tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with one of the most popular and prolific actors of our time, richard gere. his projects included pretty woman, an officer and gentleman, and chicago. a new movie called arbitraged, he is also a tireless human rights advocate. we glide your joining us for a conversation with richard gere. >> there is a saying that dr. king had, he said, there is always the right time to do the right thing. i just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only about halfway to completely eliminate hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s.

as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: please welcome richard gere to this program, the tireless human-rights advocate. the story of a troubled hedge fund manager, here is a scene from arbitrage. >> everybody wins if we sell the company. if i live for you.

>> you did not know about it, that is why did not tell you. >> what is she going to say, i didn't know? they will take away my brokerage license, failure to supervise you. >> did you want me to let the investors go bankrupt? you wanted people to get really hurt? because it's my job. >> it is illegal. and i am your partner. >> you are not my partner. you work for me. that's right, you work for me. everybody works for me. tavis: i have been so anxious to talk to you. we have done radio before, but never television. i am glad have you. there is so much talk in regard to this film because it is such a human diamide an issue at work. at the center of the movie is

the struggle that some many human beings have between power and humanity. are you willing to give up the power to hold onto your humanity? >> i am happy with that. you, but iw about don't mean that many people that are evil. i mean human beings that are flawed, mentally ill, have enormous problems. i don't think i have ever met someone that was a totally dark energy that had no humanity or sense of love or affection for anything. as human beings, we tend to compartmentalize. we have a selective morality based on the situation we are in. having that as a modern problem that we have. we cheat on our taxes and we have a mistress on the side.

and but in this other area, we have totally honest and straightforward points of view. the moral decisions we make in one part of our life resonate through everything and i think that as a lot of what we are talking about in this film as well. tavis: the characters are not the same, i want to be clear about that, but i wanted to go back through your work. q famously turned down the gordon gecko character. >> and nobody could have done this matter. i don't even remember the circumstances. tavis: i only raise it because you did not do that character, but you did this one. what made you want to do this particular character? >> it came out of nowhere. the script. it was actually given to me before i got on a plane.

i live in new york and i read it on a plane and was floored by the quality of the riding. and not just as a movie, but allen understood people. and ultimately, the framework and the fabric of the reality of the movies is the financial world. power and money. you can't really sustain a movie about that. it has to be about people and relationships and how the choices they make resonate. that is what struck me, the maturity of all the characters in this piece. they feel rich, textured, and real. besides the fact that i was talking about something that is meaningful to all of us. tavis: we kind of jumped into this.

of what is this film about? you play a character here that has gotten himself into a situation and has to decide how he gets rid of -- >> he is a big shot. malty hundreds of millions of dollars. as it opens up, we know there is a problem. we find out what the problem is. he has a lot of ticking clocks. he can't sell his company unless he fixes the problem. then the other problem are emerges. these three issues are all fighting against him. he has several rocks and a hard place for the whole movie. tavis: thank you. you did that quite well. i am sure one of the things that comes to mind when i saw the

movie, you see something like this and you think bernie madoff. you didn't really want to go there, you wanted this character to have a complexity. you wanted to be textured and layered. >> we filmed a year-and-a-half ago. bernie madoff was the elephant in the room when you talk about the financial world. people do magical things with money and most of us don't know anything about it. i still don't understand a lot of these financial products that are sold out there. i think very few people really do. if you win or lose, you still get the insurance. he was the elephant in that room. this movie is not about him, but

it was someone who that is going to resonate a year-and-a-half ago. let's talk about him if he is going to be part of the discussion. the scene that i did, we talked about it. as we worked on the film and finished it, he was not that interesting. he was a sociopath. more interesting are the people around something like that that must have known it was way too good to be true. as long as their money was flowing, that is more interesting. i think that as the tories -- territory we ended up in. someone that is more human. i don't think there is anything this guy does that we might have made the wrong decision. we are talking about billions of dollars, $400 million that he lost in this transaction.

the town house and the stuff around him was off the scale. the human dilemmas are something that we can identify with and that was my job as an actor. tavis: to your point, and nobody could know anything about him at any point in be rooting for him. hughes said here, and there are parts of this movie where you are rooting for this guy. >> i did not know this was going to happen. we started screening in, and my friends were calling very angry for thisey were rooting guy. i was delighted because that means you are identifying. he he is not a sociopath, he is us. tavis: the first-time director. at this stage in your career -- >> why did i do this? tavis: you did a fine job.

