February has long been rom-com season since Valentine’s Day is smack in the middle of it. This year has brought two of this kind, What Men Want and Isn’t It Romantic. The latter is a self-aware parody of the genre itself, calling out the many unrealistic clichés and tropes in films such as 13 Going on 30 and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
CinemaBlend’s Senior Video Producer Jeff McCobb recently sat down with the stars of Isn’t It Romantic. According to the film’s lead, Rebel Wilson, who also is a producer on the film, they watched A LOT of rom-coms in preparation for the film. There even used to be a scene that called back to one of Julia Robert’s most iconic roles. In Wilson’s words:
There is a bathtub scene that is reminiscent of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. That was so funny that I’m pretty sure is totally gone. That will be on the DVD, God that was funny!
Cool story, Rebel! If only we knew what is was! If you haven’t seen Pretty Women in a while, take a look at the scene Rebel Wilson is talking about below!
Okay, I can see how this would have been a good scene to spoof. Just imagine Rebel Wilson (who usually has a beautiful voice) horribly singing Prince’s Kiss as Liam Hemsworth, who plays her “love interest,” lovingly sighs at her interrupting his phone call. It would have been a hilarious way to spoof how filtered men can be in rom-coms, often not even finding flaws or annoyances in their girlfriend’s behaviors.
During the CinemaBlend interview, Adam Devine jumped in saying they did enough improv in Isn’t It Romantic for a five-hour movie. Rebel Wilson also said the huge first date between her and Liam Hemsworth was supposed to go on way longer then is does in the film. It sounds like the actors had a lot of funny material to work with. I already can’t wait for the home release!
Speaking of Julia Roberts, Rebel Wilson also revealed that they thought it would be fun for her to have a cameo toward the end of the movie, but she ended up being busy. It would have been a great homage to all of the rom-coms Roberts was in the ‘90s, and would have been great to see her poke fun at the genre that jumpstarted her career.
Isn’t It Romantic follows Rebel Wilson’s character Natalie, who is attacked at a subway station, knocked out and wakes up in the middle of a typical PG-13 romantic comedy alternative reality. She meets Liam Hemsworth while her co-worker (Adam Devine) finds love with Priyanka Chopra’s character Isabella. Take a look at the film’s stars talking about the cut scene:
Isn’t It Romantic is currently in theaters in a weekend box office horse race with Happy Death Day 2U and Alita: Battle Angel, which also opened this President’s Day weekend.
