“What the hell was I thinking?”: Burt Reynolds on turning down the Richard Gere role in ‘Pretty Woman’
The legendary Hollywood heartthrob Burt Reynolds was once such an enormous star that he was ranked the number one box office draw between 1978 and 1982. The hirsute screen idol was best known for roles in Deliverance, The Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit, and Boogie Nights – but over the years, he became almost as well known for the iconic parts he turned down. In fact, Reynolds claimed in his autobiography that his batch of missed opportunities would better just about every other leading man in the business. For example, he once said he was an idiot for declining the lead role in a film that became the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time upon release.
In the ’80s, a young writer called JF Lawton wrote a dark screenplay about sex work in Los Angeles entitled 3000. By the time the script got into the hands of Touchstone Pictures and producer Laura Ziskin, though, it began to morph into a romantic comedy about an escort and a high-class corporate businessman who hires her to accompany him to functions. Touchstone feared the title sounded too much like a science-fiction film, so 3000 became Pretty Woman, and a phenomenon was born.
Interestingly, though, it would take director Garry Marshall a long time to cast the two all-important lead roles in Pretty Woman – and the script did the rounds of everyone who was anyone in Hollywood. For instance, Disney – which owned Touchstone – wasn’t keen on a then-unknown 21-year-old Julia Roberts for the lead role of escort Vivian. Marshall offered the part to Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Karen Allen, who politely declined, so actresses like Molly Ringwald, Jennifer Connelly, and Winona Ryder were brought in to audition.
Ringwald supposedly could’ve had the role, but turned it down because she felt “there was something icky about it.” Connelly and Ryder, on the other hand, were deemed too young for the part. Darryl Hannah and Michelle Pfeiffer said “no thanks” for reasons similar to Ringwald’s, while Meg Ryan turned it down, and Diane Lane got as far as costume fittings before scheduling conflicts meant she had to drop out. Amazingly, Drew Barrymore, Uma Thurman, Patricia Arquette, and Brooke Shields also all auditioned before Roberts finally landed the role – and it made her a superstar.
Preposterously, the merry-go-round of actors considered for the role of Edward was even more extensive. Before Roberts convinced Richard Gere to come on board, Marshall considered a host of hot, young leading men. These names included Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, Christopher Reeve, and Daniel Day-Lewis, while Sylvester Stallone, Albert Brooks, Christopher Lambert and Al Pacino all turned it down. Pacino even did a taped reading with Roberts before declining the role, but he once told Larry King, “I could tell Julia Roberts was a great actress…I even said to Gary Marshall, this girl, where did you find her?”
It sounds like Marshall may have been desperate to land somebody for the role because he also had the wildly different Charles Grodin, Sam Neill, and Tom Conti read opposite Roberts. At least those guys, as inappropriate for the part as they may seem now, actually gave the movie serious consideration, though. The same can’t be said for Reynolds, who reportedly turned down the part without thinking about it too hard.
Amusingly, though, Reynolds admitted in his memoir But Enough About Me that he realised the error of his ways when he finally took the time to watch the film. “I declined the Richard Gere role in Pretty Woman,” he confessed. “Then I watched it the other night and thought, ‘Damn, Julia Roberts! What the hell was I thinking?‘”
This is particularly funny when you consider Reynolds once copped to accepting many a part purely because his leading lady was a looker. He told the Sydney Morning Herald, “If there was a pretty leading lady, I would do it no matter how bad the part was.” It’s enough to make you wonder why he didn’t see it with Roberts until it was too late.
Ultimately, though, he had to chalk it up as another one of his infamous bad calls. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the boneheaded star was asked why he chose not to make Pretty Woman. In response, he simply deadpanned, “Because I’m an idiot.”
