Richard Gere: Shifting Geres
Q: Did you read Zen books when you were a teenager?
A: I read every Zen book I could find. I grew up a Protestant, and there was something Protestant about Zen. It's very direct. It's a soft-spoken, man-of-few-words kind of religion. And very approachable--the early stages, anyhow. The Tibet stuff is more complicated and foreboding and not easy to jump into.
Q: What has Buddhism done for you that Freudian therapy couldn't do?
A: Essentially Freudian therapy only deals with the first noble truth: the truth of suffering. It doesn't have a sense of transcendence.
Q: Have you been in analysis?
A: Not psychoanalysis. I've done therapy.
Q: Would people involved in the practice you're involved in also benefit from therapy?
A: Sure.
Q: How often do you see the Dalai Lama?
A: Maybe 3 to 10 times a year.
Q: What is it about these men that makes them special?
A: They don't want anything. All they want is for you to be happy. They're like spiritual cows--they have to be milked. Their job is to offer their teachings, to give you a way, a path, a system, an encouragement that you don't have to live in any kind of suffering whatsoever.
Q: The Dalai Lama said you are starting sincere practice of Buddhist dharma. As opposed to insincere practice?
A: I was very moved to hear him say that. It's a great thing that a teacher would say that. Coming from His Holiness you feel very humble.
Q: Do you say to yourself, "I'm not as sincere as I should be?"
A: Oh yeah, of course. I make no pretense about being a highly developed person. I'm a beginner, and for many lifetimes I'll be a beginner. Our culture is too young.
Q: Do you believe in the concept of God as creator?
A: No. That's what I was taught growing up, but it doesn't make any sense. There's no basis for it. It begs the question: who created the Creator?
Q: How close did you come to dying of salmonella poisoning when you were visiting the Dalai Lama in India?
A: Really close. I ate some bad yogurt. The symptoms were like yellow fever. I had a 105 degree temperature for a week. I was dehydrating. But I lucked out because I found a doctor who was able to prescribe the right antibiotic, and four days later I was able to get on a plane to London.
Q: What do you think happens when you die?
A: What happens when you live? [Laughs] Logically there can be no difference. It's consciousness, which doesn't come out of nowhere and it doesn't go nowhere. We experience certain things while we're in this body--we can see things, hear, taste, touch, smell, and think things. There are other kinds of bodies, we're told, which can experience consciousness in a different way. A dream body, for instance. So let's say death is like dream body.
Q: Is that something to fear?
A: What's to fear is to be afraid of it. It, in itself, is nothing to fear.
Q: What do your parents think of your involvement with Tibetan Buddhism?
A: They're kind of amazed at how I evolved. They don't quite know where I came from.
Q: They haven't gotten into it?
A: No, I can't say that they really have.
Q: Your father was an insurance agent--what did you think of that business?
A: He thought of it as a quasi-religious vocation. He thought he was securing the welfare and happiness of his neighbors. And he took it on as a mission, he was there day or night, for people and their problems.
Q: Do you look like either of your parents?
A: I'm starting to look like me. I see my father a lot--as you get older your body starts to look like your father, and you look and you say, "You old fuck."
Q: What do you feel most guilty about from your childhood?
A: When I was 10 I hired a kid next door to cut the grass for me and for some reason I didn't give the kid the nickel.
Q: Let's finish with some lighter questions. What's on the mantel of your fireplace?
A: A lantern that was my grandfather's. He was a farmer in Pennsylvania and he would light this lantern at 4 a.m. to go to the barn and milk the cows.
Q: Is that your most treasured possession?
A: That, and some of my guitars I really like. My horse I like a lot.
Q: Whose clothes do you like?
A: This is my uniform: black jeans and a T-shirt, boots.
Q: What sweet do you most crave?
A: Chocolate ice cream is the only addiction I have.
Q. What makes you laugh?
A: "Seinfeld." Carey Lowell is actually one of the funniest people I've ever met.
Q: Is she your girlfriend?
A: She's a friend of mine. A wonderful person.
Q: Now to the gossip columns for the big ending to this illusionary interview: is it true that you once worked as a busboy and walked up to a table where Robert De Niro was sitting and told him you were going to be as famous as he was?
A: Absolutely no.
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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Harrison Ford for the July '97 issue of Movieline.
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