Love My Best Friend’s Wedding? Well, you may be surprised to hear that the movie originally had a completely different ending.
The 1997 rom-com told the story of Julianne, played by Julia Roberts, a woman who realises she’s in love with her best friend Michael after he gets engaged to a woman named Kimmy.
Julianne then sets out to try and sabotage the couple’s wedding and eventually fails.
However, the film wasn’t always set out to be that way.
The film’s original ending showed Julianne meeting a handsome stranger played by John Corbett (aka Aidan in Sex and the City) and getting her happily ever after.
Except audiences didn’t want her to be happy.
The film’s director, P.J. Hogan, revealed that the after a test screening, audiences were very clear about what they wanted to happen to Julianne.
‘They wanted her dead,’ he told Entertainment Weekly, ‘They just couldn’t understand her motives’.
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However, the filmmakers wanted to keep both the studio and Julia happy as well as create something that audiences would accept.
Hogan then turned to George, Julianne’s best friend played by Rupert Everett, who acts as her ‘conscience’ throughout the film.
Hogan explained, ‘Whenever she was being particularly devious, I’d have her phone Rupert’s character and he would call her out on it.’
Eight months after filming had wrapped, Julia found herself back on set – complete with a wig to hide her recent bob haircut - to film the movie’s new final scene.
Hogan explained that in the chase scene leading up to the wedding, there’s a moment in which George bluntly points out to Julianne, ‘Who’s chasing you?’
‘All of a sudden there was an element of empathy for Julianne,’ he added.
Instead of showing Julianne get her happy ending, she stays single and the movie ends by showing George arriving to dance with her.
‘That one scene somehow gave the audience permission to forgive Julianne. Those last five minutes really made the whole movie work.’
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(Main image: REX / Images: Getty)
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