Richard Gere reflects on filming ‘very raw, sexual’ movie with Diane Keaton: ‘We took care of each other’

Richard Gere is looking back on his decades-long acting career, recalling the first time he co-starred with the late Diane Keaton in the 1977 crime-thriller Looking for Mr. Goodbar.

Directed by Richard Brooks, the cult classic was one of Gere’s early roles. He starred as bad boy Tony, one of the men pursued by Keaton’s promiscuous Theresa, a young woman raised in a conservative Catholic home, who cruises singles bars at night.

Appearing Thursday on the Today show, days after Keaton’s unexpected death at 79, the Pretty Woman star reflected on his time making the film, which required them to shoot numerous vulnerable scenes together.

“That was a difficult film,” Gere, 76, recalled. “It was a very raw, sexual film and [Keaton was] pretty shy and skittish and I was too. It was my second film. And we kind of took care of each other getting through these challenging physical scenes with each other.”

For Keaton, the role came five years after her breakout role as Kay Corleone in the mafia epic The Godfather (1972). By 1977, she had also appeared in the film adaptation of Woody Allen’s Broadway comedy Play It Again, Sam, The Godfather Part II (1974) and Allen’s meta romcom Annie Hall, for which she earned her first Oscar for Best Actress.

Gere and Keaton would reunite more than 40 years later, in one of her final movies, Maybe I Do (2023).

“We made a film a few years ago too and I hadn’t seen her in a long time,” Gere said. “And I remember just how sweet and gentle she was and how real. I think anyone who’s ever worked with her is just like, ‘This is a real person.’ Completely original.”

Keaton’s death over the weekend rocked Hollywood and the world.

Many of her former co-stars and long-time collaborators mourned her passing, including Allen, who remembered his one-time lover as being “unlike anyone the planet has experienced or is unlikely to ever see again.”

“When we first met, I thought she was so charming, so beautiful, so magical, that I questioned my sanity. I thought: Was it possible to fall in love so quickly?” the controversial filmmaker wrote in a tribute for The Free Press.

It has since been revealed that Keaton died from pneumonia. Following her death, her relatives said her health had declined “suddenly,” and thanked her fans for their outpouring of “love and support.”

“The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane,” the statement said, according to People.

“She loved her animals and she was steadfast in her support of the unhoused community, so any donations in her memory to a local food bank or an animal shelter would be a wonderful and much-appreciated tribute to her.”