Richard Gere is a veteran actor, starring in over 40 films, as well as a committed philanthropist. He has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the plight of the Tibetan people under violent occupation by the Chinese communist regime.
He is the founding chairman of the Tibet House in New York City and has addressed the U. S. Congress, European Parliament, and United Nations Human Rights Commission on the plight of the Tibetan people.
He also has raised money to help find a cure for AIDS. Some of his most noted films include An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, and Chicago for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
On Sept. 7, Richard Gere's new film The Hunting Party comes out. Recently we had a chance to sit down and talk with him.
Epoch Times: What attracted you to this film?
Richard Gere: A really unusual script. About an area that I was curious about that I had been to before. I wasn't actually in Bosnia before; I was in Macedonia and Kosovo and Albania, so I had an interest in that area anyhow, and I was in Bosnia during all that [war] craziness. I would not call myself an expert on Bosnia, but I certainly had an understanding of that area and what had happened with the fall of former Yugoslavia. [The film] was this interesting amalgam of that—of the society falling apart, and essentially a slapstick road-movie. So it was an interesting challenge for us to find a way to do both of those things in one movie, find these two textures to put together.
ET: You worked for the United Nations before, and this film criticizes the U.N. quite a bit. Will your former colleagues be upset with you?
RG: It criticizes the international community in general, not the people working at the U.N. personally. Bill Clinton has said that one regret he has is that he did not go to Bosnia sooner. Too many people died, and it could have stopped earlier, and in fact when he did take it seriously and showed 'I'm the new sheriff in town," that war was over very quickly. So the international community can do things, but they choose not to and they usually pick the wrong ones, like Iraq was the wrong place to go; they created the problem there, they did not solve anything. So I don't have any problem talking about the lack of commitment on the part of the U.N., at the same time, I know people there that have done extraordinary things and continue to.
ET: Do you think the U.N. has lost its relevance?
RG: Yes it has, because the U.S. has made them irrelevant. Whenever there is a decision, U.S. still moves unilaterally.
ET: Did you feel any animosity toward you as an American in Bosnia?
RG: No animosity. Not at all. I think, people around the world are very clear on that George Bush and Americans are not the same thing. Americans are very compassionate people. If you do fundraising, you fundraise in America because people here are generous.
ET: I know you are very supportive of the Tibetan cause. There is currently a resolution in the U.S. Congress to boycott the Beijing Olympics of 2008 on account of the poor human rights situation in China. What do you think of it?
RG: It's a tricky thing. First of all, the human rights abuses have to be talked about, of course. And whatever relationship we or Europe or anyone else has with the Chinese, that has to be part of the dialogue. It can never be forgotten. When I talk to the administration, they assure me that it comes up equally—trade, security, all these things come up in the same breath as human rights abuses, and I tend to believe them when they tell me that.
Now, the Chinese, I sincerely believe, have a right to their own greatness, have the right to achieve everything they want to achieve, as a country and personally. So I don't want anything that stops them from achieving that, but part of achieving that is being responsible too. Great countries are responsible countries. So that is the voyage that we have to encourage them to take. I don't have any problem with the Olympics as long as the situation with Tibet, dissident Chinese, and poor Chinese, which is above 70 percent of the population, are discussed also… To continue the dialogue, continue bringing it up is very important.
Richard Gere has just finished working on the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, co-starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Heath Ledger. Next for him is Nights in Rodanthe, in which he reunites with his Unfaithful co-star Diane Lane in his role as a doctor traveling through a small inn in North Carolina, where he goes through a life-changing experience. Also on the horizon is Hachiko: A Dog's Story, which will be his first G-rated film. He has also expressed a wish to do a musical again if the right one comes along.
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