter,
and making people happy
and laugh, and joyous.
And I think that's what he did.
I think "Pretty Woman: The
Musical" and "Pretty Woman"
the movie live on today and
bring a lot of joy to the world.
And that's what he would
have wanted to last.