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Julia Roberts Says She Wouldn’t Play ‘Pretty Woman’ Today

She cites cultural shifts that reshape how audiences view the 1990 hit.

Overview

  • In a Deadline interview published Jan. 6, Roberts said it would be “impossible” now because she carries “too many years of the weight of the world.”
  • She explained she could no longer capture the character’s youthful innocence, calling that “a funny thing to say about a hooker.”
  • Roberts pointed to a “huge passage of time” and changing norms that alter how the film is interpreted decades later.
  • Coverage revisited the project’s origins as a grittier script titled 3,000 before Disney stayed with it and Garry Marshall reshaped it into a romantic comedy.
  • Pretty Woman starred Roberts as Vivian, a sex worker, opposite Richard Gere as businessman Edward Lewis.