Richard Gere: How can I be a sex symbol once I hit 60?

By Siobhan Synnot

IF you want to make Richard Gere squirm, remind him he's had a pretty long run as one of Hollywood's longest-serving sex symbols.

Three generations of women have swooned over the star since he came to fame in movies such as American Gigolo and An Officer And A Gentleman.

"How much longer can I be a sex symbol? Let's be realistic," sighs the star, who will be 60 next year.

The man who found it almost impossible to remain fully clothed on-screen claims he's anything but a heartthrob at home. After years of being one of the world's most eligible men, Gere is happily married and a father - although he jokes he gets no respect from his kids despite being a movie star.

"I'm the same as anybody else," he said.

"I'm a dad with a teenage daughter who couldn't care less about me, and I have a seven-year-old who sees me as the guy who plays baseball with him. I still care about my career, but the best part of life is my family."

Now the actor is back in A Night in Rodanthe, a film that reunites him with 43-year-old Diane Lane.

The pair obviously enjoy working together, yet when they first met when Diane was 18 and Richard was 35, she said she was "kind of bitchy" to the Buddhist star.

She was to play a sultry jazz singer and he was a troubled musician in the 1984 movie The Cotton Club. Diane demanded to meet the actor to see if the pair would have enough on-screen chemistry.

When Richard turned up to meet the sulky teen, he laughed at her tough girl act - and the two have got on like a house on fire ever since.

"She told me that now she's a similar age to the age I was when we did Cotton Club, she understands where I was coming from a lot more," he says of their relationship.

In 2002 they reunited as a married couple who are ripped apart by an affair in Unfaithful, but even old pals have their limits.

When he tried to entice Lane to join him on a film shoot in Antarctica, just as she was set to marry No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin, she turned him down in favour of a cosy honeymoon.

Now for Nights in Rodanthe, they play two unhappy people who meet and fall in love in a deserted seaside inn.

The theme of the film is second chances and, of course, Richard is on his second marriage to Carey Lowell, having previously been married to Cindy Crawford.

Gere was reported to be romancing Uma Thurman, while Cindy told Vanity Fair magazine that Gere didn't understand her career. Then Gere took on Sylvester Stallone, accusing him of making moves on his wife.

The couple split in 1995.

Gere's second marriage to Law and Order star Carey Lowell in 2002 was more tranquil and appears to be his real shot at happiness.

They have a son, Homer, eight, and Richard is stepfather to Hannah, 17.

Speaking of his wife, Gere said: "She has changed my life. It is a milestone for us both.

"Having a child has also changed how I feel about myself, what I do with my time and what my heart thinks."

Yet although he's one of Hollywood's best preserved superstars, Gere admits it's becoming a struggle to keep trim.

He said: "It's so hard to get back into shape. In the old days, I could get into great shape before starting a film, but now it takes too long and it's too hard."

So does he ever think of stepping away from the regime of gym, films and special projects to devote more time to his family and of course his interest in Tibetan affairs?

"Every day. Everything is so connected," says Hollywood's best-known Buddhist and close friend of the Dalai Lama. "And certainly your life has no separations. It all flows in and out."

Gere also likes to have his say on bigger matters. He was famously banned from the Oscars after speaking out against the Chinese government in 1993, and more recently, his culturally inappropriate kissing of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty caused a stir when the pair were attending an HIV awareness rally, organised by one of Gere's Indian charities. But it's his movies that still command our interest.

Gere made his first big film, Days of Heaven, because first choice John Travolta was forced to drop out.

However the film took two years to edit and get to the screen - and by then Travolta had become a star thanks to Saturday Night Fever. Gere, meanwhile, became a hit with female fans in films such as Yanks.

NIGHTS in Rodanthe is a rare return to romance for Richard, who has been making quirkier choices lately.

He shaved his head and put on a prosthetic nose to play a conman in the movie Hoax, and he surprised us all again by dressing down and growing a beard to play the legendary Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.

Gere said: "I've met Bob a handful of times. We worked on what I would look like and what I should sound like. You just play until something starts to feel right."

Gere also admits that romance is often the last thing on his mind when picking a project - most famously in the case of Pretty Woman, where he was reluctant to take on the role of a wealthy businessman who pays hooker Julia Roberts to be his date for a week.

"I was talked into doing that," he said, frankly. "Now in the end, I liked doing it.

"Once I jump in, I bring everything I have to do it. I had no idea it was commercial when we were making it.

"To this day, I don't think anyone knows what's commercial. If they did, then every film would be commercial."

For years people have talked about a Pretty Woman sequel, but Gere reveals they couldn't find a story to do the first film justice.

He said: "I would have done it if there was a good script. We all would have."

Next is Hachiko, and surprisingly it's taken all these years for Richard to make his first family film.

"It's based on a Japanese movie and it's about a dog," he explains.

And adds wryly, "The dog is the star, really, I'm the co-star."