The iconic diamond necklace worn by Julia Roberts with the red dress actually arrived on set with two bodyguards.
This week marks the film’s 35th anniversary which stunned the world and was Disney’s highest-grossing R-rated movie, grossing $463 million (£357 million) at the global box office.
Roberts, 57, stars as Vivian Ward, a young prostitute working Hollywood Boulevard who ends up spending the week with rich millionaire Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) after giving him directions.
One iconic moment in the film shows Vivian dressed in a stunning red gown for a night at the opera and being presented with a beautiful ruby and diamond necklace from Gere.
Varying reports suggest that the cost of the necklace was around $150,000 to $250,000 (£116,000 – £193,000) at the time, making its cost today rather a lot more.
Speaking to Metro, Dan Lester, who worked as the costume supervisor on the film, revealed that the stunning piece had to be ushered onto set with two bodyguards.
‘That necklace that she wore with the red dress, that was from a jewelry store called Fred’s, I think in Beverly Hills. I think the studio had reached out to them.
‘That day that she wore it we had to go to pick up the jewelry, and I had to sign for it, and then two security guards with me, and they spent the entire day on the set.’
‘And then at the end of the draft, they took them back to the store.’
When asked about the cost at the time, Dan guessed: ‘I don’t but I want to say, like, $150,000, something like that.’
‘It was a lot of money at the time, and I’d already worked on loan movies, and I’d never spent time with security guards before, so that was just interesting.’
Famously, when Edward presents Vivian with the necklace, he playfully snaps her fingers in the box, which results in a huge laugh from Julia, who was caught off-guard by this moment.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight many years ago, Garry Marshall commented: ‘She’s kid, so she goes out and parties, and sometimes she parties late and she comes to work and she’s a little sleepy. I said, ‘Richard, you gotta wake her up a little, so when she reaches for the box, slam it.”‘ …”
‘When she laughs, the whole world lights up. So it was a prank, we’d use it for the gag reel, but everyone who saw the gag reel and said, “that was really good.”
‘It was that last minute we put it in the movie and it became the trademark of the movie.’
Dan also debunked a rumour that several different colour dresses were made in place of the famous red dress in the scene.
He explained that the costume designer, Marilyn Vance, received push back about the red dress, so they camera tested swatches, not entire dresses.
‘We didn’t make dresses in a bunch of colors. What we did do was bring in fabrics in silks. We dyed them in a range of colors that Marilyn liked, and we camera tested them on Julia.
‘We just put the fabric, wrapped it around her, and did a camera test.’
He explained that while there was an argument for a shade of blue or a different shade of red, the costume designer was certain the bold red was the right move.
‘Marilyn fought for that shade of red. There were some blues, like bold ones. But we camera tested quite a lot, mostly, but Marylin wanted red.’
Dan also revealed that, thankfully, there were barely any costume mistakes in the film.
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‘I watched the movie a year or so ago. It looks good. There aren’t too many mistakes. There were some mismatches on set.
‘I think it was with Richard, like the top button was done, and then it was undone, something like that in one of the scenes.’
He explained it was likely when he was back from lunch, and something that should have been caught by the various people working on set.
‘I mean, there are a lot of people looking at stuff and on every movie that happens somewhere, and you don’t really notice till dailies!’
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