Pretty Woman was never supposed to be pretty

I bet most of us have seen Pretty Woman. But what about the action film from the 90s called Under Siege? It starred Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones in a story where terrorists take over an American battleship.

Believe it or not, these two films have something in common. They were both written by the same man. A guy called J.F. Lawton.

You see, Pretty Woman was never supposed to be pretty. It was originally written as a gritty and biting story about money, power, class, and survival in Los Angeles. Vivian was tougher and Edward was colder. The world around them had sharp edges, and the original ending was far less romantic than the one we know. The script was originally titled 3000, the name derived from the sum of money that Edward pays Vivian to spend the week with him.

The original film was picked up by a company called Vestron (who made Dirty Dancing), but they sadly went broke, so the rights were then acquired by Touchstone (owned by Disney). So, when you think about it, Pretty Woman is actually a Disney film.

And so, it evolved. The backbone of the story and the characters remained in tack, but it needed plenty of adjustments. The title changed. The film moved from darkness to charm. It found humour. It found warmth. It found romance. The movie began as one thing, and then became something else entirely. This is the part that feels so relevant to resilience, because we often mistake resilience for perseverance: pushing through with our original plan at all costs.

Sometimes that matters, but real resilience goes far beyond stubbornness. It helps us bend rather than break. It’s our ability to stay committed to the deeper purpose while being flexible with the form.

Because when we bend, that’s when good things tend to happen. In the movie’s case, that adaptability allowed a fresh casting approach. Julia Roberts brought something to Vivian that changed the energy of the film. She had vulnerability, humour, spark, softness, and strength all at once. Richard Gere originally rejected the script, but Roberts flew to see him personally and convinced him to do it. Their chemistry was ideal and, as we all know, Gere brought restraint and coolness to Edward. We liked him.

Pretty Woman now sits high on the most popular of rom-com lists. But I always like to think it might never have been made without someone seeing something that had potential, but needed significant tweaks. It’s a lesson that rarely the first version of the thing stays as the final version of the thing. In fact, often when I meet entrepreneurs, the business they started is so very different from what they end up doing. Things evolve and adapt, they veer off into fascinating new directions. Things take different shapes.

This can be hard at times because we often get attached. We hold onto that first idea or plan. That first version of ourselves. The first way we thought something was going to work. But resilience invites us to asks us to consider what something is becoming?

That is where adaptability and perseverance meet. Perseverance wants us to keep going, while adaptability keeps us open to new avenues.

And, in this hectic, ever-surprising world, we need both.

Three tools for adaptability and perseverance

1. Remember what is still working.

   When things aren’t going to plan, our brain tends to focus on everything that isn’t working. That can be useful, but it can also make us miss the clues. In Pretty Woman, not everything from the original script disappeared. Plenty of scenes, characters, and themes survived. The team held onto a lot of the original idea and found pieces that needed new life. When something feels stuck, we can ask what is still working, what people are responding to, and what deserves to be kept. We’re trying to rescue the strongest parts from the wreckage, and it helps us see where we can look for opportunity.

2. Separate purpose from the plan.

   The plan is the route, while the purpose is the reason we started the drive. When we confuse the two, every detour feels like failure. But it’s far from failure; it’s just a different way of getting there. The original version of Pretty Woman changed dramatically, but the deeper themes stayed: transformation, dignity, connection, and the possibility that people can be more than the world expects them to be. This is useful in the workplace too. We should try to remember what the deeper outcome is that we’re trying to create. There’s always another way to get there. This helps us stop defending the old map and start finding the better route. Always remember that 10+2 = 12…. but so does 19-7. Same result, different paths.

3. Keep rewriting.

   Adaptability is active engagement, but we often confuse it for acquiescence or giving up. It’s easy to call something a failure too early because the first version didn’t work. But first versions are often meant to be messy. They give us data. They reveal what has potential. They show us what needs more courage, more clarity, or more imagination. So when something disappoints us, we must remember that it’s just a draft. It’s not a ‘final verdict’, and that can change everything. We’re allowed to revise. We’re allowed to grow. We’re allowed to become something more compelling than the original plan. Rewrites are powerful!

We all have moments where life refuses to follow the script. The job changes, a client shifts direction, the market moves. In those moments, we have a choice: we can grip the old script harder, or we can ask what the new story needs from us. Sometimes the thing that nearly doesn’t work becomes the thing people remember forever.

Just like Pretty Woman.

Until next time friends, stay resilient.

Carré at Resilient Minds

PS - One of the most famous scenes in Pretty Woman was born from rejection. As an emerging screenwriter, J.F. Lawton himself had been treated dismissively in an upscale shop on Rodeo Drive when he was told “there’s nothing here for you”. The moment really stung, but he used it as fuel to create one of the most memorable moments in Pretty Woman. That rejection eventually became Vivian’s unforgettable return to the shop. Remember that scene? “Big mistake. Big. Huge.” I’m sure we all do. Talk about using what hurts us as fuel to find a way forward!