Paying The Price For A China Ban

From American Gigolo through Pretty Woman, Richard Gere was at the top of studio A-lists, but speaking up passionately in defense of Tibet has taken him down the indie road that led to two new films

- Tatiana Siegel

When Richard Gere walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards in 1993, there was no way he could have known that the night would have repercussions for his career more than 20 years later. Invited to present the award for best art direction, he skipped the scripted patter to protest China’s occupation of Tibet and its “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation.” The late Gil Cates, the show’s producer, was furious, calling the political speeches at that year’s awards show —Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins also went off script to speak on behalf of Haitian refugees — “distasteful and dishonest” and vowing to ban all three from future Oscars broadcasts.

Undaunted, Gere, a longstanding friend of Tibet’s exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, didn’t stop speaking out. In 2008, he called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, and he continues to support the cause through his two foundations. Not surprisingly, he has been banned for life from the country.

But now that Hollywood is cozying up ever closer to China, and studios are careful not to From American Gigolo through Pretty Woman, Richard Gere was at the top of studio A-lists, but speaking up passionately in defense of Tibet has taken him down the indie road that led to two new films offend the government that oversees what has become the world’s second-biggest box-office market, the star also is paying a price. “There are definitely movies that I can’t be in because the Chinese will say, ‘Not with him,’ ” he acknowledges matter-of-factly. “I recently had an episode where someone said they could not finance a film with me because it would upset the Chinese.”