‘Internal Affairs’: The 1990s movie Richard Gere said had a “dangerous script”
Throughout a career of genuine brilliance, Richard Gere has proven himself to be a luminous figure in the glittered halls of American cinema. Known and loved for his striking on screen charisma and charm and his versatility shown in both the romantic and dramatic facets of contemporary film, Gere’s status as a Hollywood legend has been assured for many years.
After performing in his first film role in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Gere enjoyed his breakthrough in American Gigolo and showed the world he had what it took to be a leading star. Before long, Gere had established himself as one of Hollywood’s biggest names, particularly when he gave one of his most memorable efforts as Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman opposite Julia Roberts.
Elsewhere, the likes of An Officer and a Gentleman, Chicago, I’m Not There, and Primal Fear have shown Gere’s depth as an actor and his wide range. It might seem that Gere only took on roles that would guarantee his success, but the actor once pointed out one of his performances that came in a movie with a “dangerous script”, showing that he was willing to take career risks when required.
Discussing the 1990 film Internal Affairs with LOLA, Gere once noted, “It was a dangerous script. It was one of those scripts that, depending on the mood you were in when you read it, you either said it was a piece of junk or that it was brilliant, and depending on who directed it, it was either a piece of junk or something brilliant.”
Gere went on to say that to his “ great luck and happiness”, the film was directed by British filmmaker Mike Figgis, who would later earn two Academy Award nominations for his 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage. His crime thriller Internal Affairs, though, saw Gere feature alongside Andy Garcia of The Untouchables and The Godfather Part III fame.
The film saw Gere play Dennis Peck, a charming yet coy LAPD officer whose manipulation of his colleagues for illicit means, including drug dealing and murder, is investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs Division, while Garcia plays Raymond Avila, the agent who becomes desperate to find Peck guilty.
According to Gere, Figgis “understood that there was more to Internal Affairs than just a B-movie about a psychotic cop”. In fact, when the actor and the director were working together, they wanted to give the film an air of theatre, going way back to the Jacobean and Elizabeth eras of the English stage and consulting some of its greatest and most notorious villain characters.
“Mike and I were always talking about how to keep a Shakespearean size to [it], and we’re thinking about Iago and Richard III,” Gere explained, “and how could we elevate this as a contemporary version of these really heightened operatic emotions. We never lost sight of that. I think that’s why it has so much power beyond what that kind of movie usually is.”
Indeed, there was something special about Internal Affairs in the way that its storytelling was pulled tight and featured the moral ambiguity usually associated with some of William Shakespeare’s most complex characters. The 1990 effort might have featured a “dangerous” script, but it was that kind of gamble that lent the film its overall quality and gave Gere one of his most underrated performances.
