Maybe I Do: Richard Gere admits fear about return to acting for first film in six years
“This is the first interview I have done on this movie, so it’s completely fresh – from here on out, I will have said everything.”
That’s how Richard Gere started our chat about his latest film, Maybe I Do.
Refreshingly honest, the star known for hit romcoms including Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride hasn’t done a film since 2017 and is candid about how strange it was returning to set.
“Whenever I start a project, I kind of question whether I know what I’m doing at all,” Gere admitted.
“And after three years of not making a film or working in the theatre, I think I had this feeling of, ‘do I know how to do this? Did I ever know how to do this?'”
“But I think it is like riding a bike – you pretty much remember how to do it.”
The break Gere took was largely due to the pandemic.
A way back
Instead of working, Gere spent lockdown and the period afterwards with his wife and children, waiting for the right opportunity to lure him back to acting.
“I just stayed at home with my family… I mean, the protocols for making movies in that period were so daunting that I didn’t really want to go through it,” he said.
“So it loosened up a little bit and the script came through – Michael Jacobs, a really nice guy, wrote this fun script.
“[I thought] this is a way to get back into the working world with something adult but fun, with actors I knew and had worked with before and trusted.”
‘She knew my movies better than I did’
The film is called Maybe I Do and is about a couple considering marriage who get their parents together, only to find they already know each other well.
His daughter is played by Emma Roberts – the niece of Julia Roberts, who Gere teamed up with for both Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride.
Emma Roberts plays Richard Gere’s daughter. Pic: Signature Entertainment/Prime Video
“Oh, it was funny,” he said about working with Emma.
“I even forgot the movies – she knew my movies better than I did, the ones I had done with Julia.
“And there was a certain irony to that.”
Roberts told Backstage she only got round to telling her aunt she was working with Gere after it had happened.
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“I actually only just told her recently, and I was like, ‘I forgot got to tell you, I worked with Richard,'” she said.
“I love Runaway Bride, I love Pretty Woman, so it was really fun to get to work with him as well, and he’s so sweet.
“It’s like full circle, him playing my dad after him and my aunt working together so much.”
‘She was lovely then, and she’s lovely now’
The cast also features Susan Sarandon, William H Macy and Diane Keaton.
Gere says it was great to be reunited with the latter after first working together decades ago in the 1977 film Looking for Mr Goodbar.
“We had communicated a few times over the years… She was at the beginning of being the biggest actress in the world at that point, and I was just starting to make movies,” he said.
“But she was lovely then, and she’s lovely now.”
Richard Gere stars alongside Diane Keaton, William H Macy and Susan Sarandon. Pic: Signature Entertainment/Prime Video
“You know, she’s witty, and she’s fun and works hard and always finds her own way through doing things – it’s not the obvious, and it’s not the predictable.”
Gere’s character in the film is somewhat jaded, fed up about getting older.
‘Silly not to engage’ in growing old
The actor says it’s not something he himself worries about.
“I have a two-and-a-half year old and a three-and-a- half – almost four-year-old and a ten-year-old, so I don’t have really the luxury of thinking about time or getting older,” Gere laughed.
“Getting older is inevitable. I mean, it would be silly for people not to engage [with] it and even early on to just think about it, you know?”
“But I get – at best – a finite number of years, and it might be a lot shorter based on health and accidents and all kinds of other things, so it certainly is inevitable.”
For Roberts, working with such a stellar cast was a golden opportunity.
But she admits it did put the pressure on.
“I feel like I always come to work prepared, but I was definitely quadruple prepared for this set.” She said.
“But I remember there was one scene where it was like four and a half pages long, and I had the most dialogue and at one point I just forgot my lines because all I could feel was everyone’s eyes looking at me.”
“And even though I’ve obviously been working for a long time, to work with such a huge calibre of talent in one room, it was really amazing.”
Maybe I Do is streaming now on Prime Video.
Entertainment
Judi Dench, Malala and Stanley Tucci join call for Starmer to ‘end UK complicity’ in Gaza
Dame Judi Dench, Malala and Stanley Tucci are among another 100 famous names who have added their signatures to a letter urging Sir Keir Starmer to “end the UK’s complicity” in Gaza.
Sky News can exclusively reveal the Bond actress, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Conclave actor are among a host of public figures who have added their names to the letter.
At the end of May, Sky News revealed about 300 actors, bands, singers, activists and sportspeople signed the letter, organised by refugee charity Choose Love, calling on Sir Keir to suspend all UK arms sales and licences to Israel.
Dua Lipa, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gary Lineker were among the celebrities to also urge the PM to use all available means to ensure full humanitarian access and broker an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Celebrities and activists also read out all the names of children killed in Gaza in front of parliament.
But three weeks later, they say nothing has changed.
Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker and Benedict Cumberbatch signed the letter in May. Pics: PA
Other new signatories include actors Florence Pugh and Russell Tovey, Dr Who star Ncuti Gatwa, singer Paolo Nutini, author Michael Rosen, musician Paul Weller, Little Mix members Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall, broadcaster Fearne Cotton, Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten, Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright and ex-England rugby captain Chris Robshaw.
The letter urges Sir Keir to “take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors of Gaza”, and says children are starving “while food and medicine sit just minutes away”, in reference to Israel blocking aid into the territory.
It says 71,000 children under four are “acutely malnourished” and those who survive starvation “wake up to bombs falling on them”, with more than 15,000 children killed in the conflict so far.
Read more:
Israeli tanks kill 51 people waiting for aid in Gaza
Bodies of Israeli couple taken into Gaza by Hamas recovered
Ncuti Gatwa, who plays Dr Who, has signed the letter. Pic: Reuters
Actress Florence Pugh has also signed the letter. Pic: Reuters
Actor Russell Tovey is a signatory too. Pic: Reuters
“Violence stamped with UK inaction – flown with parts shipped from British factories to Israel – could be obliterating families in seconds,” the letter adds.
“You can’t call it ‘intolerable’, yet do nothing.
“Every moment this continues, is another moment children die on our watch.
“History is written in moments of moral clarity. This is one. The world is watching and history will not forget. The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute.
“Prime minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?”
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Steve Coogan: It has to stop
What has Starmer said and done about Gaza?
In September, the UK suspended about 30 arms export licences to Israel, but government export licensing figures from May show the UK approved licences for £127.6m worth of military equipment from October to December 2024 – more than the total between 2020 and 2023.
Since the first letter was sent, Sir Keir has called Israel’s actions in Gaza – both the blockade of aid and strikes – “appalling and intolerable”.
Some of his own MPs are pressuring him to take further action against Israel and call the 20-month war – which started when Hamas killed 1,195 people in Israel and took 250 hostage – a genocide, but he has not used those words.
On 10 June, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway sanctioned far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian civilians”.
They are banned from entering the UK and are now subject to a freeze on UK assets and director disqualifications.
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Gaza crisis ‘acute’ and continuing
Last week, Sir Keir said more RAF jets, including Typhoons and air-to-air refuelers, were being sent to the Middle East after Israel and Iran attacked each other.
On Tuesday, Sir Keir told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby he is “worried about the impact” escalation between the two countries will have on Gaza.
Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of Choose Love, said: “Since we urged the government to end its complicity in the horrors of Gaza, more people have added their voice to our call. We cannot be silent while children are being killed and families are being starved.
“It took us 18 hours to read the 15,613 names of children known to be killed in Gaza. Every single one of them was someone’s whole universe. Every one of them deserved better.
“The situation is changing by the second, but until the UK government has halted all arms sales and licences to Israel, ensured that humanitarian aid can reach people starving inside Gaza and stopped the killing, they will not have done enough.
“History will remember how we acted in this moment. We beg Keir Starmer to end the UK’s complicity in these horrors.”
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A government spokesperson said: “We strongly oppose the expansion of military operations in Gaza and call on the Israeli government to cease its offensive and immediately allow for unfettered access to humanitarian aid.
“The denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Gaza is unacceptable and risks breaching international humanitarian law.”
The spokesperson added: “Last year, we suspended export licences to Israel for items used in military operations in Gaza and continue to refuse licences for military goods that could be used by Israel in the current conflict.
“We urge all parties to urgently agree a ceasefire agreement and work towards a permanent and sustainable peace.”
Gary Glitter will stay in prison after the Parole Board refused the disgraced singer’s bid to be released.
Glitter, 81, was recalled to jail less than six weeks after he was released halfway through his 16-year sentence in 2023 for breaching his licence conditions by allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.
He was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in 2015 after being found guilty of sexually assaulting three schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.
The Parole Board last year said it was “not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public” after a hearing held behind closed doors.
Glitter was jailed in 2015 Pic: PA
A spokesman on Tuesday said his release was refused again following a “paper review”.
“Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community,” a statement said.
“A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
“Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.”
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, will be eligible for a further review at a date set by the Ministry of Justice. His sentence expires in February 2031.
He was made bankrupt earlier this year after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman who sued him for abusing her when she was 12 years old.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon, who represented the woman, told Sky News the Parole Board has made “the right decision”.
He added: “My client is relieved at this ruling but apprehensive about having to go through the merry-go-round of Gadd coming up for parole again, and the fear of him being let out on licence.
“This is unfair on victims and it would be better if they were assured that he would serve the rest of his sentence.”
Read more from Sky News:
Man jailed for murdering two women on Christmas Day
Ex-lawyer ‘fears revenge over gang boss murder claim’
Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.
He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam, where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.
Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.
But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.
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