Pretty Woman is one of those magical films that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, still makes me stop and watch whenever it happens to be on TV or pops up on a streaming service.
But there’s a detail that not everyone knows about: the film has several deleted scenes that very few people have ever seen. And the most surprising thing? Almost everyone who watches them ends up saying the same thing…
Pretty Woman is one of those films that only gets better with age. And, to be honest, the older I get, the more classic and charming Richard Gere’s character seems — and yes, I’m saying this as a straight guy!
The film’s fairy-tale romance and the incredible chemistry between Julia Roberts as Vivian and Richard Gere as Edward continue to keep audiences glued to their screens, no matter how many times they rewatch this story.
Yuppie sociopath
Originally, the script for Pretty Woman was much darker and bore little resemblance to the light-hearted romantic comedy that later charmed the whole world. The first draft of the script was called 3,000 and was written by the then little-known screenwriter J. F. Lawton.
He had been trying to break into the film industry with scripts about ninjas and comedies, but they hadn’t attracted much interest. Later, he changed direction and wrote Red Sneakers — a serious story about a one-legged lesbian comedian — and it was this script that unexpectedly caught people’s attention.
That’s how the idea for 3,000 came about—a harsher take on America’s financial woes and the dangers of portraying a glamorous lifestyle to those who have never had access to it.
In the first, far harsher version, Kit, Vivian’s caustic neighbour, was portrayed as a hardened drug addict constantly on the verge of an overdose, whilst Vivian herself was also depicted as a girl with an addiction.
Echoes of this backstory can still be spotted in the film we know: for example, when Edward tells Vivian to ‘stop fidgeting’, it seems to allude to her past struggles. In the original script, Edward was something of a yuppie sociopath in the vein of James Spader’s characters — a cold, aloof man who never saw Vivian as anything more than a fleeting diversion or a plaything for a bored rich man.
By the way, did you know that Disney executives originally wanted Sean Connery and Meg Ryan in the lead roles?
Roberts turned down the original script
Julia Roberts admitted that she would never have agreed to play the role from the original version of ‘3,000’ — not even now.
“I couldn’t have done it then, and I couldn’t do it now,” said Roberts. “Thank God it all fell through.”
Turning Pretty Woman into a romantic comedy proved to be a brilliant decision, helping the film to appeal to a much wider audience. And yet, whilst most agree that the producers’ decision to cut the darkest scenes benefited the film, some fans still regret that certain deleted moments never made it into the final cut.
The director’s cut enriches the story with additional dialogue and scenes that provide more context and depth to the characters’ development. One such moment is an extended version of Edward and Vivian’s first meeting, adding new nuances to their initial chemistry. There is also a tense scene with Carlos, a menacing pimp who is hounding Vivian to collect the money Kit owes him.
These scenes did not make it into the final cut, but they offer a slightly better glimpse into Vivian’s life beyond her relationship with Edward. Had they been kept, the story might have felt more balanced, and the heroine herself — like the film as a whole — would have gained additional depth.
One such scene shows Julia Roberts and Richard Gere riding horses together, adding more colour and depth to the character of Vivian and her world. Another intriguing moment that many would like to see restored to the film offers a glimpse into Vivian’s life beyond her interactions with Edward, lending the story greater symmetry and a touch of My Fair Lady.
Personally, I really love how the film Pretty Woman turned out. If they’d kept the more gritty, ‘realistic’ scenes in, I think they might have ruined the very magical atmosphere that makes this film so special. Fairy tales are meant to be a little polished, a little dreamy — that’s exactly what works here. Rougher scenes, like the conversation outside the club, simply didn’t fit with the film’s gentle, whimsical mood.
Family-friendly version
In the TV version of Cinderella, several iconic lines were given a more family-friendly tone! For example, when Kit tries to cheer Vivian up, instead of her usual ‘Cinde-f**kin’-rella’, she simply says ‘Cinderella’.
What’s more, this scene wasn’t just re-dubbed — it was re-shot so that the lip-syncing matched the new line. And what about the famous line: ‘Fifty quid, grandad. For seventy-five, my wife can have a look’?
In the TV version, commenting on a woman’s dress, Kit says: ‘My granny had exactly the same curtains.’