A tourist from Paris, visiting New York, was shocked to see a man rummaging through a trash can for a half-eaten burger. Not recognizing him as Richard Gere, she kindly offered her help.
“It’s unbelievable that something like this could happen,” the distressed woman shared after offering fresh food to the man she thought was a homeless beggar.
Keep reading to find out how the Pretty Woman star ended up being mistaken for a homeless person!
A tourist visiting from Paris came across a man pulling a partially eaten burger from a trash can on the streets of New York. Unaware that it was Richard Gere, she offered to help him.
“It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” the heartbroken woman said, as she kindly offered fresh food to the man, thinking he was homeless.
Keep reading to learn why the Pretty Woman star was confused for a homeless man!
In 2014, Richard Gere was in New York filming Time Out of Mind, a drama movie where he stars alongside Kyra Sedgwick and Steve Buscemi.
Gere, now 74, plays George, a man with mental illness who’s forced to live on the streets after he’s kicked out of the apartment he was previously squatting.
On the first day of filming, director Oren Moverman asked Richard Gere to fully embody a homeless man for a scene. Dressed in tattered clothes, Gere was placed on the bustling streets of New York City among everyday passersby.
Initially hesitant about shooting in such a big city, Gere walked the streets with an empty coffee cup, begging for change. Surprisingly, few people noticed him. “I was out there for over 40 minutes – no one made eye contact with me,” Gere recalled. “I was in character, in one of the busiest places in New York. If I had been Richard Gere, I wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds.”
But it’s not that Gere was unrecognizably dressed or made-up, he said.
Gere explained, “It was just that I wasn’t the movie star people expected, and their assumptions filled in the gaps with a mistaken story based on body language and where I was in the street.”
Adding more context, filmmaker Oren Moverman noted, “No one gave him a cent. No one even recognized him. It illustrated the entire point: The homeless are invisible to us, and we don’t see them.”
However, when someone snapped a photo of him and shared it online, rumors spread that Gere was undercover, raising awareness about homelessness. The post, which went viral and reached nearly 2 million people, even claimed he was handing out $100 bills to every homeless person he encountered.
Addressing the exaggerations and unsubstantiated claims, Gere – who doesn’t have his own social media – used actor Jenna Malone’s Facebook to clear things up.
“Hi, Richard Gere here. I was completely surprised to find that last week someone posted a photo of me on a Facebook fan page as a homeless man on the streets of New York…”
He then explains the message attached to the post is “fictional” and that he was filming a movie, not part of an experiment. He adds he never distributed $100 bills.
Cold pizza
And though no one dropped any change in his cup, one woman did take notice.
As the Runaway Bride star foraged through a trash can near Grand Central Station and pulled out a half-eaten burger, Karine Gombeau was leaving a nearby pizza place with her husband Bruno and teenage son.
The family was visiting from Paris and spotted the old “hobo,” wearing a tuque, baggy pants and a light jacket, clutching the previously trashed burger.
She had no idea who was under the filthy clothes.
Moved by the heartbreaking scene, 42-year-old Gombeau approached the man and offered him leftovers from the “enormous” pizza she and her family had ordered at a nearby Italian restaurant.
Gere graciously accepted the package and asked, “What’s in the bag?” she shared with The New York Post.
“I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French,” she starts. “I said, ‘Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.’”
Accepting the gift, the millionaire said, “Thank you so much. God bless you.”
The Parisian, who works in the travel industry, later said she was heartbroken to see so many homeless people in the city.
“It leaves me really sad to know we waste food, and they have nothing. It really moves me.”
Surprise!
Two days later, a worker at the hotel she was staying gave Gombeau a copy of a local paper.
She explains that she was shocked to see a photo of herself with the heartthrob on the pages inside.
“It was magical…It’s crazy, this story. It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” she excitedly said.
“I think he’s very handsome, even at his age.” Offering a critique she then adds, “Pretty Woman was not my favorite movie, but I really loved Chicago.”
Speaking to the publication, the woman explains the family, visiting the city for four days, had no idea they stumbled onto a movie set.
But there was one obvious hint.
As her husband was capturing memories of Grand Central Station on video, Gombeau says that “People came from all over the station,” and demanded her “husband stop filming.”
She adds, “People came out of the subways. It was very confusing.”
Please remember that Gere was not undercover as a homeless man in an experiment and that he was playing a role!
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