For decades, the priority of Richard Gere totally changed. Despite being an icon in the world of Hollywood, the actor has not starred in any success on the big screen for a long time. We tell you why he was not seen more in any movie.
Political activism and, above all, his involvement in the Tibet conflict is one of the reasons why the actor left the entertainment world. On one occasion, he offered to testify during his trial for his role in blockading the Open Arms ship. Just as it happened other times, he gave international visibility to the cases that interest him.
Although, among other statements, he visited Mexican President López Obrador and even criticized Donald Trump saying that “He is an idiot”, at the time he also had unkind words against Bush and Reagan for their policies in Central America.
However, none of these problems takes up so much of his time. Richard Gere like that of Tibet. Since he got to know the refugee camps in the area, the actor has been working to promote human rights and democracy in that region.
It is worth remembering that he is one of the most famous Buddhists in Hollywood and is even a close friend of the Dalai Lama. Few know it, but he was the first to know about and bless his wife’s first pregnancy: “I couldn’t mention it without first telling His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”
Solidarity: the decision not to make a movie again
The big question is why, despite having achieved great success on the big screen and having been an unprecedented heartthrob, it has been a long time since Richard Gere does not appear in any movie from Hollywood. And for this, there are two main reasons.
The most important is that you don’t need it. Unlike other actors of his generation, such as Robert de Niro, Gere has managed to establish a healthy economy.
He himself declared The Hollywood Reporter: “I’m not interested in playing a withered Jedi in the movie of the year. I’ve been successful enough in the last three decades to allow myself to make smaller movies now.”
The second reason is directly related to his activism in favor of Tibet and that goes back to the Oscars in 1993. It is worth remembering that when he presented himself to receive the award for best artistic direction, instead of offering a 30-second text, Gere took the opportunity to address the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, and said:
“What a horrendous, horrendous human rights situation there is in China” he launched without mincing words in front of everyone. As if that were not enough, he then asked the leader to take his troops and get the Chinese out of Tibet: “so that people can live as free and independent people again.”
For his part, at that time, the director of the Academy, Gil Cates, was furious and complained: “For someone I invite to present an award to use that time to postulate a personal political belief, I think it is not only outrageous, disgusting and dishonest” to which he also added: “Does anyone care about Richard Gere’s comments on China?
In this way, Richard Gere he was forced to turn his career around. However, it was not something complicated because the actor is a man accustomed to challenges from the beginning. Currently, already 73 years old, he has shown that he could reinvent himself and made it clear that he is more interested in focusing on his charitable work and not on the heartthrob he once was.
Would you like to see him again in some movie?
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Why Richard Gere Hardly Appears in Movies Anymore