‘Pretty Woman’: Secrets From the Set of the 1990 Film, Including Which Iconic Scene Was Improvised

Big mistake! Big. Huge! Richard Gere almost passed on Pretty Woman until, during a meeting with Julia Roberts, the actress slipped him a Post-It note that read, “Please say yes.”

The iconic 1990 rom-com, about a businessman named Edward who hires an escort, Vivian, to pretend to be his girlfriend, went on to make more than $460 million at the box office and earn Julia her very first Oscar nom.

“We were having fun making this little tiny movie,” Richard, 75, told the crowd at a Venice International Film Festival masterclass on September 1. “[But] we didn’t know if anyone would ever see this little tiny movie.”

During the discussion, the actor also revealed that the flick’s steamy piano scene was improvised. “This was never in the script,” he said. “We didn’t know how we’d use it later, [but] it ended up being integral to the film.”

Though it’s been a while since Richard’s seen the clip of Julia, 56, and himself getting hot and heavy atop a piano, even he couldn’t deny how “sexy, sexy” a scene it was.

“[We had] no chemistry,” he joked. “I mean, this actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them!”