Molly Ringwald says she turned down Julia Roberts' Pretty Woman role: There was 'something icky about it'

Molly Ringwald doesn't consider her decision to turn down the lead role in Pretty Woman a big mistake — or even a huge one.

The actress, who dominated the '80s in films like Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club, explained why she passed on playing Vivian Ward in the 1990 romantic comedy. The role ultimately went to Julia Roberts and earned her an Academy Award nomination in 1991.

"Julia Roberts was wonderful in it, but I didn't really like the story," Ringwald recently told the Guardian. "Even then, I felt like there was something icky about it."

Directed by Garry Marshall, Pretty Woman centers around a sex worker who is hired by a rich businessman (played by Richard Gere) and asked to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week-long business trip. Along the way, the pair fall in love. The film also starred Jason Alexander, Ralph Bellamy, Héctor Elizondo, and more.

Ringwald also noted that she felt particularly pigeonholed in her career because of her previous film credits. "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 includes being passed up for a role in the 1988 comedy Working Girl. Ringwald recalled that the film's director Mike Nichols said that the character "'really needs to be at that moment where you feel the pain,'" adding, "'You have your whole life ahead of you — nobody's going to believe that of you.'" She similarly lost out on a role in the 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs.

This isn't the first time that Ringwald has discussed walking away from Pretty Woman. Although, she wasn't quite sure she shot the opportunity down during a Reddit AMA in 2012.

"I think I saw an early draft and it was called $3,000. I don't specifically remember turning it down," she wrote. "The script was okay but I gotta say, Julia Roberts is what makes that movie. It was her part. Every actor hopes for a part that lets them shine like that."

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