{"id":946,"date":"2023-12-04T00:02:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T00:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=946"},"modified":"2023-12-04T00:02:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T00:02:51","slug":"richard-gere-admits-to-screwing-up-his-career-he-had-to-crawl-a-little-bit-to-get-scripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/?p=946","title":{"rendered":"Richard Gere admits to screwing up his career \u2013 he had to \u201ccrawl a little bit\u201d to get scripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Gere is one for the history books. The beloved actor became a worldwide celebrity after his performance in Pretty Woman, and since then, the now 73-year-old has been a heartthrob around the globe.<\/p>\n

Gere\u2019s career has been quite extraordinary, not least because he, at one point, was pretty much banned from making big-time movies. Instead, he focused on doing independent films for one very good reason. <\/p>\n

posterposter
\nHowever, looking back, it could\u2019ve ended in a very different way for Richard Gere, who revealed that he not only was close to not doing Pretty Woman \u2013 but that he had already screwed up his career at that point.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere wasn\u2019t exactly a showman growing up. His interest in films and the theater came way later in life. What was present from the beginning, though, were those sparkling eyes and energetic smile.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere \u2013 early life
\nBorn on August 31, 1949, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gere grew up on a farm near Syracuse, New York. He described his childhood as being \u201cnormal and all-American.\u201d Early on, sports and music were all he did.<\/p>\n

As a kid, Gere was a fantastic gymnast. Still, to this day, his family enjoys watching gymnastics.<\/p>\n

Richard played four instruments in high school and even composed several amateur musical shows. This was to be his first interaction with the stage. It took a while, however, before he decided it would be his thing.<\/p>\n

Gere started studying philosophy at the University of Massachusetts after getting a gymnastics scholarship. Yet, after only one year in college, he decided to drop out and follow his passion full-time.<\/p>\n

At this point, Richard Gere had fallen in love with acting. After a few disastrous shows, Gere decided to try something else and moved \u201cacross the pond\u201d to London, England.<\/p>\n

There, he landed the role of Danny Zuko in the musical Grease in London. When the musical was set up in New York, he decided to leave and move back to the States. He found work on Broadway in the early 1970s and began shining like a star.<\/p>\n

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Gere won critical recognition for his portrayal of a convicted murderer in Killer\u2019s Head and decided to do what many of his colleagues did. Instead of working only on the stage, he would transition towards the screen.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere \u2013 the story of \u2018Pretty Woman\u2019
\nIn 1977, Gere got his breakthrough role in the thriller Looking for Mr. Goodbar, starring alongside Diane Keaton. A year later, he landed a starring role in Days of Heaven, and in 1980, Gere got the title role in American Gigolo.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere was becoming an actor on the rise. He then became Hollywood\u2019s heartthrob after starring in Pretty Woman alongside Julia Roberts and An Officer and a Gentleman alongside Debra Winger.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere\u2019s performance in Pretty Woman sure was something special. The film is one of the greatest ever romcoms, but many might not know that Gere almost didn\u2019t star in it.<\/p>\n

In fact, it was Julia Roberts who convinced him to do the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I didn\u2019t know if I was doing this movie yet. She\u2019s across the desk, we\u2019re getting to know each other, we\u2019re flirty-flirty, nice-nice,\u201d Gere said in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [director Garry Marshall] calls up and it\u2019s kind of like, \u2018How\u2019s it going?\u2019 And I\u2019m going, \u2018Yeah, yeah,\u2019 and she takes a piece of paper. She turns it around, and she pushes it to me. It said, \u2018Please say yes.\u2019 It was so sweet. And I was like [miming talking on the phone], \u2018I just said yes.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Gere became very popular due to his many outstanding performances in romantic comedies. However, before the massive success with Pretty Woman, his acting career could\u2019ve been pretty much over, at least on the big screen.<\/p>\n

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LOS ANGELES – CIRCA 1986–Eddie Jillette (Richard Gere) travels into the Louisiana Bayou to find Losado the man who killed his partner. (Photo by Images\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a 1993 interview, Richard Geree explained that in the first place, he never really thought he\u2019d ever be doing Pretty Woman-type movies.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere admitted to screwing up his career before \u2018Pretty Woman\u2019
\nHowever, before even landing a prominent role, he felt he had screwed up his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty Woman is something I never would have done. Neither is An Officer and a Gentleman. I had no interest in these scripts whatsoever,\u201d Gere said in a 1993 interview with Movieline magazine. \u201cIt was the same person knocking my door down on both of them, Jeffrey Katzenberg, first at Paramount, then at Disney, who was one of my first friends out here and still is. At the point of Pretty Woman, I had been kind of out of things for a while. I consciously [had] just said, \u2018Going off to do other things\u2019 and I fucked up my career to the point where [people weren\u2019t saying], \u2018Well, let\u2019s get Gere to do that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI had to crawl a little bit to get scripts. Doing Internal Affairs, for instance, was a very difficult decision for me to make because, potentially, that could have been such a piece of shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing lead to another and I started to see something I could bring to this,\u201d Richard Gere recalled about the time when he considered Pretty Woman. \u201cBut it was a fairly mercantile decision, not a soul decision. Made the movie, had a great time making the movie and, probably because of the lack of pressure to do something important, I was able to explore other things in myself and as a man, too. I think I found a much freer way of working in that film, which I\u2019ve used ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What happened with Pretty Woman, we all know at this point. Although it helped carve the future for Richard Geree\u2019s career years later, he has quite a different opinion. In 2012, the 74-year-old spoke with Woman\u2019s Day Magazine, saying it was a \u201csilly\u201d movie he had forgotten about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve forgotten it\u201d
\nMoreover, Gere said that he believes his character, Edward Lewis, glorified Wall Street financiers and helped contribute to the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask me about that movie, but I\u2019ve forgotten it. That was a silly romantic comedy. This is a much more serious movie that has some real cause and effect,\u201d Gere said. \u201cIt made those guys seem dashing, which was so wrong,\u201d he added. \u201cThankfully, , today, we are all more sceptical of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gere became very popular due to his many outstanding performances in romantic comedies.<\/p>\n