>> everyone asks this question. he wrote the script and when i got off the plane, i said that the script is terrific. the good news is that it is a great script, but he never made a movie before. i said, he wrote the script, let me talk to him. the next day or the day later, he came up to see me. we met each other a couple of times. how he is a movie guide, he made a documentary. he has got it in his blood, that is clear. the enormous energy. maybe a little too much energy. but, as i was getting to know him, i kept looking in his eyes and even given that we were going to have a great cast and a great director of photography

and great producers of about a wonderful movies, it was all going to be covered. for the best, it is not easy. you look in his eyes and how he will not fail. he will not allow himself to fail. tavis: he did not do that for cast, that helps. >> i think everyone he got in here was in love with the script and in love with dealing with this territory of our world today. in a smart and intelligent way, no tricks. it is character driven. great language, great dialogue. and also, surprising. every time you might think you know where the movie is going, it gives you a right or left turn. everyone came through. i think it might be the best

ensembles i have ever worked with. tavis: it was clearly a risk to put your life in the hands of a first-time director. at this stage of your career, calculate the kinds of risks that you want to take. >> risk is not about wasting time. i don't want to spend time away from my kids or my wife. that, to me, is a major waste. how this was being shot at home, in new york. i was living with my family, still. terrific people all the way around. so i was pretty sure the experience of making the movie was going to be good. but you never know what is going happen. tavis: you did not know that pretty woman would be the biggest movie ever? >> nobody knew.

did we have a good time? yes. did we feel like there were a magic moments happening? yes. but i have felt that way before about movies. there was mysterious alchemy in this movie. tavis: has there been a film where you felt that way about and it did not turn out that way? >> yes, but i won't tell you which ones. tavis: i have to ask. every time you have that feeling, it doesn't always work out that way. >> it takes 600 people to make a movie and it looks like the actors are making the movie, that is not the whole plane. everyone has to do their job and if you just do is, say the alliance, delighting, it is going to have no magic. you have to be in some kind of zone of surprise or territory

where you don't know what is going to happen. in the end, you don't know if a story is going hold. you don't know if these relationships are interesting and worth the chemistry of the actors is going to work. you don't know anything until you see it in front of an audience. tavis: after all these years, what do you still like about this profession? and what do you most loathsome? hughes said that you want to stay close to your family, and i get back, but there must be things that used to like. >> it is an incredible job that i have. i am sure you feel that way with your job. i think everybody feels very lucky to be doing this. everyone is home raising their hands. to be able to do this and get paid to play, essentially. it is an extraordinary thing and i never take it for granted.

believe me. and my family doesn't take it for granted. i love working with people. about ideas off of them, see what happens. have an environment where we are all working on something. it might be three months that the whole group is together, making the movie. you can say goodbye, or you can say hello. this idea of creating something with other people, i don't know that i had that when i started my career. tavis: does it matter to you now, more than ever, you tell me, to make movies that are saying something? or are you ok with entertainment? >> i don't know that there is pure entertainment. -- i think i have escaped that. i have made films that are less

good, but i don't think of anything that is mindless. everything i have done, i feel confident has had a human quality to it. and if you show a human being on film, you're making a political statement. tavis: you are not shy of making political statements. >> i don't think it is outrageously brave, either. i have a certain platform and i have a lot of experiences in certain areas. i am happy to talk about them because i have some experience. tavis: i would not say is the rate is the brave, but any time you take a position on something, particularly the issues you have taken on tibet, china, it may not be brave, but there are consequences, professional consequences. >> none.

