'Sexy' piano scene in 'Pretty Woman' was not in script!
Hollywood actor Richard Gere recently celebrated his 75th birthday at the Venice Film Festival. During a masterclass hosted by Cartier, he shared some behind-the-scenes details about the shooting of his 1990 hit movie Pretty Woman. The film, which starred Gere and Julia Roberts, was a commercial success and is still remembered for its iconic moments, including a steamy piano scene between the two lead characters.
'It was a sexy, sexy scene...'
When shown a clip of the famous piano scene from Pretty Woman, Gere laughed and blushed. He then joked about the lack of chemistry between him and Roberts in the particular scene. "No chemistry," he said, adding, "I mean, this actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them...I haven't seen that in a long time, too. It was a sexy, sexy scene."
Gere revealed the piano scene was improvised
Gere also revealed the piano scene wasn't originally part of the script and was improvised. He explained that the idea came up when the director (Garry Marshall) asked him, "'What do you do late at night in a hotel?' And I said, 'Well, I'm usually jet lagged...So I'm up all night and usually there's a ballroom somewhere or a bar, and I'll find a piano and I'll play the piano,'" Gere recalled. "He said: 'Well, let's do something with that.'"
The scene added depth to the plot
The piano scene in Pretty Woman is considered a turning point in the film as it reveals a different side of Gere's character, Edward, a wealthy businessman. This allows Roberts's character, Vivian—a sex worker—to see him in a new light. Gere believes this scene was integral to the film as it showed "a mysterious yearning and maybe a damaged quality to this guy that she didn't know."
'We didn't know if anyone would ever see this...'
Pretty Woman was produced on a reported budget of $14M and went on to gross a staggering $463.4M worldwide. "We were having fun making this. The whole time we made the movie, we didn't know if anyone would ever see this," Gere said. The actor also quipped that his character was "criminally underwritten. It was basically a suit and a good haircut." Interestingly, the movie earned Roberts a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination.
