FILM · 1999 · USA
Runaway Bride
34 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (34)
- #001
Julia Roberts's "platypus" face was added after director Garry Marshall saw her making the expression to entertain his grandchildren.
- #002
Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Hector Elizondo, Kathleen Marshall, an uncredited Larry Miller (the NYC bartender), Patrick Richwood and the film's director, Garry Marshall, all appeared together in Pretty Woman (1990).
- #003
In the scene where Julia Roberts walks through the town square and sees Richard Gere playing slide guitar with the locals, Gere not only actually played the guitar but improvised the part he played.
- #004
Julia Roberts refused to make a sequel to Pretty Woman (1990) or any of her films until Ocean's Twelve (2004). She agreed to appear in Runaway Bride only on the condition that it was a standalone story.
- #005
In real life, Julia Roberts had cancelled her wedding to Kiefer Sutherland just days before the 1991 ceremony.
- #006
In the scene where Julia Roberts runs through a room full of small children, the baby held by the woman on her left is Garry Marshall's grandchild. Marshall has a long history of putting his children and grandchildren in his films. His daughter Kathleen plays "Cousin Cindy" in this film.
- #007
After noticing how many twins there were in such a small town, Garry Marshall used twins and triplets as extras in many scenes.
- #008
Before Maggie makes the platypus face, she mentions Camp Birchwood. As a child, Julia Roberts attended that camp in northern Minnesota.
- #009
Director Garry Marshall plays the first baseman.
- #010
This is the second and final pairing of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere after Pretty Woman.
- #011
Ike loses his grip on the crab mallet and throws it, the reverse of the iconic scene in Pretty Woman (1990) in which Vivian Ward accidentally flings her snail across a restaurant while at dinner with Edward Lewis. In both scenes a fish-out-of-water character struggles with an unfamiliar shellfish dish that everyone else is used to. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere also played the romantic leads in both. Garry Marshall also directed Pretty Woman.
- #012
The Sunday school scene featured the children and grandchildren of many cast and crew members.
- #013
Christopher Meloni (Bob) and Donal Logue (Father Brian) both played detectives on Law and Order-SVU, though in different seasons.
- #014
James Newton Howard, who composed the music for Pretty Woman (1990), also composed the music for this film. He has also composed for other films starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
- #015
The film was in development for 10 years. Actors attached at various times included Geena Davis, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Sandra Bullock, Ellen DeGeneres, Ben Affleck and Téa Leoni. Director Michael Hoffman was attached. Writers Elaine May and Leslie Dixon wrote unused rewrites.
- #016
In a 2020 interview, actress Rita Wilson said she had tried Botox before making this film, when the procedure was still relatively new. She said that when she watched the film, she disliked how the treatment limited her expressions in an emotional scene in which Richard Gere's character is fired.
- #017
This is the first film in which the female lead chooses Richard Gere's character over Christopher Meloni's character. The same happens in Nights in Rodanthe (2008).
- #018
As Maggie swings from the bell rope, Ike jokes, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" This is a reference to the science fiction film Logan's Run (1976), in which people are killed when they turn 30; when the bell rings they are drawn into the air and burst when they reach the top, and some run in search of a legendary sanctuary. It may also be a nod to The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), both adapted from Victor Hugo's classic novel of the same name, and to the famous moment when Quasimodo swings down a bell rope to temporarily save Esmeralda from death and carries her into the church while calling for sanctuary. Director Garry Marshall's sister Penny Marshall had imitated this scene seventeen years earlier as Laverne in The Monastery Show (1983), which she also directed.
- #019
(Spoiler for The Graduate): While searching for the wedding tape, Ike reaches among video boxes: The Graduate (1967), which features a famous cancelled wedding scene.
- #020
Its plot is similar to that of It Had to Be You (1947), which starred Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde.
- #021
T-shirt vendor Marvin Braverman is a recurring gag as a vendor in Garry Marshall films. He plays a Hot Dog Vendor in Raising Helen (2004), a Crown Vendor in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), and simply a Vendor in New Year's Eve (2011). In Raising Helen (2004) and New Year's Eve (2011) he is given a name in addition to the vendor role (Aaron and Marvin, respectively).
- #022
The film's cast includes one Oscar winner, Julia Roberts, and two Oscar nominees, Joan Cusack and Laurie Metcalf.
- #023
Just like the Pretty Woman character Vivian Ward, Julia's character Maggie, while shopping, is accused of not being able to afford what she wants when in fact she cannot pay for it.
- #024
Joan Cusack and Paul Dooley appeared in Sixteen Candles.
- #025
Richard Gere's character shares his first name with Gere's real-life father.
- #026
Maggie carries a crossbody bag with "Libra" written on it. Traits of the Libra sign include putting others before oneself, flirtatiousness and a desire for balance: qualities attributed to Maggie throughout the film.
- #027
Maggie (Julia Roberts) is referred to in one scene as a 'steel magnolia.' Ten years before this film, Roberts was one of the "Steel Magnolias" (1989) in that film.
- #028
Among the many directors attached to the project at one point were Jonathan Kaplan and Mel Gibson.
- #029
Of the six films co-produced by Paramount Pictures and Touchstone Pictures in the 1990s, this was the most family-friendly, given that it was rated PG in the US and given G or PG equivalents in many other countries. Usually when Disney releases a G or PG rated film it is under the Walt Disney Pictures label, but some have also been released under the Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax and Dimension Films labels. This was the first PG-rated collaboration between Paramount and Disney since 1981's "Dragonslayer," one of the films that led to Disney's acquisition of Miramax and Dimension as well as its creation of the Touchstone and later Hollywood labels.
- #030
Maggie goes to a Catholic church to confess, where it is noted that she is not a member and that a different priest presides at each of the wedding suggestions, since she is not affiliated with the denomination either. Roughly 15% of Maryland, where Maggie lives, is Catholic and 54% is Protestant.
- #031
Marisol Correa's first appearance.
- #032
It is the seventh of twelve films to be jointly released by Paramount and Disney; the others are Popeye (1980), Dragonslayer (1981), Alive (1993), Face/Off (1997), Snake Eyes (1998), A Civil Action (1998), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
- #033
Marisol Correa is of Portuguese origin.
- #034
Italian censorship visa # 94052 was delivered in December 1999.
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