FILM · 1988 · USA
Working Girl
50 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (50)
- #001
Although Tess is unquestionably the sole lead character, actress Melanie Griffith is billed third, behind Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver, who have supporting roles in the film. Griffith had won great acclaim for her earlier performances in Body Double (1984) and Something Wild (1986), but those films had little impact at the box office, and she was still largely unknown when Working Girl (1988) was made in 1988. 20th Century Fox wanted a famous actress to play Tess, but Mike Nichols pushed for Griffith until the studio finally gave in.
- #002
According to casting director Juliet Taylor, "Mike and I had already fallen in love with Alec Baldwin and wanted him to play Jack, but the studio was catatonic about it. They didn't want two unknowns in the leads." Producer Douglas Wick recalls: "So Mike had to call Alec and say, 'Look, I'm really sorry. The circumstances have changed. Will you do this other part?' Alec understood and was very happy about it. He came in and really nailed that character. It was a strange adjustment."
- #003
Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith followed numerous female executives and secretaries through their busy daily schedules in New York City and attended meetings to gain a better understanding of Wall Street from a woman's perspective.
- #004
Melanie Griffith was candid in interviews during this film about her struggles with drugs and alcohol. In one interview she described how she and her co-star Alec Baldwin partied late one night in Manhattan and arrived on set the next day visibly drunk and late for the shooting schedule. Mike Nichols and producer Douglas Wick were so alarmed that they decided to take harsh measures. They began by fining her around $75,000 for the lost production time and arranged for a nurse to be present throughout the rest of the shoot to test Ms. Griffith's sobriety. Three weeks later Griffith entered the Hazelden Foundation, a rehabilitation center in Minnesota.
- #005
Tess McGill's upswept hairstyle in her first business meeting with Jack Trainer is a direct homage to the hairstyle of Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963), the most famous role of Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren.
- #006
Harrison Ford got his famous scar by crashing into a pole on Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach, CA. At the time he was an actor at the Laguna Playhouse and received a "rush stitch job" at South Coast Hospital in Laguna Beach. In the film his character says that when he was young he pierced his ear, fainted and hit his chin on a toilet. See also: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
- #007
In Kevin Wade's original screenplay, Jack Trainer is frustrated by the superficiality of the business he is in. In the final act he does not stand beside Tess McGill in the elevator scene. (It is Oren Trask who decides to listen to her.) He later chastises himself for not supporting her and tells Tess he realizes he has become someone he doesn't like. The film ends with him leaving the industry, leaving New York and getting back in touch with her. Tess wants him to come back once she has finished her work and see whether they can start again.
- #008
It is the first romantic comedy in which Harrison Ford starred.
- #009
In her youth Melanie Griffith was chosen as Miss Golden Globe 1975 (now known as the "Golden Globes Ambassador", a awards-ceremony hosting position given to the daughters — or now sometimes the sons — of famous parents who themselves have a passion for the entertainment industry). She later won a competitive Golden Globe for her acting work in Working Girl. She is not the only one to have done this; Laura Dern, Miss Golden Globe 1982, has also won many Golden Globe awards.
- #010
In Kevin Wade's original screenplay, Tess McGill's new assistant is a man. This was probably changed to show how Tess treats another woman when her role is reversed.
- #011
It is David Duchovny's first film. He was one of the guests hiding in the bathroom at Tess's surprise birthday party. Specifically, he is in the upper left corner of the frame (he looks a bit like William Baldwin, which has led some to believe Baldwin has a cameo in this film). He can also be seen later at the engagement party. Ironically, two years later Duchovny would play a similar role in the young-female version of the same film — Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991).
- #012
Michelle Pfeiffer and Meryl Streep were considered for the roles of Tess McGill and Katharine Parker, respectively. Brooke Shields badly wanted the role of Tess; after graduating from Princeton University she wanted to appear in a serious film. Kathleen Turner, Cher, Geena Davis, Debra Winger and especially Shelley Long were also considered to play Katharine. Diane Lane and Sarah Jessica Parker were also in talks to play Tess. Lorraine Bracco wrote in her memoir that she gave a first-rate audition for the role of Tess and was devastated when she was not cast. After reading the script for the first time and seeing her on a talk show, Mike Nichols thought Madonna would be interesting for Tess.
- #013
The plush rabbit Tess puts on her desk when she arrives at her new job was made by toy-bear artist Gae Sharp. It was bought at Mables in New York. Director Mike Nichols later returned to the store and ordered five more rabbits to be given to key cast members.
- #014
Kevin Spacey was brought in at the last minute as a replacement for another actor in the role of Bob Speck. On the day the scene was shot, Mike Nichols, who had previously directed Spacey in Heartburn (1986), sent a car with a copy of the script in the back seat to Spacey's New York apartment. Spacey learned his lines on the way to the shoot. Nichols was under pressure to finish the scene so as not to have to postpone his wedding to Diane Sawyer, which was two days away. Years later, when Spacey became a producer on The Social Network (2010), he cast his former co-star Melanie Griffith's daughter, Dakota Johnson.
- #015
Although Harrison Ford receives the highest billing, he does not appear until the 35th minute of the film.
- #016
At the time the film was shot, Katharine Parker is said to be 30 years old, while Sigourney Weaver was actually 39.
- #017
It contains Melanie Griffith's only Oscar-nominated performance.
- #018
In an interview celebrating the film's 30th anniversary, Melanie Griffith revealed that she made a pass at her co-star Alec Baldwin and that he rejected her offer. (Apparently it hurt her feelings, but they remained friendly.) Instead, she had a romance with investment banker Liam Dalton, whom Mike Nichols had assigned to brief Griffith on mergers and acquisitions.
