Richard Gere Recalls Getting a Little Too Rough With Louis Gossett Jr. on 'An Officer and a Gentleman'
As its title implies, the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman was essentially a dual role for star Richard Gere. And each required its own unique physical demands from the actor.
To play the Navy Officer-in-training Zack Mayo, Gere honed in on his martial arts skills. “We worked. We were shooting all day, and then I would do an hour or two of karate for the karate sequences,” Gere said in Yahoo Movies’ new episode of Role Recall (watch it above). “So I was in incredible shape. I was in Navy SEAL shape in that one.”
Gere might’ve gotten a little too good at karate — at least for his Oscar-winning costar Louis Gossett Jr.
“Well, I love Lou, but Lou didn’t work as hard as me to learn the karate,” Gere explained. “I got a little frustrated with him once and I actually clonked him in the gut. And Lou walked off, he said, ‘I’m done. I’m outta here.’ ”
And then of course there was the physicality of the Gentleman’s love scenes, which Gere shot with Debra Winger. “We were both just like young animals then” he said. “It was an animal attraction, an animal physicality between the two of us.”
Gere’s latest film, Norman, opens in theaters April 14.
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