Why did Richard Gere almost refuse the role of a beautiful woman?

Imagine someone other than him Richard Gere Playing the role of Edward Lewis in Beautiful woman — It's hard to imagine, but that's almost exactly what happened.

Gere, 75, joined the host Scott Feinberg For the Thursday, December 12th episode of his program Awards Talks podcast. This touched on Gere's gratitude for the iconic role, and his admission that he almost passed up the opportunity to act before him Julia Roberts In the 1990 romantic comedy.

“Let me be clear, I really like the movie,” Gere said. “At first, I didn't understand it. There was no character. So I read this thing and said, 'It's not mine. To me, it's a suit that's in the movie.'

“I wouldn't mind seeing the movie,” he recalls. “But I don’t see myself doing this.”

Despite his initial fears, he eventually met Gere exit Garry Marshall anyway.

“We started talking about the script and I said, 'Look, I don't see the character,'” Gere said. “And Marshall replied, 'Let you and I find her.'”

That was enough to convince Gere to meet Roberts, who had already agreed to play Vivian. When Marshall called Gere 45 minutes into the meeting to get his thoughts on the young actress, the deal was already sealed.

“I said, 'It's beautiful. It's gorgeous.' “While I was talking to him, I took a sticky note from my desk and wrote something on it,” Gere said. “And then she moves it across the table to me and says, 'Please say yes.'” How can you say no to that? ?

Eventually — and after “a lot of rewriting,” according to Geer — Beautiful woman It turned into the classic that fans know today. The film revolves around Edward, a wealthy New York businessman, who hires a sex worker Vivian Ward (Roberts) To accompany him for a week in Los Angeles. Despite their stark differences, the two grow close and eventually fall in love.

Gere said that filming the film inspired him to work harder and figure out how to develop a character into something more complex.

“We ended up trying to find a meaningful character within the structure and the essence of that piece,” Gehr explained. “To make it honest, to make it magical, to make it fun, to make it exciting, you know? And we all loved each other. So trusting, we had a great time, and we had no idea it was going to be like this.”

The result was a box office smash that grossed nearly half a billion dollars during its run. Both Roberts and Gere received Golden Globe nominations for their roles, with Roberts taking home the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Looking back, Gere couldn't be prouder of his role in the film — or of the long-running success he's had over the years.

“I'm very proud of this movie and proud of the work process we went through to create this movie,” Gere said. “And I'm not only proud, I'm grateful for this movie because it allowed me to do a lot of other things as well.”