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The day after the first test screening ofMy Best Friends Wedding, a studio executive turned to director P.J.
Hogan and asked: How are you going to save this movie?
But in the original script, Julianne met a new guy (John Corbett) in the final scene.
Test audiences hated it.
They wanted her dead, says Hogan (who mostly recently wrote 2015s Aussie rompThe Dressmaker).
They just couldnt understand her motives.
Still, the studio wanted Americas sweetheart, Roberts, happy.
Enter Rupert Everett as Juliannes gay, charismatic confidant, George.
We expanded his character, Hogan explains.
So Hogan went back and weaved in new sympathetic scenes with Everett.
Hogan added a quick call with Everett to the scene, threw in the bluntly honest Whos chasing you?
line from George, and all of a sudden there was an element of empathy for Julianne.
I just asked myself, What do I need to hear someone say to her at this point?'
It was implicit in the scene, but she needed George to point it out to her.
For more revelations from the past four decades of entertainment, visitew.com/untoldstories.
It would have been such a downer of an ending if George hadnt shown up, says Hogan.
That one scene somehow gave the audience permission to forgive Julianne, Hogan says.
Those last five minutes really made the whole movie work.
