Molly Ringwald was much in demand in the 1980s, thanks to her starring roles in the films Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club.
But she wasn’t interested in being a part of the romantic comedy Pretty Woman, which Julia Roberts turned into an Academy Award-nominated performance.
“Julia Roberts was wonderful in it, but I didn’t really like the story,” Ringwald said in a recent interview with UK media outlet The Guardian. “Even then, I felt like there was something icky about it.”
Pretty Woman tells the story of a prostitute (Roberts, playing the role of Vivian Ward) hired by a businessman, Richard Gere. The hired hand was to pose as his girlfriend for a trip, and they implausibly wind up falling in love.
Ringwald felt the role didn’t fit her.
“I didn’t really feel like darker roles were available to me,” she said. “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.”
That, she confessed, cost her roles in the films Working Girl and The Silence of the Lambs, both monster hits.