Richard Gere was banned from the Academy Awards for 20 years after advocating for Tibetan independence when he presented at the 1993 ceremony.Gere said he didn’t take the ban personally and didn’t “mean anyone any harm.”The American Gigolo actor also said he never discussed the controversy with the Dalai Lama: “It never came up.”<\/p>\n
Richard Gere<\/a> is reflecting on being banned from the Academy Awards stage.\n<\/p>\n The American Gigolo star discussed his 20-year absence from presenting at the Oscars after we went off book to condemn Chinese policies in Tibet in 1993.\n<\/p>\n “I didn’t take it particularly personally,” Gere told Variety in a new interview<\/a>. “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.”\n<\/p>\n Richard Gere on Nov. 12, 2025.<\/p>\n Manoli Figetakis\/Getty<\/p>\n Gere’s comments on his Oscars ban were part of a broader conversation about Wisdom of Happiness, a new documentary about the Dalai Lama that he executive-produced. Gere, who is a longtime advocate for Tibetan independence and considers the region’s spiritual leader a friend, said his advocacy at the Oscars was intended to align with the Dalai Lama’s philosophies.\n<\/p>\n “I mean to harm anger. I mean to harm exclusion. I mean to harm human rights abuses,” he said. “But I try to stay as close to where His Holiness comes from\u2026 that 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.”\n<\/p>\n The Pretty Woman star noted that he hasn’t talked about the Oscars controversy with the Dalai Lama. “It never came up,” Gere 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.”\n<\/p>\n Gere’s remarks while presenting the award for Best Art Direction the 1993 Oscars specifically called out Deng Xiaoping, the longtime leader of China who resigned from most official positions in 1989 but continued to wield influence into the 1990s.\n<\/p>\n “I wonder if Deng Xiaoping is actually watching this right now, with his children and his grandchildren, and with the knowledge that what a horrendous, horrendous human rights situation there is in China,” Gere said during the broadcast. “Not only towards their own people, but to Tibet as well.”\n<\/p>\n He continued, “If something miraculous and really kind of movie-like could happen here, where we could all kind of send love and truth, and a kind of sanity to Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing that he will take his troops, and take the Chinese away from Tibet, and allow these people to live as free independent people again…”\n<\/p>\n Richard Gere circa 1993.<\/p>\n Darlene Hammond\/Hulton Archive\/Getty<\/p>\n Gere’s comments initially drew applause, though Bob Rehme, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the time, later criticized<\/a> the presenters for veering too political. “The show’s about movies, about people’s work in movies, about entertainment,” he said, per the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not supposed to be about political activities around the world [no matter] how much individually we might support any one of those causes.”\n<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n Gere did not present at the Oscars again until 2013, though he did attend the 2003 ceremony in support of his film Chicago, which went on to win six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Catherine Zeta-Jones.\n<\/p>\n Gere, Zeta-Jones, and their costars Ren\u00e9e Zellweger and Queen Latifah reunited for the 10th anniversary of Chicago’s victory at the 2013 Oscars to present the awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.\n<\/p>\n