Jason Alexander doubts a Pretty Woman sequel will happen — because, well, technically, it already did.
“They talked about it for a while. If you ask the inner circle of the people who made it, they look at Runaway Bride as the sequel,” the Seinfeld alum, 61, exclusively told Us Weekly. “Even though it’s not same story, they feel like that is the follow-up to Pretty Woman because it’s the same group of people, for the most part. So, no, I don’t think so.”
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Alexander starred in the 1990 film alongside Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, who played a prostitute and a wealthy businessman who fall in love. Roberts, 53, and Gere, 71, would go on to reunite in the 1999 rom-com, which was also directed by the late Gary Marshall. (The famed director died at age 81 in July 2016.)
“I know Gary Marshall did not get to see Pretty Woman: The Musical open on Broadway, which was one of his big dreams. So I know how much it meant to Gary, that particular story,” Alexander added to Us. “Let’s see, I’m 61. I don’t want to even guess how old the rest of the cast is, but I’m not sure it has quite the same sparkle now as it did back in 1990.”
Still, Pretty Woman has resonated with audiences for more than three decades. “I do Q&A shows and people do ask about Pretty Woman all the time and lovingly. It’s not necessarily a movie that I would have thought would have stood the test of time because of the subject matter,” the Harley Quinn actor explained. “And because of where we have become about the kind of abuse of women in general, but also specifically I would imagine of the sex worker industry. And yet it is a testament, I believe to the mind of Gary Marshall and the amazing winning charm and talent of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.”
Alexander, for his part, played attorney Philip Stuckey, an associate of Gere’s businessman character, Edward, who tries to sexually assault Roberts’ Vivian. Shortly after the movie premiered, Alexander was confronted by women in real life.
“It didn’t surprise me when the film first came out because it was such a phenomenon when it first came out. It was really the hot item in Hollywood that summer. So there was a lot of energy around it. And when I say fans were attacking me, there were two handfuls of people,” Alexander told Us. “I would walk the street and I would get looks from women going, ‘I don’t know if that was the character or the guy.’ And a couple of them, would come up and say things and occasionally I’d get swatted at and scolded and that kind of thing.”
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Despite those brief encounters, Alexander takes pride in the movie. “[Roberts and Gere] just performed that thing into something that is undeniably loving and fun and beautiful despite sort of the ugliness of where it occurs. And so it’s amazing. It’s really kind of amazing how that film has endured,” he told Us. “I don’t know a lot of films like it that have that kind of staying power.”
