Richard Gere was so moved by the kindness of a female passerby who handed him food after mistaking the actor for a real-life homeless man last week he branded her an “angel”, according to director Oren Moverman.
Gere was filming, dressed in shabby clothes for his role as a tramp in new movie Time Out of Mind, when he was approached by a Good Samaritan who handed him some leftover pizza as he sifted through a trash can near New York’s Grand Central Terminal.
According to the New York Post, the 64-year-old ‘Pretty Woman’ star asked her what was in the bag. “I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French,” she said. “I said, ‘Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.’ ”
“He said, ‘Thank you so much. God bless you,’ ” Gombeau recalled. She left without knowing that Gere was shooting for his upcoming movie ‘Time Out of Mind.’ It was only when the Post carried a photo of her she realized that the ‘beggar’ she offered pizza to was none other than Hollywood star Gere.
“It was magical . . . It’s crazy, this story. It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” she said. Gombeau added that Gere was “very handsome, even at his age.”
The act of kindness seemed to have touched Gere. Director Oren Moverman told the Post that Gere thought her as an angel. “He was very touched . . . He said, ‘Ya know, she was like an angel’. He was in character, so obviously he was feeling like a guy who lives on the street. When she came over, he said he felt like an angel gave him a gift,” Moverman said.
Agencies/Canadajournal