Writing ladies as characters who exist outdoors of how they relate to the male characters has at all times been essential to Shelton, as evidenced by the way in which he crafted Susan Sarandon’s character within the baseball traditional “Bull Durham.” However whereas he tried to provide you with a solution to make Gloria her personal individual, she was so intently tied to Billy that for awhile, she appeared to easily be an extension of Harrelson’s character. As he defined to Leisure Weekly:

“I used to be attempting to determine what Gloria’s [Billy’s girlfriend] factor was. It needed to be so unconnected from the blokes. As a result of that is huge for me, to be sure that the ladies aren’t outlined by way of the man enterprise.”

Luckily, a bit of sunshine eavesdropping saved the day when Shelton heard somebody point out that they’d a buddy who actually wished to be on “Jeopardy!” That was all it took, and immediately Gloria had her personal function within the movie. Within the film, Billy and Gloria are on the run from a few mobsters to who they owe cash from a playing debt. Whereas Billy is attempting to hustle the cash in road ball video games round Los Angeles, Gloria has her personal plan: she’ll go on “Jeopardy!” and win sufficient cash to get them free and clear. Because of Shelton’s luck overhearing the proper dialog on the proper time, the character — and the film — lastly got here collectively. 

“There isn’t any logic to it,” mentioned Shelton. “It is type of the Hollywood dream.”