The movie that sent Richard Gere into “dangerous territory”
Certain actors possess an innate sense of danger, one which allows them to be entirely convincing as characters who could potentially fly off the handle at any second. Richard Gere is in no way among that number, but he did find one role that allowed him to channel his darker side.
Maybe it’s because the lingering sex symbol status that greeted him after his breakthrough role in American Gigolo continued to follow him from that point on, or maybe it’s down to something else entirely, but Gere has never been all that convincing as a malicious or malevolent figure.
Then again, he was solid as a corrupt cop in Mike Figgis’ crime thriller Internal Affairs, which might be the exception that proves the rule. That’s not meant to disparage his acting abilities in any way, but Gere nonetheless has one of those faces that makes it very hard to buy him as a bad guy.
Not that he was on out-and-out villainous duties when he was asked to walk a dark and dangerous path, though, with that particular task being asked of him in a family drama adapted from a popular novel. Not the sort of thing that makes a star upend their entire persona on paper, but Gere disagrees.
2005’s Bee Season saw him as Saul Naumann, a religious studies professor who doubles as the patriarch of a high-achieving household. Unfortunately, 11-year-old daughter Eliza doesn’t think she’ll be able to live up to the expectations held by her parents, made more difficult when her older brother is the anointed golden child.
When she wins a spelling bee, her old man suddenly takes a very keen interest in her academia, which gradually instigates a seismic shift in the family’s interpersonal dynamics. Saul’s controlling nature and devout Judaism make him a hugely complicated figure, one Gere relished sinking his teeth into.
“The ideas were really stimulating,” he admitted to Pop Entertainment. “It was mysterious and there was darkness. It’s dangerous territory to be playing in; we talked a lot about the responsibility of doing this in a serious, responsible way. Even inserting things in the script, we said, ‘Look this is dangerous territory. This is nothing to play with, because it isn’t. This is serious stuff.'”
Saul’s increasing obsession with his daughter’s extracurricular activities places a burden on the entire family, with fracturing relationships between Gere, his wife, and his son dabbling in themes of distance, dysfunction, generational trauma, and spirituality. It was a heady concoction, even if it wasn’t one pulled off to anybody’s satisfaction – Gere withstanding – after Bee Season was subjected to a muted reception and a dire showing at the box office that saw it fail to recoup even half of its production budget.