- #019
The Simpsons short "Family Portrait" from The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) preceded the film in its original release. It was included in the original VHS release.
- #020
The tequila scene where Jack Trainer and Tess McGill first meet was filmed at the restaurant bar of Caroline's Comedy Club, located at South Street Seaport in New York City. As Jack walks down the stairs to put Tess in a taxi, a billboard advertising the club is visible.
- #021
When Tess McGill finally starts her new job at Trask Industries, she is clearly wearing Jack Trainer's jacket. She started so quickly that she had no time to buy clothes of her own, and she obviously could no longer wear Katherine Parker's suits. This is visible from the jacket's very loose cut and the rolled-up sleeves.
- #022
Melanie Griffith's daughter, Dakota Johnson, uses Griffith's introduction speech from this film in Griffith's Fifty Shades Darker (2017).
- #023
As of 2019, Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner Cyndi Lauper was working on a musical version of the film. It would have been her second musical after the widely acclaimed "Kinky Boots." She has also appeared on Broadway as an actress.
- #024
The theatrical trailer included several scenes and lines of dialogue not used in the film: Katharine Parker asks Tess McGill to spray antistatic spray on her red dress before Katharine's welcome party; and footage of Tess and her friend Cynthia getting ready for Cynthia's wedding while talking about Tess's relationship with Jack Trainer.
- #025
Katharine Parker says she will turn 30 in about a week and will be almost the same age as Tess McGill. Her age is reinforced by a fundraising letter she writes to her Wellesley classmates stating that they graduated eight years earlier; many students graduate at 22 (sometimes they drop classes and have to repeat a year, which would make Katharine 30 now). Unlike Tess, Katharine did not have to spend eight years taking college courses; she came from a wealthy family and had connections to help her.
- #026
The film's cast includes two Oscar winners (Kevin Spacey and Olympia Dukakis) and five Oscar nominees (Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin).
- #027
Director Mike Nichols worked with composer Carly Simon twice: on this film and on Heartburn (1986).
- #028
This was the first box-office hit of Melanie Griffith's career. Although Pacific Heights (1990), Milk Money (1994) and Now and Then (1995) were successful on home video, as of 2021 this is also her last.
- #029
Mike Nichols initially intended to use The Eagles' song "Witchy Woman" in the opening title sequence.
- #030
In June 2017, it was announced that "Working Girl" would be adapted into a Broadway musical.
- #031
When Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) walks into the meeting the morning after first meeting Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), she stands in front of a window with the same pattern as the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977); Ford flew that spaceship as Han Solo in the film that launched his career.
- #032
Twentieth Century Fox promoted the film by mailing out its title ('Working Girl'), along with a button badge reading 'There's more to life than smiling, filing and dialing' from then-President George H. W. Bush's secretary, pens (about 15,000 were sent), Post-It notepads, and, for a select few, a coffee mug and paper clip holder.
- #033
It was the only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year that was also nominated for Best Original Song.
- #034
When Tess McGill returns to Katharine Parker's office after taking off her jewelry, she is carrying a carton of Lark cigarettes under her arm. Lark was a major cigarette brand in the 1960s, largely because of its famous charcoal filter and creative advertising campaigns known for their viral slogans.
- #035
It ranked 91st on the American Film Institute's 2002 list of the 100 greatest American love stories.
- #036
Alec Baldwin went on to play Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October (1990), the role Harrison Ford would take over in the sequels Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). In this film too, Melanie Griffith's character Tess McGill switches lovers in the same order, from Baldwin (Mick Dugan) to Ford (Jack Trainer).
- #037
Oliver Platt, Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin also appeared in Married to the Mob (1988).
- #038
Melanie Griffith clears her throat 24 times in the film.
- #039
Jack Trainer's home address, which he gives a taxi driver as Morton Street, is a real street in New York City, but there is no apartment building at 166 Morton Street matching the address Trainer uses.
- #040
Joan Cusack and Nora Dunn had previously worked together on Saturday Night Live (1975), both joining the cast in the show's eleventh season. Cusack left after her first year, while Dunn was still on the show when this film was released.
- #041
Katharine Parker eventually goes through Tess McGill's notebook, just as Tess initially went through Katharine's belongings.
- #042
Demi Moore was involved in the project in its early stages.
- #043
During a research session at Bear, Stearns & Co. on Wall Street, screenwriter Kevin Wade was given a tour of the firm by 30-year-old broker and vice president Liam Dalton. Wade later said: "As part of what he thought I wanted to hear, he looked at the cafeteria line as women passed and pointed from 25 yards away — secretary, executive, executive, secretary, etc. The corporate warfare atmosphere is a lot like the army. You can tell someone is more powerful just by looking at their uniform." Wade incorporated this information into the screenplay.
- #044
The film's closing scene references the first-season finale of Supergirl (2015), Better Angels (2016), a series that features Calista Flockhart, who has been married to Harrison Ford since 2010.
- #045
At the end of the film, when Jack Trainer shows Tess McGill the lunchbox he bought for her, he also includes "milk money." Melanie Griffith played the role of V in Milk Money (1994), which also starred Philip Bosco (Oren Trask).
- #046
Kevin Spacey and Oliver Platt later appeared together in A Time to Kill (1996).
- #047
This was Marceline Hugot's first film.
- #048
Kevin Spacey and Zach Grenier later appeared together in Seven (1995).
- #049
Alec Baldwin and Marceline Hugot appear in this film. Although their characters never interact, they would go on to act together in 30 Rock, which is also set in a corporate office in New York.
- #050
In the scene where Tess tries on the birthday gift she received from Mick, the presence of a plush wolf in a lamb costume beside her on the bed foreshadows Mick's deception regarding his relationship with Doreen.
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