Richard Gere thinks Pretty Woman had a special “magic” to it. The 67-year-old actor — who played businessman Edward Lewis in the 1990 romantic comedy alongside Julia Roberts as his lover Vivian Ward — admitted the iconic movie isn’t always “in his life,” but he is regularly asked about it, and he believes its enduring popularity is down to a quality that can't be easily replicated. When asked if he hated talking about Pretty Woman, he said: "No, I am OK with it, I only talk about it in interviews. It is not in my life all the time. It has lasted because there is a magic to it that you can't repeat, it was a magic that came from that time, that place and the people involved. When it comes to choosing his roles, Richard—who was previously married to Cindy Crawford and Carey Lowell and has dated Priscilla Presley and Kim Basinger—compared the process to "falling in love" because it is just as instinctive. He told the Metro newspaper: "You're just drawn to it. It's like falling in love — you can't say why, you can just feel it."
And the actor relished the chance to portray small time operator Norman Oppenheimer in 2016 political drama Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer because it was such an unexpected role to be offered. He admitted: "With Norman I was surprised they asked me, it's not an obvious piece of casting. Everything about Norman is emotionally, physically and psychologically opposite to me. But I was like, ‘OK, if you are open to trying to figure out how to make this then I am too'." But when it comes down to Hollywood success, Richard believes "luck" is just as vital a factor as talent. He said: "You have to have a certain amount of talent of or you are a non-starter but there is an enormous amount of luck. I don't think it's something you can actually make. In Buddhism we say 'causes and conditions'. You can't force it."
