Tess McGill
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Dec 21, 1988 · Working Girl: Directed by Mike Nichols. With Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin. When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss' job.
- (63K)
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Mike Nichols
- 1988-12-21
- Plot
- Production
- Release
- Reception
- In Other Media
- Sources
- External Links
Tess McGill is a working-class woman from Staten Island who dreams of climbing the corporate ladder to an executive position. Despite holding a business degree earned through years of evening classes, her boss and male co-workers at the stockbroker firm in lower Manhattan where she works as a secretary treat her like a bimbo, even though they benef...
Development
Screenwriter Kevin Wadewas inspired to write the screenplay after visiting New York City in 1984 and witnessing throngs of career women walking through the streets in tennis shoes while carrying their high-heels.
Casting
Melanie Griffith read the screenplay for Working Girl over a year before the production began, and expressed interest in playing the role of Tess McGill. Approximately a year later, Mike Nichols agreed to direct the film after reading the screenplay while shooting his film Biloxi Blues in Alaska. Following Nichols' attachment, Griffith had a formal audition for the role. Molly Ringwald auditioned but was deemed "too young." Nichols was so determined for Griffith to have the part that he threa...
Filming
Principal photography of Working Girl began on February 16, 1988, in New York City. Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of Staten Island in New York City. One half-day of shooting to complete the skiing accident scene took place in New Jersey. Four different buildings portrayed the offices of Petty Marsh—1 State Street Plaza; the Midday Club, which served as the company's club room; the lobby of 7 World Trade Center (one of the buildings destroyed in the September 11 attacks); a...
Box office
The film was released in the United States on December 21, 1988, in 1,051 theaters and grossed $4.7 million on its opening weekend.It went on to make $63.8 million in North America and $39.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $103 million.
Home media
Working Girl was released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1989 by CBS/Fox Video; "Family Portrait", one of the shorts from The Tracey Ullman Show featuring The Simpsons, was included before the movie on the VHS release. The film was released on DVD on April 17, 2001, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Special features included two theatrical trailers and three TV spots. The film was released on Blu-ray on January 6, 2015.The special features from the DVD release were carried over for the Blu-ray...
Critical response
Working Girl received critical acclaim upon release. It has an 83% "Fresh" rating as of 2024[update] on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, and an average score of 7/10. The site's consensus is; "A buoyant corporate Cinderella story, Working Girl has the right cast, right story, and right director to make it all come together." The film also has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 at Metacritic based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled...
Honors
The film is recognized by American Film Institutein these lists: 1. 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions– No. 91 2. 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: 2.1. "Let the River Run" – No. 91 3. 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers– No. 87
Television
Working Girl was also made into a short-lived NBC television series in 1990, starring Sandra Bullock as Tess McGill.It lasted 12 episodes.
Theatre
A Broadway musical version is in the works as of 2017, with a score to be written by Cyndi Lauper from Fox Stage Productions and Aged in Wood Productions. For Aged in Wood, the producers were Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler. Instead of a production company on Working Girl, the musical adaptation was switched to a license production by Aged in Wood Productions since Disney took over ownership of Fox Stage in 2019.
Reboot
A reboot of Working Girl has reported to be in development at Hulu, with Ilana Peña adapting the script. Selena Gomezis in talks to produce.
Carter, Ash; Kashner, Sam (2019). Life Isn't Everything: Mike Nichols, As Remembered By 150 of His Closest Friends. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-1-250-11286-6.
Working Girl at IMDbWorking Girl at AllMovieWorking Girl at the AFI Catalog of Feature FilmsWorking Girl at the TCM Movie DatabaseNominated for 6 Academy Awards; director Mike Nichols' witty, romantic look at life in the corporate jungle stars Melanie Griffith as Tess McGill, an ambitious secretary with a unique...
Feb 4, 2020 · Though she was only granted third billing due to her lack of fame, Melanie Griffith went on to deliver an indelible and Academy Award-nominated performance as Tess McGill in 1988’s Working...
Savvy New York City receptionist Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) gives her conniving boss, Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver), an excellent business tip, but Katharine simply steals the idea ...
- (48)
- Mike Nichols
- R
- Melanie Griffith
Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a 30-year-old secretary at Petty Marsh, a Manhattan financial conglomerate. An ambitious hard worker, Tess's goal is to move out of the secretarial pool and into an executive position, but she faces numerous obstacles.
“Working Girl” is about a young woman who very definitely wants to make money in mergers. This is Melanie Griffith’s movie in the same way “The Graduate” belonged to Dustin Hoffman. She was not an obvious casting choice, but she is the right one.
