May 18th 2024.
Richard Gere, a Hollywood icon and heart-throb of the 1980s, has recently discussed his dramatic transformation for his newest film. Titled "Oh, Canada", the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Gere alongside Uma Thurman and Jacob Elordi.
At 74 years old, Gere is known for his roles in popular films such as An Officer and a Gentleman and American Gigolo, his first collaboration with Schrader. He was considered a screen heart-throb throughout the 1980s and 90s, and even sparked frenzy among fans with his on-screen romance with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride.
But in Oh, Canada, Gere takes on a completely different role as an aged, terminally ill, and tormented documentary filmmaker and writer. He agrees to have the final testament of his life filmed by his former students, revealing that his character, Leonard Fife, fled to Canada from the US to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Gere attended the Cannes Film Festival at age 74 to promote the film, once again captivating audiences with his performance.
In the movie, Fife is 81 in the present-day scenes, but also appears in flashbacks looking more like his usual self. For the modern moments, Gere's Fife is reliant on a wheelchair and round-the-clock nursing care as he slowly succumbs to cancer. The once Golden Globe-winning heart-throb is almost unrecognizable with thinning hair, lines etched firmly into his face, and bruised skin.
Gere described his big transformation as "freaky" during the Cannes press conference for Oh, Canada. He even mentioned how much he resembled his late father, Homer, who passed away at the impressive age of 100 in March 2023. "I wanted to embrace as much as I could of my father," Gere shared with The Agency and other press. "I do look like my father too - it was kind of freaky when we were going through the process of ageing in the film, how much I saw myself, so many years from now, what I was going to look like then, assuming that I live to be as old as my father."
The actor also reflected on the surreal experience of seeing himself age on screen, something he has been doing since he was 26 years old. "Actors actually see your face and your energy and everything from the time you're [young]. I was 26 when I started making films. So you see yourself on film, go through your whole life," he explained. "They have a compilation of my films and it's a really bizarre experience of seeing your life in front of you in two minutes. I see the characters, but I see myself - I was that person who was pretending to be that character."
In Oh, Canada, Fife is portrayed as an unreliable narrator of his own life due to his failing memory. This aspect of the character is something that Gere related to, as he had personal experience caring for his father before his passing. "He was in a wheelchair and he was clearly on his last days, but the way his mind was coming in and out of many different realities and many levels of consciousness - I think that's what I related to very much in the script," he shared.
Aside from his successful acting career, Gere is also a father of three. He shares his oldest son, Homer, 24, with his ex-wife Carey Lowell, and has two young boys, aged five and three, with his current wife, Alejandra Silva. Oh, Canada premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, and a release date for the UK is yet to be announced.
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