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Gere offers rare remarks on his 20-year Oscar absence after Tibet comments

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Actor Richard Gere made a rare statement about his nearly 20-year absence from the Oscars in an interview with Variety on Wednesday, saying he was less than impressed with the Academy’s decision.

Gere disappeared from the show after going off script while presenting at the 1993 Academy Awards and condemning China’s “horrible, appalling human rights problem” in Tibet.

“I didn’t take it personally,” Gere said. he told Variety. “I didn’t think there were bad guys in the situation. I do what I do and I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone. I want to hurt anger. I want to hurt exclusion.”

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Richard Gere was photographed on Wednesday, November 20, 2024. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

The actor continued, “I want to denigrate human rights abuses, but I try to stay as close as possible to where His Holiness the Dalai Lama is coming from… everyone can be saved, and in the end everyone must be saved, or none of us will be saved.” [are]. So in that sense, I don’t take it personally.”

During the interview, Gere said his activism was inspired by his longtime friend the Dalai Lama, who was the subject of the 2025 documentary “The Wisdom of Happiness,” which he executive produced.

Although Gere told Variety that his absence “never came up” in conversations with the Dalai Lama, he recalled reacting harshly when presented with a script for a biopic about the spiritual leader.

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“It was the stupidest script I’ve ever read,” he told the outlet. “It was the CIA who literally took him out of the Potala Palace [in Tibet] in the middle of the night. They were trying to honor the invasion of Tibet and the escape of His Holiness the Dalai Lama after being threatened by the Chinese, but it was just a ridiculous, stupid story. “It was like Rambo coming in and taking him out.”

Like Noted by people“Gere did not return to the Oscars stage until February 24, 2013, nearly 20 years after his unscripted remarks.”

People added: “Gil Cates, the show’s producer at the time [in 1993]’Does anyone care about Richard Gere’s comments about China? That’s very arrogant.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the press office of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for comment.

The “Pretty Woman” actor also commented on the state of the country and President Donald Trump, suggesting that not even the Dalai Lama could change the president or the “astonishing” impact he has had on the country.

Richard Gere criticized President Donald Trump’s “staggering” impact on the country. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters; Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Gere said listening to the Dalai Lama’s speech made him think about how “very wrong” the United States was, but he doubted the Tibetan spiritual leader could influence Trump.

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“I don’t know if this is going to touch him,” Gere said. “I hope so. I would pray for it to happen. But boy, what he’s done to this country, I don’t know how 10 or 11 months from now he’s going to explain what it feels like to be an American. It’s just astonishing. It’s beyond anything anyone could have imagined.”

He encouraged Americans to take responsibility for the leaders they elect and instead support people who can create a better world.

“If we want a world a certain way, then we have to elect leaders who have a similar vision to us and who will lead us to that higher level of possibility — about who we are as individuals and how we can create a society, a world where people can live with the madness all day, every day, instead of this battlefield,” Gere said. “Especially, as I said, coming from this very crude mentality that we have in our leadership right now.”