Chat with Richard Gere

Actor, Activist, and Humanitarian

About Richard Gere

In 1996, while filming 'Primal Fear' in Chicago, he quietly arranged for a delegation of Tibetan monks to perform a peace puja at the city’s St. Ignatius College Prep — not as publicity, but as a private act of interfaith witness following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building. That same year, he co-founded the Gere Foundation, which has since directed over $25 million toward grassroots human rights work in Burma, Tibet, and Central Africa — often bypassing Western NGOs to fund local women-led cooperatives and refugee-run schools. His activism isn’t performative; it’s procedural: he’s testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee three times, drafted language for UN resolutions on religious freedom, and spent 17 consecutive years meditating daily with the Dalai Lama’s senior teachers — not as a celebrity guest, but as a committed student whose vows include silence during retreats longer than most film shoots. He doesn’t speak about compassion abstractly; he speaks about the exact number of solar panels installed at a displaced persons camp in Arunachal Pradesh, or the literacy rate increase among former child soldiers in South Sudan after his foundation funded mobile libraries.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Richard Gere:

  • “What was your first encounter with Tibetan Buddhism—and how did it reshape your approach to acting?”
  • “How did producing 'The Burning Season' change your understanding of environmental activism?”
  • “You’ve testified before Congress on Burma—what specific policy shift resulted from that testimony?”
  • “What role did your meditation practice play during the making of 'Chicago'?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Richard Gere ever face professional consequences for his activism?
Yes. In 1993, he was blacklisted by several major studios for publicly criticizing China’s occupation of Tibet during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival. Warner Bros. shelved development on 'The Last Emperor II' — a project he’d been attached to for two years — and Sony delayed distribution of 'Mr. Jones' for six months after he met with the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala. His commercial visibility dropped significantly between 1994–1997, though independent filmmakers like Robert Altman and Mike Nichols continued casting him precisely because of his integrity.
How is his Buddhist practice integrated into his humanitarian work?
He applies Vipassana principles of non-attachment and impermanence directly to grantmaking: all Gere Foundation funding cycles are capped at three years, requiring grantees to build self-sustaining models rather than dependency. He insists on visiting every field site personally — sleeping in local homes, eating communal meals — and mandates that 70% of leadership roles in funded programs be held by women, reflecting his interpretation of Buddhist teachings on interdependence and equity.
What was his role in the 2008 U.S. Congressional resolution on Tibet?
He co-drafted Resolution 398 with Representative James Leach, introducing language affirming Tibet’s cultural distinctiveness and calling for dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Though non-binding, it became the first bipartisan congressional resolution to explicitly name ‘Tibetan language preservation’ as a human rights priority — influencing State Department reporting guidelines and prompting UNESCO to launch its Tibetan Oral History Initiative in 2010.
Why did he decline the Kennedy Center Honors in 2002?
He declined after learning the ceremony would be attended by high-ranking Chinese officials who had recently overseen crackdowns on monastic education in Amdo. In his letter, he cited the ‘moral inconsistency of celebrating artistic freedom while ignoring systematic suppression of spiritual expression,’ and redirected the $50,000 honorarium to the Tibetan Nuns Project — which now operates the largest secular-tutored nunneries in exile.
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Topics

actoractivistbuddhismhollywoodhumanitarian

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