Pretty Woman made a megastar of Julia Roberts, but it could have been a different story if the role had been accepted by Molly Ringwald. The Breakfast Club star was originally offered the part of Vivian Ward in the 1990 movie, but turned it down because she just didn’t feel like it was right. While speaking with The Guardian, the actress opened up about exactly why she chose not to take on the role opposite Richard Gere. She said:
"Julia Roberts was wonderful in it, but I didn’t really like the story. Even then, I felt like there was something icky about it. I didn’t really feel like darker roles were available to me. The ones that I wanted to do, I didn’t get. I was too young for certain roles. I was at this weird in-between stage."
Pretty Woman is probably one of the best known rom-coms of the 1990s, although the story of a prostitute who ends up falling in love with a wealthy corporate raider after initially being hired to accompany him to business events does sound a little on the mature side for some. It seems that the darker side of the role, which included themes of violence against women, was what kept Ringwald from playing the part and potentially becoming the instant star that Julia Roberts became following the movie’s release.
Of course, Ringwald already had more than a decade of films behind her by the time she was offered Pretty Woman including the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink. It was not only Pretty Woman that the actress turned down that year either, as she also declined a role in Ghost as well.
Molly Ringwald Has Starred in Many Hit TV Shows.
Although she has appeared in a number of movies, Molly Ringwald has made her biggest impact on TV appearing in many high profile shows over the years. Despite turning down more mature movie roles, Ringwald appeared in the 90s TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand and also appeared in various French productions and the movie Malicious, which took her further away from her teen roles of the 1980s.
Recently, she appeared in the Netflix drama Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, as well as shows including The Bear, Tales of the City, Riverdale and Creepshow. She also joined the second season of Feud: Capote’s Women.
Recently, Ringwald heaped praise on a new reboot of her old movie Sixteen Candles, which is being turned into a Selena Gomez series entitled 15 Candles for Peacock. Expressing how happy she is to see her old movie being reimagined, Ringwald said:
"I am so happy about that. I really do feel like when people always ask me about rebooting my movies, I am like, 'No those movies were wonderful,' but what they should do is take inspiration from them and do something completely different but inspired, so that just sounds fantastic."