Richard Gere has quipped that he had "no chemistry" with Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman'.

The 75-year-old actor has reflected on his role as rich businessman Edward Lewis in the 1990 rom-com classic and poked fun at the part being "criminally underwritten".

Speaking at a masterclass at Venice Film Festival at the weekend, he said: “I was playing a character that was almost criminally underwritten.

“It was basically a suit and a good haircut.”

He then said he and 56-year-old Julia's prostitute character Vivian Ward "had no chemistry".

He joked: “I mean, no chemistry.

“This actor and this actress obviously had no chemistry between them… I haven't seen that in a long time.

That’s a sexy scene.”

Richard went on to reveal that one of the most iconic scenes in flick, where he seductively lifts her on top of a piano in the hotel ballroom and caresses her body, wasn't scripted.

He recalled: “We didn’t know how we would use it later. It ended up being integral to the film.

“Garry said to me, ‘What do you do late at night in a hotel?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m usually jet lagged, [that] would be the time I’m in a hotel. So I’m up all night and usually there’s a ballroom somewhere or a bar, and I’ll find a piano and I’ll play the piano.'

“He said, ‘Well, let’s do something with that. So we just basically improvised this scene, and he said, ‘Play something moody.’ I just started playing something moody that was this character’s interior life.”