The Julia Roberts character audiences hated at first sight: “They wanted her dead”
Julia Roberts has long been one of Hollywood’s premium rom-com stars, first cementing herself as one of the genre’s finest leads when she appeared in Pretty Woman. The character might have played into the ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ stereotype, but that didn’t stop it from being an incredible success.
The actor had already earned an Oscar nomination for 1989’s Steel Magnolias, but Pretty Woman was her true big break, and while she has appeared in many genres throughout the years, her rom-com roles have always stood out. I mean, who can forget her turn as the movie star Anna Scott in Notting Hill or her reunion with Richard Gere in Runaway Bride?
In 1997, she teamed up with Muriel’s Wedding director PJ Hogan for My Best Friend’s Wedding (sensing a theme here) to play Julianne, a slightly hopeless excuse for a friend who decides to sabotage her best friend’s marriage to a much younger woman when she suddenly realises that she’s in love with him. Her character is frustrating, because if she was that bothered, surely she would’ve made an effort to be with him before he decided to get married, but the movie acknowledges her flawed nature.
In fact, Hogan was worried that people wouldn’t understand Julianne’s side at all, because attempting to sabotage the wedding of someone you love is pretty ruthless. According to Entertainment Weekly, early test screenings of the film had a different ending, with Julianne meeting another man after accepting that her best friend was going to marry his fiancée after all. This happy ending would allow her to find romance in someone else – specifically a man played by John Corbett – but audiences weren’t impressed.
“They wanted her dead,” Hogan explained to Entertainment Weekly, “They just couldn’t understand her motives.” The studio needed audiences to empathise with the character to a certain degree and allow her to have a happy ending – what’s a Hollywood rom-com without one?
“They were very nervous because we were making a Julia Roberts film and they couldn’t have her end up alone and unhappy. So we had to come up with something that pleased the studio, but that was acceptable to the audience,” the director continued.
So, the solution came from expanding Rupert Everett’s character George, her gay friend whom Julianne pretends to be engaged to, to help make Julianne’s motives a little more understandable. “We expanded his character. Every time Julianne talked to him, she’d explain why she was doing these terrible things; he’s her conscience throughout. Whenever she was being particularly devious I’d have her phone Rupert’s character and he would call her out on it.”
This did the trick, and My Best Friend’s Wedding, which also starred Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney, became incredibly successful – people didn’t leave the theatre hating Roberts’ character, and order was restored.
Grossing $299.3 million, the movie only furthered Roberts’ star power and proved that she really was one of the most vital leading actors that Hollywood had to offer.
