"I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it"
About this Quote
Acting culture loves the myth of limitless range: the virtuoso who can vanish into anyone. Gere punctures that fantasy with a working actor's realism. Yes, craft matters; a truly skilled performer can credibly inhabit almost any role. But credibility is not the same as inevitability, and it's definitely not the same as being the right choice.
The subtext is a critique of casting as ego project. "I can do it" is the line actors tell themselves (and agents tell studios) when a part carries prestige, awards heat, or reinvention potential. Gere draws a quieter boundary: excellence isn't only technique, it's fit. Fit includes the unglamorous things audiences and filmmakers actually respond to - an actor's specific energy, physicality, age, voice, cultural read, even the accumulated story their face already tells. You can't method your way out of perception.
Context matters, too. Gere came up in an era when movie stardom was its own genre; you didn't just play characters, you carried a persona. His career rides that tension: the romantic lead aura, the polished intensity, the spiritual seriousness he later projected off-screen. He's acknowledging what insiders know but rarely say out loud: casting isn't a meritocracy and shouldn't pretend to be. Sometimes the best performance is the one that doesn't force the audience to negotiate the actor first.
It's also a subtle ethical note in today's climate. "Can" isn't a justification for taking every role; sometimes the strongest choice is stepping aside for the person whose lived presence makes the part land without explanation.
The subtext is a critique of casting as ego project. "I can do it" is the line actors tell themselves (and agents tell studios) when a part carries prestige, awards heat, or reinvention potential. Gere draws a quieter boundary: excellence isn't only technique, it's fit. Fit includes the unglamorous things audiences and filmmakers actually respond to - an actor's specific energy, physicality, age, voice, cultural read, even the accumulated story their face already tells. You can't method your way out of perception.
Context matters, too. Gere came up in an era when movie stardom was its own genre; you didn't just play characters, you carried a persona. His career rides that tension: the romantic lead aura, the polished intensity, the spiritual seriousness he later projected off-screen. He's acknowledging what insiders know but rarely say out loud: casting isn't a meritocracy and shouldn't pretend to be. Sometimes the best performance is the one that doesn't force the audience to negotiate the actor first.
It's also a subtle ethical note in today's climate. "Can" isn't a justification for taking every role; sometimes the strongest choice is stepping aside for the person whose lived presence makes the part land without explanation.
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| Topic | Movie |
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