It's a reasonable assumption that one of the world's most recognizable actors would be easily spotted standing on a street corner alone. And that is multiplied exponentially when factoring in that person is also in one of the world's densest cities in broad daylight. Richard Gere experimented with appearing homeless in Manhattan as a de facto test run for his role in director Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind. In the film, Gere plays a man who is forced into the streets. Only slowly does he realize his predicament, and day after day he must search for clothing, food, and a place to sleep.

“The script came to me 10 years ago … It deals with a subject I'm particularly concerned with. It was written in the ’80s and couldn't get it out of my mind,” said Gere at a pre-NYFF screening of Time Out of Mind. “I bought the script but wasn't sure what to do with it.” The actor had Moverman in mind but thought he'd be too busy. “[But] he said, 'Well, send it over and let me look at it.'”

Both had a particular vision for the story. An early version had given a backstory that acknowledged how this man ended up homeless, but both Gere and Moverman wanted to focus on the man's circumstances and his profoundly solitary situation. “It's a sense of shooting a man on the corner and nobody else notices,” said Moverman. Added Gere: “I think we were on the same wavelength from how to do this at the beginning. We didn't do a lot of rehearsing. The footprint of the filmmaker is very far away.”

In order to play a homeless man, Gere decided to spend some time in the street. The duo chose to give it a test run in Manhattan's Astor Place. Moverman hid a camera in a nearby Starbucks while Gere, dressed in a way that would give people the impression he was down on his luck, but otherwise not masked, stood on the corner. The reaction from people surprised him.

“I went out to see if this would work,” recalled Gere.  “I am still making movies and I'm still out there. I was a little scared honestly, I didn't know if it would work. And nobody noticed me. I had a cup and for 45 minutes nobody said anything. Then I started asking people for money—not harassing, but asking people. There was no eye contact. Even when someone would give me a dollar… It was a profound exercise in existentialism.”