Richard Gere shares insight into steamy piano scene in 'Pretty Woman'

Richard Gere is opening up about the behind-the-scenes details about his and Julia Roberts’ hit film Pretty Woman.

Gere celebrated his 75th birthday at a masterclass at the Venice Film Festival, where he talked about the cult classic romance directed by Garry Marshall.

During the masterclass, Gere watched the famous steamy piano scene featuring Julia. He laughed and blushed and revealed that there was no chemistry between the two actors.

“No chemistry,” he laughed. “I mean, this actor and this actress, obviously, had no chemistry between them… I haven’t seen that in a long time, too. It was a sexy, sexy scene.”

Gere then revealed that the scene was not in the original script and was improvised when the director asked him to imagine what his character would do in the hotel.

“This was never in the script. (…) We didn’t know how we would use it later. It ended up being integral to the film,” said Gere, commenting that his character in the film was “almost criminally underwritten. It was basically a suit and a good haircut.”

“We just basically improvised this scene. I just started playing something moody that was about this character’s interior life,” he added.

In Pretty Woman, Gere plays a wealthy man named Edward, whose loneliness makes him hire an escort (Vivian), whom he takes to social events. Edward ends up falling in love with Vivian after spending a lot of time with her.

Richard Gere said the piano scene made Vivian (Julia Roberts) see Edward “in a complete different way. There was a mysterious yearning and maybe a damaged quality to this guy that she didn’t know.”