Richard Gere Drew on Father's Death for Role in Cannes Entry 'Oh, Canada'

Cast member Richard Gere interacts with fans following the screening of the film "Oh Canada" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 17, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Cast member Richard Gere interacts with fans following the screening of the film "Oh Canada" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 17, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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Richard Gere Drew on Father's Death for Role in Cannes Entry 'Oh, Canada'

Cast member Richard Gere interacts with fans following the screening of the film "Oh Canada" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 17, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Cast member Richard Gere interacts with fans following the screening of the film "Oh Canada" in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 17, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

Richard Gere, once a Hollywood leading man, said he drew on his feelings following his father's death to bring emotional depth to his role in "Oh, Canada," for which he returned, after decades, to the Cannes Film Festival red carpet on Friday.
"It so resonated with my own emotional voyage with my dad, who was almost 101 when he passed away," Gere told Reuters.
"Paul (Schrader, the director,) wrote such a terrific script, moving script, filled with wonderful character stuff that it was very easy for me to say 'yes,'" he added.
Gere, 74, is almost unrecognizable as Leonard Fife, a man at the end of his life, intent on sharing the secrets of his youth with his wife of 30 years, played by Uma Thurman, on camera, using a technique he perfected as a celebrated documentary maker.
The film, which is competing for the film festival's top Palme d'Or prize, is told through flashbacks, with Jacob Elordi of "Euphoria" fame playing the younger version of Leonard.
Critics were lukewarm after the film's premiere, with The Guardian calling it "muddled, anticlimactic and often diffidently performed," while giving it two out of five stars.
"Oh, Canada" brings Gere back together with Schrader some four decades after the 1980 crime drama "American Gigolo."
"We're like old dogs now, you know? It's like, I was going to say old hookers, but I can't say that," Gere said.
"But there's a shorthand there. I mean, we didn't talk much during this, we just kind of figured out," he added.
The film is based on the novel "Foregone" by Russell Banks, a friend of Schrader's after he adapted "Affliction," with Nick Nolte, into the 1997 Oscar-nominated film of the same title.
The reason Schrader did "Oh, Canada"?
"Russell got sick. That simple," said Schrader, who recalled how hard-hit he was after Banks asked him not to visit because he was feeling bad due to cancer. Banks died last year.
"I knew he had written a book about dying when he was healthy, so I better read that book," said Schrader, 77. "And I read that book and I thought 'yep, that's what I should do'."
The director said he also had to confront his own mortality after a few hospital visits for long COVID and a broken bone.
"I was thinking, you know, maybe, maybe this is it," he said. "At that point, you start thinking about, well, if I've got one more film left, what should it be about?" he said.
"And, fortunately, my health has improved," Schrader said, adding that he still might have a few films in him yet.



Film Academy Apologizes for Not Naming ‘No Other Land’ Co-director in Response to Attack on Him

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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Film Academy Apologizes for Not Naming ‘No Other Land’ Co-director in Response to Attack on Him

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian director of "No Other Land," is released from a police station in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

After mounting criticism following its initial response to the violent attack on Oscar-winning "No Other Land" co-director Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for not acknowledging Ballal by name.

In a letter to academy members, academy CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janet Yang, said they regretted not issuing a direct statement on Ballal. The director on Monday, witnesses said, was beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and then detained by the Israeli military.

The attack, just weeks after Ballal and his fellow directors won best documentary at the Academy Awards, was widely condemned by numerous film organizations, among others. The academy on Wednesday released a statement condemning "harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints."

Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of "No Other Land," was highly critical of that response, comparing it to "silence on Hamdan's assault."

On Friday, more than 600 of the academy's 11,000 members issued an open letter saying the academy's statement "fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for." Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and "The Zone of Interest" filmmaker Jonathan Glazer.

After a meeting Friday by the academy's board of governors, Kramer and Yang responded with a new statement.

"We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballal and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement and want to make it clear that the academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world," they wrote to members. "We abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances."

After being detained for more than 20 hours, Ballal was released by Israeli soldiers. Ballal and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny. After being released, Ballal told The Associated Press a settler kicked his head "like a football" during an attack on his village.

"I realized they were attacking me specifically," Ballal said at a West Bank hospital after his release Tuesday. "When they say ‘Oscar’, you understand. When they say your name, you understand."

"No Other Land," a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, chronicles the situation in Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military designated as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

After not finding a US distributor despite wide acclaim, "No Other Land" was self-released in theaters. It still managed to surpass $2 million in North American theaters.