the worst consequences are that the chinese don't let me on mainland china. tavis: that is a consequence. do your films play there? >> underground. tavis: that as a consequence. studios want your films to make money. >> i still keep working. how is, i don't know. i am going with the flow. it is a great script and great people, i am there. i will do it. but i have this wonderful experience after i was not allowed inside anymore. but i am allowed in hong kong. i think i will still be ok for a while. i remember coming through customs, and still, everyone is careful. i came through customs and customs guy looked at me and

looked at the passport and he looked over his shoulder. she said, autographed please? i gave him an autograph and he got very professional. it happened in the hotel. i made the movie, red corner. a political story about the chinese judicial system, or lack of a judicial system. the good film, i like the film. i was going out in the elevator and the movie was called red corner. develop -- the elevator operator was looking at numbers and he looks over at me and up at the camera that is up and the corner and he looked out and he looks over at me and he whispers, i love red corner. so at least these get through.

in a way, it might be deeper because they happen that way. tavis: for people that have not met the dali lama, what is he like? >> that is a hard one. he is an extraordinary person and you feel that immediately. but you're also struck by how simple and straightforward and available -- i remember him saying to me, if you really have that experience and really have penetrated the court of what the buddhist thought is, you will be able to express what that is to a fisherman. to somebody that is a dedicated. you don't have to do it with high concepts. it can be done in a very simple way. a highly scholastic kind of

person with a triple degrees in his system of doctorates and philosophy and psychology. but he can speak to anyone, hart to hart, about the highest aspirations of human beings. tavis: what has been the greatest takeaway for you from this faith journey that you have that on? what have you taken away? what has been the greatest joy for you? >> everything expands. i was on a journey as a kid. i call it a dissidents, a very real dissonance between what i had been told the world and reality is, in that nature of my mind.

it wasn't the same. i felt an incredible sense of expansion and possibility. the world has so many boundaries around it. that is usually on the surface. you have had this your whole life. we see the surface of things, and we take that to be the whole reality. the more that i realize it is totally unreliable, has an experience, the world has expanded in terms of the possibility of joy and happiness. the amount of patience that comes up from that, it is part of that experience and is extraordinary. the willingness to be there, the sense of empathy and compassion, the spontaneous sense of being of held starts to emerge. tavis: in a world that this

troubled land and settled, a world where people are becoming more nativists, turning more inward every day, do you think what you have just described is available to each and everyone of us? >> absolutely. if you look at a financial guy and you label him as a bad guy, right? he is rich, powerful, and those are bad guys from our point of view. i say, he has the same problems i'd do a to do. he's too good sense of self cherishing, how do i love myself more than others? that is the key issue right there. if nothing changes on the surface of things, what is my motivation in the world? from the point of view, it is

hall of the motivation is and how you use it. tavis: how has the faith journey impacted your work? >> and this comes up a lot, too. no direct line, i can say that at all. but whatever you think and feel, what ever you are passionate about resonates in all parts of your life. for you, your faith, doesn't change what you do? tavis: absolutely. what i think, what i believe, it impacts the kinds of choices i may have the kinds of decisions i make out a daily basis. i was literally blown away when i saw the project because as a guy that runs a small business, i am nowhere near that guys level that i don't have anywhere near that problem on any given day and i have found myself having to make choices that are really interesting and, i should

do this, but i am being told in this direction. >> as opposed to long term. tavis: this is what is best for me, personally, but this is what is best for my company and by employees. that is where my faith allows me, in those moments, to make better decisions. i am glad to have you on the program, i could have done this for hours. the movie is called arbitraged and is richard gere alongside susan sarandon and tim roth. i recommend it. until next time, keep the faith. >> everything i do is for this family. >> this is about our lives, where you think we are going tonight? i am glad you find that funny. >> what about me?

the complaints, the unhappiness. the shopping. the trainers. everything. yes, the charities. hall of the wonderful things that you do, how do you think we pay for them? >> i did not ask you because i didn't want you to lie. i thought we had an understanding. you broke that understanding when you broke into -- you were complicity, you risked her future. i am done. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with actor and author jamie lee curtis on her latest book for young readers. that is next time, we will see you then. >> there is a saying that dr. king had, he said, there is always the right time to do the right thing. i just try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only about halfway to completely eliminate

hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with actor and author jamie lee curtis on her latest b