Richard Gere thinks ‘Pretty Woman’ had a special "magic" to it.
The 67-year-old actor – who played businessman Edward Lewis in the 1990 romantic comedy alongside Julia Roberts as his lover Vivian Ward – admitted the iconic movie isn’t always "in his life", but he is regularly asked about it, and he believes its enduring popularity is down to a quality that can’t be easily replicated.
When asked if he hated talking about ‘Pretty Woman’, he said: "No, I am OK with it, I only talk about it in interviews. It is not in my life all the time. It has lasted because there is a magic to it that you can’t repeat, it was a magic that came from that time, that place and the people involved.
When it comes to choosing his roles, Richard – who was previously married to Cindy Crawford and Carey Lowell and has dated Priscilla Presley and Kim Basinger – compared the process to "falling in love" because it is just as instinctive.
He told the Metro newspaper: "You’re just drawn to it. It’s like falling in love – you can’t say why, you can just feel it."
And the actor relished the chance to portray small time operator Norman Oppenheimer in 2016 political drama ‘Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer’ because it was such an unexpected role to be offered.
He admitted: "With Norman I was surprised they asked me, it’s not an obvious piece of casting. Everything about Norman is emotionally, physically and psychologically opposite to me. But I was like, ‘OK, if you are open to trying to figure out how to make this then I am too’."
But when it comes down to Hollywood success, Richard believes "luck" is just as vital a factor as talent.
He said: "You have to have a certain amount of talent of or you are a non-starter but there is an enormous amount of luck. I don’t think it’s something you can actually make. In Buddhism we say ’causes and conditions’. You can’t force it."
Richard Gere: ‘Pretty Woman still has its magic’
