Pretty Woman actor Richard Gere went homeless for a day to know how it feels to be homeless and living on the streets, when you either go unnoticed and uncared for or when passersby look at you with disdain in their eyes. He shared his first-hand experience of how homeless people are treated in America with his fans on Facebook:
“When I went undercover in New York City as a homeless man, no one noticed me. I felt what it was like to be a homeless…
Posted by Richard Gere on Thursday, October 8, 2015
While filming Oren Moverman’s recent film, Time Out Of Mind, Gere was required to sit on a street corner right outside Starbucks for a good 45 minutes begging for change. Though he was convincing enough to be overlooked, he couldn’t convince people to help him.
“No one paid me any attention. Some people put some money into my cup. They did not make eye contact. I think I made about two and a half dollars. I was very unsuccessful as a bum on the street,” said Gere, a man who’s been paid as much as $15 million for starring in a film.
He told Here & Now:
“No one was paying attention to me – nobody… I could see people react to me as if I was a black hole that they would be sucked into… a black hole of failure. One of the things I really felt on the street, and I should have known this, but I was really feeling how quickly a human being can deteriorate. The humiliation and isolation of being on the streets and being the invisible black hole, what that does to the human spirit?
“I’ve been involved with the Coalition for the Homeless in New York for a long time, and I care about this subject. But I care even more deeply about what those deepest yearnings we all have are, and we are social creatures – deeply social creatures. We don’t behave that way very often but we can’t exist on our own. And I wanted to explore the mystery of that yearning to connect.”
Time Out of Mind aims to reflect just how pronounced the homelessness problem is in New York City through the eyes of George Hammond (played by Gere), a mentally-ill man who has been unable to hold a job for years. The film, which opens in New York and Los Angeles this week, centres on Gere trying to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter.
UPDATE: The real Richard Gere on October 26 ‘revealed’ that the Facebook post, about him having a moving experience dressed as a homeless man in New York City, was a total fake. He spoke about the matter via his co-star Jena Malone’s Facebook account:
Hi, Richard Gere here. I was completely surprised to find that last week someone posted a photo of me on a Facebook fan…
Posted by Jena Malone on Monday, October 26, 2015
While it is an incredible way to deal with a fake Internet story; we fail to understand why it took Gere 18 days to tell the world that the post, which garnered more than 1.5 million Likes and 640,000 shares, was not real?
Gere wants to now use the attention generated by the viral post to spark a discussion and bring attention to the homeless issue. May be for the last 18 days, he was using the attention to generate hype for his film Time Out of Mind. Was he behind the fake post? Well, who knows?
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Well mister Gere, do we have to be astonished or so? People with much money are adored, even if the rich person earned the money with murder. And when a great person has no money, he or she will not be noticed. Most girls who liked you mister Gere, might not even had talked to you if you were poor. No matter that you are the same rich / poor man.
I believe it is great that you were able to do this and begin to feel what the homeless feel. You might have felt a little of the humiliation when people wouldn’t look at you in the eye. You felt how people treated you like you were invisible.
But a day on the streets cannot come close.
You knew you had a home to go to when you were done. You hadn’t gone for days without any food or felt the desperation of taking food out of the garbage or eating a rat. You did not feel the bitter cold of days and days on the streets without any reprieve from winter.
Most people who are homeless also suffer from a combination of anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction, schizophrenia, bipolar and more. Most have a great deal of shame.
I applaud that you wanted to put yourself in other peoples’ shoes but I hope you never do understand. But not being able to understand does not mean we can’t help. Thank you for what you did and those you have helped. (No I have not been there but I am a therapist and worked with the Medicaid population. Many have been homeless at one time and have been hungry on more than one occasion.)
I think it is wondetful what you have done with this film. We cant possibly know what its like to ‘have’ to live the life of a street person..especially for days/weeks/months and even in some cases, years:( however, you at least are doing something positive and with compassion to draw attention to the plight and life of the street person..for this I applaud you! At least you are trying to do something good about it:)