Pretty Woman star Julia Roberts reveals what she thinks happened to Richard Gere’s character after the movie, and it’s a grim fate. Roberts vaulted to stardom thanks to her pairing with Gere in 1990’s rom-com classic, a twist on the typical Cinderella story starring Roberts as a sex worker, and Gere as the rich man who hires her for the weekend, only to fall for her. The Garry Marshall-directed movie was a surprise smash, grossing $463 million at the worldwide box office, while nabbing Roberts an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Over thirty years after Pretty Woman made her a global superstar, Roberts is back in the spotlight again with the Netflix movie Leave the World Behind, and recently was asked to look back on her 1990 blockbuster, and speculate about the fate of Gere’s character Edward Lewis. The ending she imagines for her character Vivian Ward’s lover is anything but a happy one, though things work out pretty well for Vivian, as Roberts revealed to Gayle King on CBS Mornings. Check out her response below (via EW):
“I think he passed away peacefully in his sleep from a heart attack, smiling. And now she runs his business.”
Pretty Woman 2 Could Still Happen (But Almost Surely Won’t)
Given the film’s huge box office success, it’s perhaps surprising that Pretty Woman 2 never came to fruition at some point during the 1990s, when Roberts was still a massive star. Gere and Roberts did later reunite in the film Runaway Bride, when she was a much bigger star than him and their power dynamic was completely flipped, but that would be their last on-screen pairing.
For Gere and Roberts to reunite all these years later in a Pretty Woman sequel would excite viewers who still love their chemistry in the original, and want to know what actually happened to Edward and Vivian after the first movie’s storybook ending (Roberts’ speculation seems at least half-joking, and is not exactly a happy way for Edward to go out, though there are worse fates than falling asleep smiling and never waking up). The prospect of such a movie coming to pass seems dim at best, given how long it’s been since the original, and where the two main stars currently are in their careers. On the other hand, given Hollywood’s endless appetite for resurrecting old properties, Pretty Woman 2 might not be entirely out of the question.
Pretty Woman
Directed by Gary Marshall, Pretty Woman stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere as Vivian Ward and Edward Lewis. Lewis is a wealthy New York businessman who hires Hollywood sex worker Ward to accompany him during his stay in Los Angeles. Initially wary of each other, the couple’s relationship grows steadily deeper over Lewis’ stay, causing Ward to begin to rethink her career path.
- Release Date
- March 23, 1990
- Director
- Garry Marshall
- Cast
- Richard Gere , Julia Roberts , Ralph Bellamy , Laura San Giacomo , Jason Alexander
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 119 minutes
- Genres
- Romance , Comedy
- Writers
- J.F. Lawton
- Budget
- $14 million
- Studio(s)
- Disney
- Distributor(s)
- Disney
