French Tourist Mistakes Richard Gere for Homeless Man, Offers "Time Out of Mind" Star Some Pizza
In his new movie "Time Out of Mind," Richard Gere plays a homeless man.
Apparently, he's very convincing because a woman saw him and decided to give him her leftover pizza. Gere, who was dressed in a beanie hat and anorak, went through the garbage outside of Grand Central Station.
He plays a homeless New Yorker trying to reconnect with his daughter. He was drinking beer from a brown paper bag. Karine Gombeau, of Paris, approached him and gave him her leftovers after seeing him go through the garbage.
Richard Gere said, "What's in the bag?"
"I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French," Gombeau said. "I said, 'Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.'"
He replied, "Thank you so much. God bless you."
Gere didn't break character then. And Gombeau didn't figure out the truth until later when she spotted her picture online.
"People came from all over the station and told my husband to stop filming," she said, of his shooting a tourist video on her handheld camera. "People came out of the subways. It was very confusing."
She said she thought Gere looked handsome even at his age, and she explained that she works in the tourist industry. Seeing homeless people in New York was heartbreaking to her.
"It leaves me really sad to know we waste food, and they have nothing," she said. "It really moves me."
She's not the only one who though Gere made a convincing homeless person. A salesman said that Gere didn't seem like he was acting.
Kyra Sedgwick is also portraying a homeless person in the movie. She was spotted sitting on a park bench with a shopping cart full of her character's belongings.