Iconic Hollywood actor, Richard Gere has opened up about why he believes he doesn’t score big film roles anymore.
“There are definitely movies that I can’t be in because the Chinese will say, ‘Not with him,'” Richard told The Hollywood Reporter. “I recently had an episode where someone said they could not finance a film with me because it would upset the Chinese.”
It is believed that the conflict exists due to comments Gere made back at the 1993 Academy Awards where he described China’s occupation of Tibet as a “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation.”
“Everyone was happy with the film,” Richard said. “I get calls from the heads of the studio. Went on Oprah. Then, out of nowhere, I get calls saying, ‘We don’t want you doing press.’ MGM wanted to make an overall deal with the Chinese. China told them, ‘If you release this film, we’re not buying it.’ And so, they dumped it.”
Following this, Gere starred in the 1997 thriller Red Corner as an American businessman who slams China’s legal system.
“Everyone was happy with the film,” Richard said. “I get calls from the heads of the studio. Went on Oprah. Then, out of nowhere, I get calls saying, ‘We don’t want you doing press.’ MGM wanted to make an overall deal with the Chinese. China told them, ‘If you release this film, we’re not buying it.’ And so, they dumped it.”
Richard was given a lifelong ban from China that year.
He added: “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.'”
“We had a secret phone call on a protected line. If I had worked with this director, he, his family would never have been allowed to leave the country ever again, and he would never work.”
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