Earth Girls Are Easy

Lore & Background

The film follows Valerie Gail, a manicurist in the San Fernando Valley, who is dissatisfied with her fiancé Dr. Ted Gallagher. After he brings home a nurse, Valerie kicks him out. Meanwhile, three furry aliens from planet Jhazalla crash their spaceship into her swimming pool. Valerie and her friend Candy Pink help the aliens blend in by shaving their fur, revealing attractive human-like forms. The aliens quickly absorb American pop culture through television, and Valerie falls for the alien Mac. After a series of comedic misadventures involving police chases and a hospital visit, Valerie realizes she loves Mac and boards the spaceship as it takes off.

Reader's Guide

Earth Girls Are Easy is notable for its blend of science fiction, musical numbers, and romantic comedy, reflecting the late 1980s pop culture aesthetic. The film's production faced delays and budget cuts after director Julien Temple's previous film failed at the box office, leading to a reduced budget of $10 million. Despite positive previews, legal entanglements delayed its release until May 1989. Box office returns were low, earning only a third of its production cost. Critical reception was mixed but generally favorable, with a 68% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 66. The film has gained a cult following and inspired the music video for Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea's 2015 song "Pretty Girls." A staged reading of a musical play version occurred in 2001, with Julie Brown reprising her role.

Did You Know?

• The film's plot is based on the song 'Earth Girls Are Easy' from Julie Brown's 1984 EP Goddess in Progress.
• The role of Valerie Gail was offered to Madonna and Molly Ringwald, but both rejected it.
• The film underwent more than five months of post-production tinkering, including the removal of the production number 'I Like 'em Big and Stupid'.
• The film served as inspiration for the music video for the 2015 song 'Pretty Girls' by Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea.

Production & Development

The film's origins trace back to Julie Brown's 1984 EP Goddess in Progress, specifically the track that gave the project its name. Warner Bros. Pictures picked up the concept and planned a musical comedy with Brown, Terrence E. McNally, and Charlie Coffey penning the screenplay. Originally targeted for a 1986 start, the project stalled after Julien Temple's prior effort, Absolute Beginners, became a box-office disappointment. Madonna and Molly Ringwald were both offered the lead role of Valerie Gail but turned it down, prompting Warner Bros. to abandon the project entirely. Several other studios expressed interest but refused to let Temple direct. French bank Crédit Lyonnais eventually agreed to finance the picture, conditional on the budget being slashed from an estimated fourteen million dollars down to four million. The De Laurentiis Entertainment Group stepped in as distributor, and principal photography finally got rolling in late 1987.

Plot & Narrative

Set in the San Fernando Valley, the story follows Valerie Gail, a manicurist at the Curl Up & Dye salon, whose engagement to Dr. Ted Gallagher has grown cold. After a night of humiliation involving Ted's nurse Robin, Valerie kicks him out and smashes his things. That same evening, three furry aliens from planet Jhazalla—Mac, Zeebo, and Wiploc—crash their damaged ship into her swimming pool after a fight between two of them. Valerie, initially frightened, invites them inside and calls her surf-bum friend Woody to help drain the pool. The aliens rapidly absorb American culture through television. At the salon, Candy Pink shaves their fur, revealing handsome human-like faces. A nightclub outing showcases their athleticism and extraordinarily long tongues, and Valerie and Mac begin a romance. Ted's return triggers a police confrontation that ends with his arrest and the wedding called off. Valerie and Mac discover they are anatomically compatible. The film builds to a freeway chase, a hospital scene where Ted learns the aliens possess two hearts, and Valerie's final choice to board Mac's ship and leave Earth behind.

Cast & Creative Direction

The ensemble cast includes Geena Davis as Valerie, Jeff Goldblum as Ted, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, Julie Brown, Charles Rocket, and Michael McKean. Notably, the lead was first offered to Madonna and Molly Ringwald before Davis accepted. Director Julien Temple stamped the project with his own sensibilities: a soundtrack of then-contemporary pop songs, a visual homage to The Nutty Professor (1963), and a brief cameo by media personality Angelyne, whom Temple dubbed "the patron Saint of Los Angeles." Temple's exacting standards, however, created friction on set. Producer Tony Garnett recalled that the initial assembly cut was "a problem." Post-production stretched beyond five months, during which numerous scenes were excised—including a full production number titled "I Like 'em Big and Stupid," a different version of which survives in the club sequence and on DVD extras. Reshoots also injected the song "Cause I'm a Blonde" into the picture late in the process, by which point the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group had already filed for bankruptcy.

Release & Aftermath

Despite the production turbulence, the completed film earned several very positive preview screenings that caught the attention of a long list of potential distributors, including Nelson Entertainment, New World, MGM/UA, Carolco Pictures, Lorimar Studios, and 20th Century Fox. In the end, Vestron Pictures acquired the distribution rights. The picture made its festival debut at the Toronto Festival of Festivals in September 1988, with a theatrical release originally scheduled for the following February. Legal entanglements, however, pushed the general release back to May 1989. The box-office returns were ultimately low, capping a journey that had taken the film from a Warner Bros. musical-comedy development slot, through a bank-financed production with a slashed budget, to a small distributor's slate. The film's winding path through the late-1980s studio landscape—spanning multiple studios, a French bank, and a bankrupt distributor—gives it a distinctly behind-the-scenes character that fans often note alongside its on-screen charm.