Left out in the cold
> Richard Gere believes his vocal stance on Tibet is costing him blockbuster roles as Hollywood fears alienating China
himself banned as an Academy Award presenter after he chose to denounce China’s occupation of Tibet and its “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation”.
In a similar vein, Gere also called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Gere’s activities have not just made Hollywood apparently reluctant to cast him in big films. He says they once resulted in him being banished from an independentlyfinanced, non-studio film which was not even intended for a Chinese release.
“There was something I was going to do with a Chinese director, and two weeks before we were going to shoot, he called saying: ‘Sorry, I can’t do it’,” Gere recalled.
“We had a secret phone call on a protected line. If I had worked with this director, he and his family would never have been allowed to leave the country ever again, and he would never work.”
Fortunately, the actor made it clear he was not upset about not being given the roles for studio blockbusters.
“I’m not interested in playing the wizened Jedi in your tentpole,” he said. “I was successful enough in the last three decades that I can afford to do these [smaller films] now.”
Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995.
In November 2002, he married model and actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000 and is named after Gere’s and Lowell’s fathers, as well as the Tibetan name Jigme.
In September 2013, the two separated after 11 years of marriage. The couple spent three years in highly-contested divorce proceedings in Manhattan Supreme Court and the case was settled in October 2016.
During his divorce from Lowell, the New York Post estimated Gere’s worth to be US$250 million (RM1.07 billion).
He will be seen next in Joseph Cedar’s new film, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. – The
Independent