Richard Gere Jokes He Had “No Chemistry” With Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’

It was a role that solidified Richard Gere as one of Hollywood’s most dashing leading men, but the actor has admitted he hasn’t watched his performance in Pretty Woman for a long time.

The star spoke at a master class at the 81st Venice Film Festival on Sunday on the art and craft of cinema through acting, screenwriting, lighting, scoring and dubbing.

To kick off the conversation, it was noted that Gere celebrated his 75^th birthday on Saturday, so the capacity crowd erupted with cheers of “Happy Birthday,” after which he dutifully thanked everyone.

The personal touches continued throughout the master class as the actor was shown a clip from his first film role, Days of Heaven (1978), which he admitted made him “so emotional.” He swiftly pointed out his son, Homer, and asked him to stand up for the audience. “I think I’m only a little bit older [in Days of Heaven] than him and he’s starting his career as an actor now. And he’s really good. He’s really good.”

But the loudest crowd applause at the Venezia Tennis Club — and a few swoons — was brought about by a scene in the hit 1990 rom-com where Gere’s character Edward, a wealthy businessman, is tinkering on the piano when sex worker Vivian (Julia Roberts) enters. A steamy interaction ensues with Edward undressing Vivian and sitting her atop the piano, feeling his way down her breastbone.

“I mean, no chemistry,” the actor sarcastically declared, prompting audience laughs. “This actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them … I haven’t seen that in a long time. That’s a sexy scene.” But despite the onscreen sparks, even Gere confessed he believes his character was “criminally underwritten”: “It was basically a suit and a good haircut,” he said.

The scene was improvised to include Gere’s own piano-playing talent, Gere also revealed, describing a conversation with director Garry Marshall. “And Garry said to me, ‘What do you do at late at night in a hotel?'” he said. “And I said, ‘Well, I’m usually jet lagged, [that] would be the time I’m in a hotel. So I’m up all night and usually there’s a ballroom somewhere or a bar, and I’ll find a piano and I’ll play the piano.’ He said: ‘Well, let’s do something with that. So we just basically improvised this scene, and he said: ‘Play something moody.’ I just started playing something moody that was this character’s interior life.”

Before the clip was shown, he also joked about the movie’s reception. “This is a movie, a very small movie with a wonderful director named Garry Marshall,” Gere began. “But we were having fun making this little tiny movie. We didn’t know if anyone would ever see this little tiny movie. No one would ever pay attention to this little tiny movie.”

As of 2024, Pretty Woman has grossed over $460 million at the worldwide box office, and at the time of its release, it was the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.

The event — held inside Master Point Arena at Tennis Club Venezia on the Lido on Sunday morning — was moderated by Stéphane Lerouge, an expert in film music and curator of record collection Écoutez le cinéma. Gere’s conversation was part of festival sponsor Cartier’s master class series on the Art and Craft of Cinema.

Other master class events from the luxury jewelry house include Nicola Piovani (composer, Life Is Beautiful) and Claude Lelouch (Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker award).