In his heyday, Richard Gere was everywhere, cementing himself as a Hollywood heartthrob and leading star thanks to roles in American Gigolo, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Unfaithful, The Hoax, and Arbitrage, among others.
However, there is one place, one of great significance of any actor, that he wasn't in — for 20 years — and that was the Oscars, which banned him in 1993.
Now, just over ten years since it's the ban has been lifted, the 76-year-old has given rare insight into how he reacted to the Academy's blacklisting.
In an interview with Variety about his new documentary on the Dalai Lama, a longtime friend of his, The Wisdom of Happiness, Richard, for years an advocate for Tibetan rights, confessed he "didn't take it particularly personally," when he was banned from presenting at or attending the Academy Awards.
It was his very advocacy for Tibet that sparked the Oscars banning, when he went off script while presenting at the show in 1993 and denounced China's policies in the conflict-ridden region, whose legal status has been subject of ongoing debate for decades, with Tibetan independence advocates arguing that the autonomous zone was an independent state prior to its incorporation into China in the 1950s.
"I didn't think there were any bad guys in the situation," Richard went on, adding: "I do what I do and I certainly don't mean anyone any harm. I mean to harm anger. I mean to harm exclusion."
He maintained: "I mean to harm human rights abuses, but I try to stay as close to where His Holiness comes from…" referring to the 14th Dalai Lama, who turned 90 earlier this year. "That everyone is redeemable, and in the end, everyone has to be redeemed or none of us [are]. So in that sense, I don't take it personally."
As for whether his previous banning (he returned to present the very year it expired, in 2013) has ever come up with the spiritual leader, Richard said it "never came up."
"They'll tell him once in a while if I get an award or something and he sends a note, congratulating me, that he's happy for me, but that's about as close as it gets to actually talking about movies," he shared.
Richard first met the Dalai Lama about 45 years ago, and joined the forthcoming documentary as an executive producer after co-directors Philip Delaquis and Barbara Miller showed him an early cut. "I've never worked this hard to get a film that I've been associated with to be seen in the world," he said.
He continued: "I think this is important enough that I have to give my last bit of energy to put this out there for people to see. At the very least, it will put a seed in the minds of people who see it."
"When I originally saw it about a year ago, I thought about his 90th birthday coming up. I said, 'This is terrific and I think we can make it even better' … Everything was coming together and I was thinking, yes, this is the center of a celebration of this extraordinary life."