Jason Alexander got "punched many times" because of his role in 'Pretty Woman'.

Jason Alexander

Jason Alexander

The 61-year-old actor portrayed lawyer Philip Stuckey in the 1990 classic and he admitted the character made him "hated" by women around the world, who had no hesitation in telling him what they thought of his character's actions.

He said: "I was known around the world as the asshole who tried to rape Julia Roberts so women hated me.

"I would walk down the street and women would say mean things to me.

"I got punched many times. I got spit on by one woman. It was a rough year."

Jason revealed he wasn't even director Garry Marshall's choice for the role because the filmmaker felt he was too "little" and "baby-faced" to be convincing.

Speaking to Robin Bronk on the 'At Home With The Creative Coalition' podcast, he said: "It was a unique situation because when I got [Pretty Woman], I fully understood that the director did not want me. I was not what Garry Marshall wanted.

"I had auditioned for him, he was very sweet. He basically said, 'you're too young. You're too baby-faced. You're too little.'

"There were other people he tried to get and I don't know why but they couldn't make a deal... I got the part because they couldn't make a deal with the actor they wanted and they were desperate."

'Pretty Woman' actress Julia Roberts previously revealed the movie was initially called '3,000' and was much "grittier" and darker.

Speaking in conversation with Julia, Patricia Arquette said: "So many, many, many years ago, one of my early auditions was for a movie called '3,000'.

"Most people don't know that 3,000 was the original 'Pretty Woman' script. And the ending was really heavy."

Julia recalled how the original ending saw her character thrown "out of a car" before the driver "threw the money on top of her, as memory serves, and just drove away, leaving her in some dirty alley."

The "small movie company" who were making the film folded after the actress got the part, and she was baffled to learn it was then going to be made by Disney instead.

She recalled: "I thought, 'Went to Disney? Are they going to animate it?'

"Garry Marshall came on, and because he's a great human being, he felt it would only be fair to meet me, since I had this job for three days and lost it. And they changed the whole thing. And it became more something that is in my wheelhouse.

"I couldn't do ['3,000'] then. I couldn't do it now. Thank God it fell apart."

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