When it comes to romantic comedies, you can’t ignore Richard Gere. With Pretty Woman he has one of the most iconic films of the genre in his repertoire. But films like An Officer and a Gentleman or Chicago were also big hits that were nominated or awarded multiple Oscars. But Gere himself has not received a nomination to date. And if that wasn’t enough, he was banned from the event for 20 years after his performance at the 1993 awards. A ban that he did not adhere to.
That’s why Richard Gere was banned from the Oscars
In 1993, Richard Gere presented the Oscar winners for best production design. During his speech, however, the price faded into the background. Gere used his speaking time to: to criticize the People’s Republic of China for human rights violations in Tibet. He even addressed the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, directly.
Check out the performance here:
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The Academy found the speech too controversial and followed suit. That’s why Gere was subsequently banned from the Oscars for 20 years, until 2013 (via The Hollywood Reporter). The government in China went even further, declaring the actor dead persona non grata and thus gave him a lifelong entry ban.
More about the star:
This is how Richard Gere was able to ignore the ban after 10 years
In 2003, the film Chicago, in which Gere played a leading role, was nominated for a total of 13 Oscars. 6 prizes were awarded to the film and its employees. Of course, Richard Gere wasn’t nominated, but he received it one-time permission to attend the awards ceremony with his co-stars.
After that, he was no longer represented at the Oscars until 2013. The year his banishment was lifted, he presented two Oscars. In the categories of best film music and best song, he was given the laudatory speech together with Queen Latifah, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.