Julia Roberts Shoots Down A Weird Pretty Woman Rumor
No, legendary director Garry Marshall did not tickle Julia Roberts' feet to make her laugh while they were filming "Pretty Woman." He just made jokes instead.
During an appearance on Bravo's talk show "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," Roberts told the audience and host Andy Cohen that the rumor about Marshall's tactics was never true. After a pair of fans asked about the very particular rumor, Roberts debunked the persistent myth for good but did clarify how Marshall made her laugh on set.
"But Garry would do things like this: He would say, 'Action! Be funny!' And then I'm just supposed to be laughing or something," Roberts explained to the fans, who she claimed looked disappointed at her initial answer. "I guess you have to know all these people's names to appreciate this, but he called me the 'schlumpy girl,' and he would say, 'If the schlumpy girl married Raul Julia, she'd be Julia Julia!' And then our [director of photography] was a man called Chuck Minsky, and [Garry] goes, 'If Chuck married Nastassja Kinski, she'd be Nastassja Kinski Minsky!'"
So there you have it. Marshall, who passed away in 2016 after directing popular and influential films like "The Princess Diaries" and "Runaway Bride," didn't resort to any bizarre measures to make Roberts laugh — he was just a funny guy.
Pretty Woman is the film that made Julia Roberts into an enormous star
By now, everyone knows that "Pretty Woman," which came quite early in Roberts' career, is the movie that established her as a true Hollywood heavyweight. Not only did she win a Golden Globe and score an Academy Award nomination for playing sex worker Vivian Ward — who agrees to spend a few days with businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) and pose as his girlfriend — but thanks to her earnest, winning performance in the movie, she became America's sweetheart.
After that, Roberts' career took off. Not only did she end up winning an Oscar ten years after "Pretty Woman" — for her title role as the intrepid real-life lawyer in Erin Brockovich — she became a queen of romantic comedies. She worked with Marshall again on "Runaway Bride". She also headlined modern-day classics like "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Notting Hill," eventually joining ensemble films like the "Ocean's" franchise while she became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
Julia Roberts is a Hollywood mainstay now, appearing in more romantic comedies like "Ticket to Paradise" and headlining the new Netflix film "Leave the World Behind" — and it's partly thanks to Garry Marshall's corny jokes, apparently.