Richard Gere has finally acknowledged being banned from the Academy Awards for 20 years.
Gere, 76, spoke with Variety on Wednesday, December 3, about the period of time when he wasn’t allowed to attend the Oscars.
“I didn’t take it particularly personally,” Gere noted. “I didn’t think there were any bad guys in the situation. I do what I do and I certainly don’t mean anyone any harm.”
Back in 1993, the actor went off script while presenting at the show in 1993. Gere, who has been an outspoken activist for Tibetan independence since meeting the Dalai Lama, denounced China’s policies in Tibet at the Oscars and subsequently didn’t present again until 2013.
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“I mean to harm anger. I mean to harm exclusion. I mean to harm human rights abuses, but I try to stay as close to where His Holiness comes from,” he said on Wednesday. “Everyone is redeemable, and in the end, everyone has to be redeemed or none of us [are]. So in that sense, I don’t take it personally.”
There are currently six members banned from attending the Oscars including Carmine Caridi, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, Adam Kimmel and Will Smith.
Smith, 57, was most famously banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after slapping Chris Rock at the awards show in 2022. Smith issued an apology at the time for his “unacceptable and inexcusable” actions, writing via Instagram, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
He continued: “I would also like to apologize to The Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world. I would like to apologize to the Williams Family and my King Richard Family. I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us.”
After addressing his own incident, Gere revealed he never discussed the controversy with the Dalai Lama, 90.
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“It never came up,” he said. “They’ll tell him once in a while if I get an award or something and he sends a note, congratulating me, that he’s happy for me. But that’s about as close as it gets to actually talking about movies.”
Gere’s 45-year friendship with the Dalai Lama ultimately led him becoming an executive producer on a documentary about the spiritual leader titled Wisdom of Happiness.
“I’ve never worked this hard to get a film that I’ve been associated with to be seen in the world,” Gere noted. “I think this is important enough that I have to give my last bit of energy to put this out there for people to see. At the very least, it will put a seed in the minds of people who see it.”
According to Gere, the Dalai Lama has seen parts of the project. He watched it with his niece, Tencho Gyatso, who is the president of the International Campaign for Tibet.
“He really didn’t have any interest in seeing himself at all,” Gere added. “So she kind of skipped forward through that, but when there was this old footage where he was seeing his old friends and family and remembering — he was delighted going into his memory bank of his childhood, like we all would.”
