It has been more than four decades since an Armani-clad Richard Gere slunk around Los Angeles in Paul Schrader’s “American Gigolo.”
Now Gere, 75, and Schrader have reunited on “Oh, Canada,” an adaptation of Russell Banks’s 2021 novel, “Foregone,” about a dying documentarian who wants to confess, mostly to his wife.
Gere and Schrader were each dealing with end-of-life losses when they jumped into the project: Banks, a close friend of Schrader’s, had died from cancer in 2023. Gere’s father also died that year.
“We were coming from emotional places,” Gere said.
In addition to “Oh, Canada,” Gere made his American TV series debut last month in “The Agency,” an adaptation of the French hit “The Bureau.”
“My wife and I binge-watched the French show and genuinely loved it,” he said. “So when I got a call saying they wanted to do an English-language version, I thought, Hmm, that’s kind of a double-edged sword. One, yeah, that sounds interesting, but two, the French one was so good, would they screw this up?”
Gere was about to travel from Paris to Marrakech to meet his family when he called to talk about his admiration for former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the chef-humanitarian José Andrés, the Dylan song he can’t imagine not existing and the importance of Tibet. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
The New York Yankees
The Yankees were my team growing up. Mickey Mantle was my guy, and when my first son, Homer, was born, I brought him into the world of baseball. I was a big shot then. I was able to get into the owners’ boxes and meet the players with Homer, who became a wonderful young baseball player himself. It’s just one of those magic things that he and I have had for the last 20 years.
Le Bernardin
Eric Ripert not only is the best chef in the world, he’s the nicest guy in the world. He and I do a lot of Tibetan work together. Le Bernardin is fine dining at the top of the scale, but it’s very relaxed at the same time. It was also an early date with my wife and I, so it’s always a special place in our heart.
Bob Dylan’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’
He’s our Picasso. It’s unthinkable to me to be in the universe without “Visions of Johanna.” There’s two versions that are killers. One is a live acoustic recording at Carnegie Hall, which is very sweet and breaks your heart. Then there’s one on that record that Robbie Robertson plays on. It’s tougher. It’s very challenging. There’s some anger in it. But it’s my all-time favorite record.
Francis Bacon
I just went to a retrospective of his work in London. When I was a young man, it kind of blew my mind where he was coming from. It was a unique vision, but something that really touched me emotionally, spiritually. I was also making movies in London quite a bit. I was living in Chelsea, and I’d be walking out of my house at 5:30 or 6 in the morning to go to a studio. And across the street, Francis Bacon would just be coming home.
Miles Davis
My first instrument was a trumpet, and for whatever reason Al Hirt was more my taste. Then when I discovered Miles Davis, I said, “Well, no, that’s the guy.” He’s the most timeless of all of them.
Nancy Pelosi
I don’t think anyone in my lifetime has done more to uphold what it means to be an American. Her ability to get health care through for tens of millions of people who never had health care before. Her protections of women and children, families. Her genuine interest and advocacy for human rights everywhere.
José Andrés and the World Central Kitchen
There are very few people I admire as much as him. He walks the walk. This is a guy, whenever it’s needed, he really shows up. Kitchens show up, and people show up to man them, and food shows up. He’s singular in our world.
La Colombe d’Or Hotel
It’s a small, very charming boutique place in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, just up in the mountains from Nice. In the heyday of the Impressionists, they spent a lot of time there. So there’s Impressionist paintings all over the walls, hung up like nothing special, but each one of them is genius. It’s where I proposed to my wife.
Sencha on Set
When I make a movie, I say, “What I need is sencha tea all day long. That’s it.” And I’m pretty finicky about it, so it’s got to be a good version. Sencha is more of an infusion — delicate, kind of earthy, slightly sweet. A good sencha to me is just like, that’s mother’s milk.
Tibet
Before the Chinese invasion, it really was a place that took those higher ideals seriously — of impermanence and compassion and kindness and love — and made institutions around them, not around money and objects and power. They made a world around those ideals that everyone ultimately cherishes.
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