Julia Roberts Reflects on Pretty Woman and Why the Film Feels Different Today

Julia Roberts is taking a thoughtful look back at Pretty Woman and how the iconic romantic comedy might be viewed by modern audiences.

In a Jan. 6 interview with Deadline, the actress, now 58, was asked whether she would make Pretty Woman again today. Her answer was honest and reflective. Roberts said it would be “impossible,” explaining that she has lived too much life since then to play the role in the same way.

“I have too many years of the weight of the world inside of me now,” she said, adding that life experience makes it harder to play someone with the kind of innocence she brought to the character decades ago. While she acknowledged the irony of describing a sex worker as “innocent,” Roberts said her character Vivian did have a genuine naivety that came from being young.

Released in 1990, Pretty Woman starred Roberts as Vivian, a sex worker hired by wealthy businessman Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, to be his escort for a week. The two characters eventually fall in love, turning the film into a modern fairytale. The movie marked a major turning point in Roberts’ career and celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2025.

During the interview, Deadline noted that many viewers today no longer see Pretty Woman as a simple, charming fairytale. Roberts agreed that changing cultural values play a big role in how older films are judged.

“I think anytime you have a huge passage of time and cultural shifts,” she said, perspectives are bound to change. She compared the film to classics from earlier decades that can now feel uncomfortable to watch. As an example, she mentioned Gone With the Wind, a movie often reexamined through a modern lens.

Roberts explained that this kind of reassessment is natural. “Times change, people change, ideas change,” she said, adding that audiences and artists alike must decide how they engage with older works.

Pretty Woman was Roberts’ breakout role and earned her an Academy Award nomination. She also received an Oscar nod for Steel Magnolias the year before. In 1999, she reunited with Gere for Runaway Bride, another romantic comedy directed by Garry Marshall.

Roberts has also spoken about how close Pretty Woman came to being a very different movie. In a 2019 interview with Variety, she recalled the film’s original, much darker version, which was titled 3,000. Actress Patricia Arquette revealed she had auditioned for that version and described its ending as “really heavy.”

Roberts remembered that in the original script, her character was thrown out of a car, money tossed at her, and left alone in a dirty alley. She had actually been cast in that version, but the small production company behind it collapsed almost immediately.

Disney later picked up the project and brought in Marshall as director. Roberts said Marshall, known for his kindness, met with her out of fairness after she briefly had the role and lost it. The script was then completely reworked into the romantic comedy audiences know today.

Looking back, Roberts is grateful for how things turned out. “Thank God it fell apart,” she said of the original version, noting that the final film was far more suited to her and ultimately changed her life.