Richard Gere has spoken out about being snubbed by the Oscars for two decades after going off script during his 1993 speech.
The Hollywood heavyweight, 76, was banned from the annual awards show because of what he uttered on stage while presenting the gong for Best Art Direction.
He ended up being blacklisted from the event for 20 years - which is twice as long as the ban Will Smith received for slapping Chris Rock in 2022.
Gere was penalised by bigwigs at the Academy Awards after deciding to use his short presenting slot to share a political message with the world.
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The Pretty Woman actor took aim at the Chinese government - and directly called out the country's former leader, Deng Xiaoping, while slamming the treatment of people in Tibet.
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Gere - who is a practising Buddhist - urged Xiaoping to put a stop to the 'horrendous human rights situation' which was unfolding in both China and Tibet at the time.
An Amnesty International report in 1995 accused China of torturing Tibetan children accused of political offences, as well as imprisoning Buddhist monks and nuns engaged in peaceful protest without trial.
Gere was personally moved by the topic due to his friendship with the Dalai Lama, who he first met about 45 years ago.
The spiritual leader, 90, fled Tibet in 1959 after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising - and he still lives in exile to this day, with the BBC reporting that 'Beijing continues to view him as a dangerous separatist'.
So, Gere wanted to use his short time on stage at the Oscars wisely, saying he hoped the weight of his words could perhaps trigger 'something miraculous and kind of movie-like'.
He urged the A-listers in the audience to 'send love and truth and kind of sanity to Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing'.
The Primal Fear star then asked the ex-head of state to take 'his troops and take the Chinese away from Tibet and allow these people to live as free, independent people again'.
As screen stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon also deviated from the script and slammed the treatment of HIV-positive people in Haiti on the same evening, the organisers behind the Oscars weren't too happy.
The late producer of the awards ceremony, Gilbert 'Gil' Cates, said the trio's statements were 'outrageous, distasteful and dishonest', according to the Los Angeles Times.
"I wouldn’t invite them to my home, and I won’t invite them to a future show," he fumed. "Does anyone care about Richard Gere’s comments about China? It’s arrogant.
"I know these are people of good heart. I’m not questioning their politics and their good will, I’m questioning their taste and appropriateness."
Gere has now revealed what he thinks of his 20-year punishment for getting political in a new interview with Variety.
"I didn’t take it particularly personally," he told the publication. "I didn’t think there were any bad guys in the situation. I do what I do and I certainly don’t mean anyone any harm.
"I mean to harm anger. I mean to harm exclusion.
"I mean to harm human rights abuses, but I try to stay as close to where His Holiness comes from… that everyone is redeemable, and in the end, everyone has to be redeemed or none of us [are]."
Gere said he has never discussed the ban with his longtime pal, the Dalai Lama, saying it simply 'never came up' in conversation.
"They’ll tell him once in a while if I get an award or something and he sends a note, congratulating me, that he’s happy for me," he said. "But that’s about as close as it gets to actually talking about movies."
Gere's ban expired in 2013 - although it's worth noting that the Oscars' press office previously denied him being vetoed from the event at all.
In 2007, a spokesperson told GQ: "We don't ban presenters. There's no such thing as a ban."
Topics: Celebrity, Celebrity News, Oscars, Politics, China
Olivia Burke