'Pretty Woman' Star Richard Gere Just Spilled On Filming That Piano Scene With Julia Roberts
Haley Sprankle is B+C's Content Editor, leading coverage across pop culture, beauty, style, home, and beyond. You can find her previous work at WIRED, Wirecutter, and VH1. Outside of work, she's probably drinking a dirty martini, walking her french bulldogs, or quoting School of Rock somewhere.
Pretty Woman is an iconic movie, full stop — and almost nothing is more iconic than Julia Roberts and Richard Gere's spicy piano scene. You know the one. Well, Richard Gere just spilled on that sensual scene over 30 years later, and what he shared is pretty surprising! Here's what he had to say on the TODAY Showabout that moment!
Everything Richard Gere said about his iconic performance in Pretty Woman's piano scene!
If you don't exactly remember the scene, let me break it down for you. Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) is dressed to the nines, playing the piano in the hotel he's staying at. When Vivian (Julia Roberts) enters the scene, Edward dismisses the hotel staff so he can have the room alone with Vivian. She makes her way to him, he takes off her dress, and well...that piano becomes the scene of a very intimate moment between these two.
WELL, according to Richard, that scene was improvised completely. Shocked? Yeah, we were too.
Richard explained that he and director Gary Marshall were looking for ways to make Edward "a little more interesting" by chatting about what the character would do while he travels for work. It was Richard's idea that he would find a piano late at night to play while his only audience would be a cleaning guy or two.
They decided to run with the idea, and boom! We got one of the most memorable romance scenes of all time.
Not only was the entire scene improvised, but Richard also shared that he improvised the song he played as well. He even got a "composed by" credit for the tune! Sadly, when people ask him to play the song for them, he can't seem to remember what he made up! To him, he "just played."
We wish we could "just play" our way into the cinema zeitgeist forever like that! Bravo, Mr. Gere! 👏
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Haley Sprankle is B+C's Content Editor, leading coverage across pop culture, beauty, style, home, and beyond. You can find her previous work at WIRED, Wirecutter, and VH1. Outside of work, she's probably drinking a dirty martini, walking her french bulldogs, or quoting School of Rock somewhere.