The actor has been in some classic and legendary films but has yet to receive an Academy Award nomination. At the same time, it doesn\u2019t feel like awards and recognition are majorly his thing.<\/p>\n

Some actors desperately seek fame and are only willing to star in the most significant possible projects. But Richard Gere isn\u2019t one of them. Looking at his resume, there aren\u2019t any blockbuster or franchise films, no superhero movies or sequels.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career has never been thought out,\u201d he told the Independent. \u201cI never engineered a career. I just have always done whatever I wanted.\u201d
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

You\u2019re restricted by what you\u2019re offered but the incredible list of brilliant directors and actors and writers I\u2019ve worked with, you know I\u2019m kind of amazed myself that I\u2019ve been able to ride this career this long with such good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Richard Gere was banned for life from China
\nRichard Gere is a loving father with several children. Through the years, he\u2019s been married three times and has dated some of the world\u2019s most famous women, including Priscilla Presley, Cindy Crawford, and Carey Lowell.<\/p>\n

Today, Gere is happily married. This time, it\u2019s with someone much younger than him. His beautiful wife, Alejandra Silva, is 33 years his junior.<\/p>\n

One would think that with Gere\u2019s career \u2013 having spent an eternity in the Hollywood spotlight \u2013 he must have tunnel vision for all things film. Yet, as Gere described, one night in 1993 would change his career forever.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere became a Buddhist and a great friend of the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n

At the Academy Awards in 1993 \u2013 where Gere was to present the award for Best Art Director \u2013 he didn\u2019t read from his pre-agreed script. Instead, Gere used his platform to protest China\u2019s occupation of Tibet and its \u201chorrendous, horrendous human rights situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academy Award\u2019s producer Gil Cates was furious and vowed to ban Gere from future Oscars broadcasts.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere wouldn\u2019t let anyone stand in his way regarding his thoughts and beliefs. In 2008, he called for a boycott of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Due to his two different foundations \u2013 the International Campaign for Tibet and The Gere Foundation \u2013 he was banned for life from China by Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n

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Richard Gere and China became the worst of enemies, and China soon after became the world\u2019s second-biggest box-office market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you release this film, we\u2019re not buying it\u201d
\nAs a result, Richard Gere says he\u2019s been dropped several times by the most prominent studios simply because the Chinese people and its authorities don\u2019t want anything to do with him in their films.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are definitely movies that I can\u2019t be in because the Chinese will say, \u2018Not with him\u2019,\u201d Richard Gere explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently had an episode where someone said they could not finance a film with me because it would upset the Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1997, the much-praised Hollywood star was fully aware of how much the big film studios cared about their relationship with the Chinese market. After filming for his role in Red Corner \u2013 where he played the role of an American businessman being wrongfully accused in China \u2013 studio MGM made a staggering decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was happy with the film,\u201d Richard Gere said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get calls from the heads of the studio. Went on Oprah. Then, out of nowhere, I get calls saying, \u2018We don\u2019t want you doing press.\u2019 MGM wanted to make an overall deal with the Chinese. China told them, \u2018If you release this film, we\u2019re not buying it.\u2019 And so, they dumped it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ichard Gere may no longer be in the biggest and most lucrative Hollywood productions, but the most important thing is always to follow your passion, and that\u2019s precisely what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

Richard Gere enjoys doing independent films
\nThese days, Gere has dedicated his time to smaller films and indie projects \u2013 something he absolutely loves. Even though the Hollywood studios don\u2019t want to work with him, it hasn\u2019t affected him negatively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe studios are interested in the possibility of making huge profits,\u201d he explain<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m still making the same films that I was making when I started. Small, interesting, character-driven and narrative-driven stories. It hasn\u2019t impacted my life at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not interested in playing the wizened Jedi in your tentpole,\u201d he added. \u201cI was successful enough in the last three decades that I can afford to do these [smaller films] now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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