Richard Gere Reminisces on Working with Julia Roberts and Shares Why He's Moving to Spain (Extended)

Thank you so much for coming back on the show. Well, it's been 100 years. It's been a while. I'm trying to figure out. Yeah, it is. But I always love seeing you. And a lot has happened since you've been on here. You've gotten married, and you have two young sons. Congratulations. I have a 4-year-old, a 5-year-old, an 11-year-old. And you're beautiful family. And my 24-year-old. Oh, my God. How great is this chapter in your life? The top of the top. It is. Yeah. Well, I love my wife. She's incredible. Yeah. A great mother. Yeah. The kids are healthy and happy. And, of course, there's nothing more than that. Yeah, that's it. That's all you need. I'm happy. And you're moving. I keep reading in the papers. I know. This is world news. This is big news. You're moving. You're moving to Spain. You're leaving. My wife is Spanish. And she is. Is this a problem for anybody out there? No, no. No. We were going to miss you, but I'm sure you'll be back. No, of course I'll be back. Of course. But my wife is Spanish. And she gave me about seven years. Yeah. And so we're going to spend some years in Madrid. Yeah, with her family. That's good. With her family. It's called giving back. It's called a relationship. Yeah, exactly. Our kids are bilingual, so they're going to flourish there. Oh, that's great. And... Are you bilingual as well? Do you... Oh, it's perfect. I speak 15 languages perfectly. I don't want to hurt you by doing it right now. You're going to save it for me. Yeah, yeah. Are you okay with Spanish? Yeah, we speak languages. Oh, yeah. They do. The band speaks a lot of languages. The band knows other things, yeah. But I don't. Yeah, you didn't look at me, thank goodness. No, I didn't. Are you celebrating Thanksgiving in Spain? There. In Spain, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, my wife has... She grew up in a very big Spanish family. Like a big Italian family. A big Spanish family. Yeah. And her grandmother was kind of the glue that held that all together. And the grandmother passed away about a year and a half ago, two years ago. So, my wife, I can see her morphing into the new grandmother of this extended family. So, she's already planning for 35 people for Sunday lunches. Ah, good. And... That's all about family. Yes, it is. Every time you're on, I always somehow... All roads lead to pretty woman. I'm sorry, but I always bring it up. I know. You've done other things. We get it. But we love you and Julia Roberts. I love the movie, too. You do? I do. Here you go. And then you also did Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts. Now... Yeah. Did you realize immediately you guys have chemistry when you got together? Or did you... Yeah. Well, she had made, I think, one film before. Mystic Pizza. Yes. Which is a lovely, charming little film. And Garry Marshall, who... I love Garry Marshall. Garry's the best. Did you ever work with Garry? I think he came on... No, I idolized him. When I first moved to L.A., someone gave me a book called Wake Me When It's Funny by Garry Marshall. Garry Marshall was one of the nicest, funniest, most generous, loving people I've ever met. And he was a great writer. Presidents used to buy jokes from him. Yeah. He was... But they were always good-hearted. There was nothing dark. No, yeah. In him at all. Yeah. And he was responsible for some of the funniest sitcoms on TV. Oh, Happy Days and Working... Laverne and Shirley. But he... This movie Pretty Woman was really him. It was his humor, his sensibility, his love of life and love of people was in that movie. So anyway, he put us together. And making a long story very short. He did both of those. Oh, wow. But I remember Julia came to see me in New York and he said, Richard, Julia's... She's good. You'll like her. She's fun. She's good. So she came to New York and she's sitting in my office. Garry introduced us and he left. And he called back like 45 minutes later. And he's going, how's it going? And I said, it's Garry. Yeah. So I'm talking to Garry. And she's on the other side of the desk and she's writing something on one of my post-its there in the middle of it. And then she turns around and puts it and I read it. It says, please say yes. No way. So I said, Garry, I think I just said yes. Come on. No way. No, no, true story. I wish he kept that note. Please say yes could be maybe a third rom-com. You're right. Please say yes. Please say yes, Julia. No, I had forgotten that story. And Julia reminded me, I think on the 25th anniversary or whatever of the film, we all got together and we were doing a thing. And I had forgotten that. You guys are perfect together. We had such a good time making that. It was really kind of a magic moment for all of us. I also want to talk about O Canada. A very different role for you. I don't really recognize you in this role. We're not going to show a clip of it. It's the quick version of this. It comes from a novel, a very beautiful novel. And Paul Schrader wrote and directed this. Paul Schrader. You and Paul Schrader. Well, Paul and I go back 45 years. Paul directed American Gigolo. I don't know if anyone. Of course. The cast is crusher in this. So he called me up and said, look, I have this film and this is the one we should do next. 45 years later. And it was the story of an 85-year-old man who's dying of cancer. But he's a documentary filmmaker. And he's agreed to do one final interview of himself that his students who are not grown up are doing of him. He agrees to do it, but he insisted his wife, who is Uma Thurman, sits there and he unloads kind of the truth that she never heard before. And so and then it goes flashbacks into my memories. But the memories are not really honest memories. They're much more fluid and expressionistic. This is kind of loosely based on your own experience with your father. With my dad. Paul sent me the script and two months before that, my dad had passed away. And he was one month sure of 101. But he had a great life, great life. And he was living with me and my family. And his mind was still intact. He knew everybody's story and their emotional state. And and it was very present. At the same time, he would have moments where time and space were not clear. They weren't linear anymore. It was kind of contrapuntal and they would get mixed up. And so when he passed away, the script came and it was very much a way for me to process those last years of my dad's life. So it was very important to me. I'm sorry to hear about your dad, but I'm happy. Great life. Great life he had. I want to talk about the agency as well, because this is based on this French series. Did you see that? I did. The French one. The Bureau. Yes, I saw it. Yes. I saw it one, two, three times. Yes. I saw it three times. So anyhow, my wife and I, that was our date, was watching that. So I saw five years, six years of that, whatever it was. And we loved it. Brilliantly done. And then they go, let's make an American version. So they came to me and said, we're making this version. I said, wow. I was paying attention to it. And they sent me the script. Great casting. Very well written. Richard Gere loved this. Michael Fassbender is the lead. It really follows him. And Jeffrey Wright is in it with me. And all these incredible English actors are in this. Hugh Bonneville is in this. And the cast is extraordinary. Joe Wright was the first director. We did 10 episodes. We just finished them, actually, about a week ago. Oh, my gosh. So he's done 10. But every episode is like a little movie. And everyone's got, like, another twist to it. Once you think you know what's happening, you go, no. I'm the head of the CIA in the London office. And even I don't know what's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fantastic. It's good. Everyone should watch this. It's on Paramount+. Showtime on Paramount+. Here's a clip. Here's Richard Gere in the agency. Take a look. Belarus is a situation we're across. So far, nothing special. It's early days. But for now, we're seeing this very much as a local problem. Jim, we both know there's no such thing as a local problem in Belarus. Yeah, there's an unfolding situation in Minsk. Once we have a degree of clarity, we'll fold you in. You know about new domino theory? Yes, sir. Yeah, come on. That's how you do it. That is how you do it. Richard Gere, everybody. Agency premieres November 29th on Paramount+, with Showtime. Bowen Yang joins us after the break. Stick around.