50 Fun Facts About Working Girl

Who directed Working Girl?

He agreed to direct after reading the script while shooting Biloxi Blues in Arkansas.

In what year was Working Girl released?

It opened in the US and Canada on December 21 in 601 theaters before expanding over Christmas.

Tess McGill commutes to Manhattan from which New York borough?

Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of the borough, and the film opens and closes on its ferry.

Who plays Katharine Parker, Tess's scheming boss?

She earned an Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for the role.

What is the name of Harrison Ford's mergers-and-acquisitions character?

He works at a rival firm and does not reveal who he is when he meets Tess at a bar the night before their meeting.

How did Tess earn her business degree?

Despite the degree, her first boss and co-workers treat her like a bimbo while benefiting from her instincts.

Tess gets fired from her first job after doing what?

Her boss had fixed her up with a rival executive who only wanted cocaine and sex; the message amused her colleagues.

What is the name of the mergers-and-acquisitions firm where Tess works for Katharine?

Four different Manhattan buildings stood in for its offices, including the lobby of 7 World Trade Center.

Tess's big idea is for Trask Industries to buy what?

Katharine dismisses the idea to Tess's face, then plans to pass it off as her own.

How does Katharine end up out of the office and in the hospital?

She breaks her leg and asks Tess to house-sit, which is how Tess finds the notes revealing the planned theft.

What is the name of Tess's best friend who helps with her makeover?

Joan Cusack's performance earned one of the film's two Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations.

Tess passes out in a cab after mixing alcohol with what?

Jack takes her to his apartment; she leaves the next morning wrongly believing they slept together.

What does Tess accidentally leave at Katharine's apartment that exposes her deception?

It contains Jack's phone numbers and the time of the merger meeting, which Katharine then crashes.

Katharine claims Jack follows a strict ethical code because he was once accused of what?

When Tess repeats the story at the meeting, Jack insists it was all a lie.

How does Tess finally convince Trask that the radio idea was hers?

Katharine cannot explain where the plan came from and is fired on the spot.

On her first day at Trask, Tess mistakes her new assistant Alice for whom?

Tess insists on treating Alice as a colleague, the opposite of how Katharine treated her.

Who wrote and performed the film's theme song 'Let the River Run'?

It plays over the opening shots of commuters on the Staten Island Ferry and reached No. 49 on the Hot 100.

'Let the River Run' made its creator the first solo artist to win which three awards for one song?

The song was composed, written and performed entirely by a single artist, a first for that trio of honors.

Where did 'Let the River Run' peak on the Billboard Hot 100?

It did better on the Adult Contemporary chart, reaching No. 11 in early 1989.

Which label released the Working Girl soundtrack album in August 1989?

Scored by Carly Simon and Rob Mounsey, it peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200.

How much did Working Girl gross worldwide?

Of that, $63.8 million came from the US and Canada and $39.2 million from the rest of the world.

How many Academy Award nominations did Working Girl receive?

They included Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Melanie Griffith; only the song won.

Which two Working Girl actresses were both nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar?

Neither won; the Oscar that year went to Geena Davis for The Accidental Tourist.

How many Golden Globes did Working Girl win?

From six nominations it took Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress for Griffith, Supporting Actress for Weaver and Best Song.

The film's composer received a BAFTA nomination in which category?

The film's other BAFTA nods went to Griffith for Best Actress and Weaver for Best Supporting Actress.

Screenwriter Kevin Wade was inspired by seeing New York career women doing what in 1984?

The image of commuters switching shoes became the film's opening motif.

The director read the Working Girl script while shooting which film in Arkansas?

Melanie Griffith had read the screenplay over a year before production and wanted the part of Tess.

Which actress auditioned for Tess but was deemed 'too young'?

The director was so set on Griffith that he threatened to leave the film if the studio would not hire her.

Which studio made Working Girl?

It agreed to cast Griffith only after Weaver and Ford, both major stars, were aboard.

Why did the studio finally agree to cast Melanie Griffith as Tess?

Griffith had lobbied for the role for more than a year before her formal audition.

Principal photography on Working Girl began in February 1988 where?

Filming wrapped on April 27 with the final sequence shot aboard the Staten Island Ferry.

Where was the half-day shoot for Katharine's ski-slope mishap filmed?

Nearly everything else was shot in New York City, much of it in New Brighton on Staten Island.

The lobby of which building, later destroyed on 9/11, doubled as part of Tess's firm's offices?

Other stand-ins were 1 State Street Plaza, the Midday Club and the L. F. Rothschild Building.

Which building appears at the end of the film as Trask Industries' headquarters?

Tess phones Cyn from her new office there to tell her she has made it.

After Griffith arrived on set high on cocaine, how long was the shoot shut down?

Nichols made her pay the cost of the lost day herself, about $80,000, rather than report her to the studio.

How much did Griffith say she had to pay out of pocket for the lost shooting day?

She called it 'a very humbling, embarrassing experience' and entered rehab three weeks after filming ended.

What appeared before the movie on the 1989 VHS release?

'Family Portrait' preceded the film on the CBS/Fox Video tape, a year before The Simpsons series debuted.

What grade did CinemaScore audiences give Working Girl?

Critics were kind too: 83 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes and a 73 on Metacritic.

Which critic gave Working Girl four stars and said its plot was 'put together like clockwork'?

The Washington Post's Rita Kempley called Griffith 'luminous as Marilyn Monroe'.

Working Girl ranks No. 91 on which American Film Institute list?

'Let the River Run' is also No. 91 on the AFI songs list, and the film is No. 87 on 100 Cheers.

Who played Tess McGill in the short-lived 1990 NBC TV series?

The series lasted only 12 episodes, four years before Speed made her a star.

Which pop star wrote the score for the stage musical of Working Girl?

The show premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in November 2025 after years in development.

The Working Girl musical premiered in November 2025 at which theater?

Disney's takeover of Fox Stage in 2019 turned it into a licensed production by Aged in Wood.

A 2022 reboot of Working Girl was reported in development at which streaming service?

Ilana Peña was adapting the script and Selena Gomez was in talks to produce.

What does Tess discover her live-in boyfriend doing when she returns home from house-sitting?

She dumps him and throws herself into pushing the Trask proposal through using Katharine's connections.

When Katharine crashes the merger meeting, what does she reveal about Tess?

Unable to defend herself, Tess apologizes and leaves, returning a day later only to clean out her desk.

Where does Tess work at the start of the film?

It is in lower Manhattan, and her boss there fixes her up with a rival executive as a favor.

In what month and year did Working Girl arrive on Blu-ray?

The DVD had come out in April 2001 with two trailers and three TV spots, all carried over.

A 2020 New York Magazine list counted Working Girl among the top films to do what?

Rain Man took the Best Picture prize at the 1989 ceremony.

How long after filming wrapped did Griffith enter a rehabilitation facility?

By her own account the 1988 shoot was marked by cocaine and temptation; the director was quietly fighting an addiction of his own at the time.