Julia Roberts Doesn't Think Pretty Woman Would Be Made Nowadays

She reckons the film wouldn't stand up in 2019

By Anna Bonet
Mar 18, 2019
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Pretty Woman might be one of the rom-com classics, but there are a number of things in the storyline that don't translate well to 2019. Even Julia Roberts thinks so.

In an interview with The Guardian, Roberts said "I don’t really think you could make that movie now, right? So many things you could poke a hole in".

However, she added that "I don’t think it takes away from people being able to enjoy it.”

Pretty Woman was released in 1990, and tells the story of a prostitute (Roberts) who is 'saved' by a rich businessman (Richard Gere) and they fall in love and live happily ever after.

The film has been hugely criticised in the past for its very un-feminist storyline. Eight other actresses turned the role down before Julia Roberts accepted the part, including Daryl Hannah who, in 2007, said about the film:

"They sold it as a romantic fairytale when in fact it's a story about a prostitute who becomes a lady by being kept by a rich and powerful man. I think that film is degrading for the whole of womankind."

Still, Pretty Woman was undoubtedly a career-igniting film for Robers. After its box-office success, a number of other big movies came her way, although she almost turned down the role in Notting Hill.

"I did not want to do that movie," Roberts told The Guardian. "The pitch of it sounds awful, right? Do you want to come and play the world’s biggest movie star and then fall in love with the bookshop owner? No!"

She changed her mind when she met the film-makers, thinking "What the hell?". She's pleased about that one, though, as "it’s this great little jewel of a movie."

Credit: Cosmopolitan

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