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Hollywood icon Richard Gere made a rare admission of his 1993 ban from the Oscars, which lasted 20 years. At the time, the Pretty Woman star was hosting the ceremony when he decided to go off-script and spark major controversy. Instead of naming the nominees for Best Art Direction, Richard used the moment to advocate for the Tibetans who were under occupation in China, Seoul, which he described as a "horrendous, horrendous human rights issue".

During his speech, Richard stated: "If something miraculous, really kind of movie-like, could happen here, where we could all kind of send love and truth and a kind of sanity to Deng Xiaoping right now in Beijing, that he will take his troops and take the Chinese away from Tibet and allow people to live as free independent people again." As a result, the actor didn't return to the Oscars until 2013. Reflecting on the ban, he admitted: "I didn't take it particularly personally."

In an interview with Variety, Richard explained: "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," Richard added in reference to his friend of 45 years, the Dalai Lama.

The 76-year-old went on to share how the spiritual leader inspired his activism and is the subject of the 2025 documentary he executive-produced, The Wisdom of Happiness.

Embracing the Dalai Lama's belief, Richard continued: "Everyone is redeemable, and in the end, everyone has to be redeemed or none of us [are]. So in that sense, I don't take it personally."

The activist has publicly spoken out several times on behalf of Tibet and also called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Richard remains banned from China. Despite this, the Hollywood icon confessed that he hasn't yet talked about his Oscars controversy with the Buddhist leader.

"It never came up," Richard explained. "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. But that's about as close as it gets to actually talking about movies."