'Mysterious call on secure line': Richard Gere 'out' because of China

Famous American actor Richard Gere can no longer access blockbuster projects…, and it's probably due to a denunciation dating back to 1993.

It was in 1993 that everything changed, when the headliner of Pretty Woman intervened at the Oscars to present the nominees. Once at the pedestal, Richard Gere wanted to highlight and denounce the Chinese occupation of Tibet. In 2017, he confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that this event, and the exposure of his political position, had deterred Hollywood studios to collaborate with him. He even confided that an independent Chinese director had felt obliged to cancel his presence at the casting because of the incident, reports the JeuxVideo platform. According to the actor, Gere and the screenwriter had to communicate via “a secret call on a secure line”.

Not only was Richard Gere banned from Hollywood studios, he was also banned from the Oscars (and at the same time, banned from entering China). The repercussions don't seem to affect him, however. “I was quite famous for the previous three decades. I can afford to make smaller films now,” he said.

Although less visible, the actor is no less active: he continues, in fact, to work for more discreet productions. At 75, he has, for example, played in the film Oh, Canada broadcast at the Cannes Film Festival last May.

Committed to humanitarian actions, the actor, through his Gere Fondation, acts in support of the Tibetan cause, a country with which he shares the practice of Buddhism, informs JeuxVideo.