Why the Oscars Banned Richard Gere for 20 Years

Richard Gere has never won an Oscar, and if the story is true, he may not win one anytime soon. In fact, the actor, who first rose to fame in films like “American Gigolo” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” didn't appear at the Oscars for two decades after he was reportedly blacklisted from the awards. following a political speech he gave in 1993.

In case you didn't catch the moment in question live, it's worth pointing out that Gere was a sex symbol and a big deal in Hollywood in the early '90s, and letting him present the Oscar for Best Art Direction was undoubtedly good for the the show's still high ratings. When he took the stage that night, America was still gripped by “Pretty Woman” fever, and Gere would go on to make some of his best films (including “Primal Fear” and “Chicago”) over the next decade. Before presenting the award to the artists who worked on “Howards End”, however, Gere decided to take advantage of his moment in the spotlight to talk about something completely unrelated to the subject at hand: human rights violations in China.

In a preamble to his speech that lasted about a minute and 40 seconds, Gere addressed Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping directly, noting that since a billion people could be watching the Oscars, and they were broadcast in China, the employee could be watching “right”. now with their children and grandchildren.” Gere then cited the country's history of reported human rights violations and urged the crowd to “send love, truth and some sanity to Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing, let him take his troops and get the Chinese out of Tibet and let them these people live again as free and independent people.”

A longtime Buddhist and activist, Gere studied with the Dalai Lama and in 1999 he even told a journalist he spoke to the Tibetan people that he had endured decades of solitary confinement under China's rule. By the time of his Oscar speech, Gere had already been outspoken about Tibetan freedom, co-founding the organization Tibet House in 1987. The actor's dedication to the cause remains to this day; in July he joined an upcoming documentary about the Dalai Lama as executive producer. When Gere gave his impromptu speech (which you can, ironically, watch now on the official Oscars YouTube channel), the Oscars audience applauded, but producer Gil Cates apparently hated it so much that he later said he wouldn't invite Gere back.

In an LA Times article published shortly after the Oscars broadcast, Cates was quoted as saying, “Does anyone care about Richard Gere’s comments about China? It’s arrogant.” The awards show producer badmouthed Gere and fellow hosts Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, who used their time to talk about an urgent crisis involving Haitian refugees. detained at Guantánamo due to his HIV status. “[For] someone I invite to present an award to use this time to postulate a personal political belief that I find is not only outrageous, it is distasteful and dishonest,” Cates told the outlet. He concluded: “I wouldn't invite them to my house, and I won't invite them to a future show.”

The ban didn't last forever, although it may have had lasting repercussions on Gere's career. The actor finally attended the Oscars again in 2013, and told The Huffington Post that “it seems like if you stick around long enough, they forget they banned you.” Hollywood as a whole hasn't forgotten, especially as China has become an important international market for select films made in the United States. In a 2017 Hollywood Reporter profile, Gere noted that he was denied film roles or had films he starred in buried because his presence in a film could harm his overseas box office.

“I recently had an episode where someone said they couldn't finance a film with me because it would upset the Chinese,” he said, explaining that this is part of what led him to focus on more independent films. Still, even independent financing reportedly couldn't protect a Chinese director he had hoped to work with and who he said dropped out of a film two weeks before filming due to safety concerns.

“We received a secret call on a secured line,” Gere told the outlet. “If I had worked with this director, he and his family would never have been allowed to leave the country again and he would never have worked.” In the same profile, longtime activist Sarandon noted that Hollywood has two sets of rules about political outspokenness at places like the Oscars. “It doesn’t matter if you talk openly about Trump, because Hollywood hates Trump,” she noted. “But it was brave of Richard to say what he said. He was drawing attention to things that everyone had agreed not to pay attention to. That is the sin.”

Thus, Gere, Sarandon and Robbins were subjected to the classic “actors are here to act” excuse, with then-Academy president Bob Rehme telling the LA Times that “the [Oscars telecast is] about films, about people's work in cinema, about entertainment. It shouldn’t be about political activities around the world,” even if people agree with them. Cates was more open about maintaining the Oscars' glowing reputation (after all, it started out as an anti-union propaganda technique), telling the outlet, “I'm not questioning its politics and its goodwill, I'm questioning its taste and appropriateness.”

Ironically, attendees at the 1993 Oscars were allowed to wear red ribbons to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, even though the two actors who spoke about HIV were reprimanded. (Sarandon and Robbins returned to the Oscars despite Cates de Rehme's promise to disinvite them.) It's an all-too-familiar scenario on the awards season circuit. Just this year, Oscar attendees were allowed to wear ribbons in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, but “Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer was criticized for being one of the only people to speak out about the violence in Gaza. course in the Middle East in his acceptance speech for Best International Film. The political and cultural contexts for the two situations are undoubtedly different, but in both, small, silent political statements were seemingly embraced on the red carpet, while statements spoken on stage were met with strong backlash.

As for Gere, it's possible that his comments in 1993 cost him an Oscar nomination for 2002's “Chicago.” The film received an impressive 13 Oscar nominations and took home Best Picture, among other trophies. Gere was the only major actor who was not nominated, while four of his co-stars were. “Everyone had a radio on for the nominations. You could hear the 'wow,'” Gere recalled when speaking to THR. “Like, this one was nominated. 'Wow!' The next one. Then silence. There was certainly an ‘Oh’ moment.” In 2017, however, Gere did not seem concerned about the limitations placed on his career and said he was happy to continue creating a “small, interesting character. stories based on stories and narratives.” As he said, “I’m not interested in playing the wizened Jedi in your support.”